At 7pm in the Abbey Church, GU34 4AP
The subject: “Freeing the incarcerated from prisons of their own making” chosen by our Lecturer Canon Alan Hodgetts OSB Obl.
Let us go, sit in our cell…
…and our cell will teach us everything
These words of Abba Moses chime with the experience of this great man:
|
The cell is an ideal place to know yourself. People tend to measure themselves by external accomplishments, but jail allows a person to focus on internal ones, such as honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, generosity and an absence of variety. You learn to look into yourself. Mandela (who spent 27 years in prison):
|
Alan will help us explore why we do what we do and how the Enneagram can inspire transformation through Self Awareness, Self-Regulation and Self Compassion for all of us on both sides of the bars. The Enneagram comes into its own when the Pain of Change becomes less than the Pain of Remaining the Same.
“Once we recognise the prisons we make for ourselves – then not only will the Lord come to us as He promised ( Mt. 25.37) – but we discover the Truth that can set us free (Jn. 8.32)”
Canon Alan Hodgetts was ordained priest in 1983, serving 2 curacies in Birmingham and Hereford dioceses and 2 incumbencies in Guildford Diocese. He became a Prison Chaplain in 2006 and is currently the Managing Chaplain of HMP Woodhill. He became an Oblate of Alton Abbey during his Diaconal Year in 1982 and increasingly finds his spiritual life underpinned by the 3 Benedictine promises of Obedience, Stability and Conversion of Life. He is a trained Spiritual Director in the Ignatian Tradition and more recently a Certified Teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition, in June he helped to guide the first Enneagram Prison Project in a UK prison.
The Lecture will be followed by supper with wine in the Abbey Refectory
Tickets £30 are available from:
“Tickets”, Friends of Alton Abbey, Alton Abbey, Abbey Road, Alton, GU34 4AP
Cheques should be made payable to “Friends of Alton Abbey”.
Please include a SAE for your tickets, and a telephone number, or an email address