A QUESTION OF FAITH

With Dr Jane Russell chairperson of the Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel, Baines Lane THE atmosphere in a church can lift your spirits. It may be the ambience of the building or what it contains such as stained glass, tapestries and memorials.

But it can also be the people who you meet and the activities which you engage in that give opportunities to talk to or listen to others.

Listening and contemplation are at the heart of every spiritual path and however you interact with a faith community, it is important to follow your own spiritual path.

It may be that we need to find somewhere where we can listen or be listened to and engage with others, or sometimes just sit and appreciate the silence.

A welcoming church is perhaps a place to consider visiting. If you don’t find what you’re seeking at first, try again on another day or in another place.

A church is a meeting place, a community. It is not just for a worship hour on a Sunday. It’s not something you unpack for an hour and then put away again until the next Sunday.

There are other activities to get involved with, such as children’s activities, charity coffee mornings, craft and sewing groups, singing sessions, mindful meditation and other social groups.

Many places offer the chance to drop in for a coffee.

Attendees at groups and events are often not members of that particular church, but experience a spiritual uplift just by being there.

We’ve heard a lot recently about the importance of talking, especially with regard to mental health.

Yes, it is good to talk but we mustn’t forget that it’s also important to listen or be listened to without judgement. Listening is an important skill and something we’re not so good at any more in this technological age. Emails and texting sometimes seem to be replacing conversation.

Apparently, since the invention of recording, listening is no longer primary; the premium on accurate and careful listening has disappeared.

Although we spend 65% of our communication time listening, we retain only 25% of what we hear.

Even when we are engaged in conversation, how much is our listening affected by us thinking ahead to what brilliant comment we’re going to make next?

There are, of course, professional listeners like counsellors trained to help those needing to talk about their problems but listening skills are important in all human relationships and we all need to practice active listening.

As part of that, we may also need silence.

As retired Unitarian Universalist Minister Richard Gilbert wrote “There is no sound, no language, no music without the listening ear. Without silence between notes, there would be no music.”