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Home What's On at Nether Springs What's On at Nether Springs

What's On at Nether Springs

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Here's the schedule of what's on over the coming months at Nether Springs, but guests are welcome to come for space and stillness without having to engage in any of the programmed retreats.  If you want to enquire further, or find out about making a booking, then please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The schedule is set out monthly, but a complete list for the whole year is also available, after December's entry. 

MayThePeaceFeaturedSeeing a stranger approach,
I would put food in the eating place,
drink in the drinking place,
music in the listening place,
and look with joy for the blessing of God,
who often comes to my home
in the blessing of a stranger.

The Nether Springs is the 'Mother House' of the Northumbria Community, situated just outside of Felton, Northumberland.  The facility consists of converted farm buildings, four-sides around a courtyard, not unlike a traditional medieval monastery.  The rooms are spacious and comfortable.  We have nine ensuite rooms that can be set with twin beds or a super-king, and one larger ensuite room that is designated as a family room.  The house is wheelchair user-friendly and one of the ensuite bedrooms is wheel-chair accessible.  We have space for twenty-two guests to spend the night.

It is home to a small team of resident Community companions, who in the context of seeking God themselves, help keep the home running smoothly and facilitate retreats for guests.

It's possible to come on a 'programmed' retreat, where we focus on a particular theme or to come with just to be and have some quiet space
.  See the Staying at Nether Springs article for information about visiting the Mother House.

 

Newsflash

On Sunday the 13th of February 2011 the words of the day 13 meditation were read aloud for the first time in our new 'Nether Springs' at Acton Home Farm. How apt and moving they were as we sat and prayed after this long journey home. This was the first day that the Community had been able to gather at our new Mother House, and the story of Achsah and Othniel was a clear reminder of God's faithfulness and provision for us as a Community after the turmoil of leaving Hetton Hall. 

Day 13 Meditation - Achsah and Othniel

And so it was that Achsah kept urging Othniel her husband
to ask from her father a field.
She lighted from off her ass, and Caleb said to her,
'What is it that you want?'
And she said to him, 'Give me a blessing,
for you have given me this dark, desert land;
now give me also springs of water.'
And her father gave her the upper and the nether springs.
Judges1:14-15

One of the things that many people have commented on is how well the familiar and the new have blended together, Acton Home Farm feels like home. But it's more than this, it also feels like a place of renewed purpose for us where the 'monastic' and the 'missional' sit closer together, as we begin to explore afresh the five monastic disciplines that underpinned our life at Hetton Hall: Worship, Work, Study, Solitude and Community. The physical move to Acton Home Farm is now complete, but the transition into this new chapter of our Community's life is still continuing as we build on the foundations of old, and seek God for his purposes for us in this wonderful place. 

At the rebuIlding of the Abbey on Iona, George Macleod prayed a prayer that voices our prayers:

It is not just the interior of the walls, it is our own inner beings you have renewed. We are your temple not made by hands. We are your body. If every wall should crumble, and every church decay, we are your habitation. Nearer are you than breathing, closer than hands and feet. Ours are the eyes with which you, in the mystery, look out in compassion on the world. So we bless you for this place, for your directing of us, your redeeming of us, and your indwelling. Take us 'outside the camp', Lord, outside holiness, out to where soldiers gamble, and thieves curse, and nations clash at the cross-roads of the world... So shall this building be justified.

The sounds of saws and hammers are giving way to the sounds of chapel bell, prayers and laughter. Come and join with us as we seek God and build a new home together.