On the Third Sunday of Epiphany on a particularly snowy day in the City of London, Vanessa Elston explores the Lectionary texts of Isaiah 62.1-5, Psalm 36.5-10, 1 Corinthians 12.1-11 and John 2.1-11 and their implication in the Judeo-Christian tradition of the way of love. This homily was given at a Moot Eucharist Service at the Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary on Sunday 20th January 2013.

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In this podcast of the Easter Sunday Service 2012, Vanessa Elston explores the resurrection of Jesus through the eyes of Mary Magdalene. She was one of the first witnesses, and through her experience we hear the shock of the realisation of what has happened.

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In this final session of the Moot Lent Course 2012 at the Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary in the CIty of London, Vanessa Elston explores the theme of Call and response.

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In this fourth podcast of Lent 2012, Vanessa Elston continues this years Moot at St Mary Aldermary Lentern season with a reflection on the title 'A door has been opened and a room prepared'.

Christian silence seeks an openness to the divine that is personal, in Christ who ‘emptied himself of all but love.’ Self emptying kenotic love is therefore a fulfillment of the true self, which, traditionally, is held to have the capacity to rejoice eternally without losing specific personality. Moreover, Christianity believes that the world is real and redeemable – and that therefore ‘personality’, as part of that whole, is sustainable. Sara Maitland

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In this third podcast of Lent 2012, Vanessa Elston continues this years Moot at St Mary Aldermary Lentern season with a reflection on the title ‘Hunger and Thirst’.

The product … is people who are really there; perhaps it’s a simple as that. What Benedict is interested in producing is people who have the skills to diagnose all inside them that prompts them to escape from themselves in the here and now. Just as much as in the literature of the desert – despite his insistence that he is working on a different and lower level – Benedict regards monastic life as a discipline for being where you are, rather than taking refuge in the infinite smallness of your own fantasies. Rowan Williams

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In this second podcast of Lent 2012, Vanessa Elston continues this years Moot at St Mary Aldermary Lentern season with a reflection on the title 'Loosing and finding ourselves in the desert' – the nature of  'self' and our relationship to ourselves.

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In this first podcast of Lent 2012, Vanessa Elston starts this years Moot at St Mary Aldermary Lentern season with a reflection on the title 'An Invitation to silence, solitude and human becoming'.

“As we grow up our minds grow more complex and more settled in their orbits.  We spend so much of our adult energies thinking, planning, worrying, trying to get ahead or stay afloat, that we lose touch with that natural intimacy with God deep within us.  The gift of silence gradually recedes in the face of the demands of daily life, so that when we do re-encounter contemplative prayer as adults, it may seem like a strange and inaccessible inner terrain.  With some effort, we can stop the outer noise.  Silent walks in the woods, Lenten and Advent quiet days at the local church, or a retreat at a monastery are wonderful ways of doing just that.  But stopping the inner noise is another matter.  Even when the outer world has been wrestled into silence, we still go right on talking, worrying, arguing with ourselves, day-dreaming, fantasizing.  To encounter those deeper reaches of our being, where our own life is constantly  flowing out of and back into the divine life; what first seems to be needed is some sort of interior on/off switch to tone down the inner talking as well."  (Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening)

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As part of this years art, spirituality and reflections on Advent, Vanessa Elston leads this fourth and final podcast exploring the theme of 'Do not be afraid to look for joy in unexpected places'. This year the Moot Community at St Mary Aldermary are hosting a number of spiritual events to promote engagement with the season. For more details on this, see the Events section of the Moot Website www.moot.uk.net

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As part of this years art, spirituality and reflections on Advent, Vanessa Elston leads this second podcast exploring the issue of risk, peace and the undefended life. This year the Moot Community at St Mary Aldermary are hosting a number of spiritual events to promote engagement with the season. For more details on this, see the Events section of the Moot Website www.moot.uk.net

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As part of this years art, spirituality and reflections on Advent, Vanessa Elston leads this first podcast exploring the issue of hope and being undefended. This year the Moot Community at St Mary Aldermary are hosting a number of spiritual events to promote engagement with the season. For more details on this, see the Events section of the Moot Website www.moot.uk.net

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Drawing on the letter of St James in the New Testament, Ian Mobsby and Vanessa Elston explore the calling of Christians to endurance in difficult times, and the very real financial and human resource needs to sustain the mission and work of the Moot Community in difficult and uncertain times.

If you are a regular listener to Moot podcasts and you would like to support the work of the Community in London and beyond through its website, events and activities, then you can do this by visiting our website at www.moot.uk.net and selecting the mootique page. At the bottom you will see the ability to give one off or regular giving through a debit or credit card, or through paypal. If you are a UK resident, then you can also give by standing order. The forms for this can also be downloaded from the bottom of the mootique page.

If you have any queries, please email info@moot.uk.net

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In this podcast Vanessa Elston explores the theme of transcending the ego and dying to self, recorded at the Church of St Mary Aldermary in the City of London in April 2011.

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In this short reflective podcast, Vanessa Elston explores some of the themes that have arisen in our current Lent Course - giving up for Lent.  For more information on Moot, see www.moot.uk.net

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In this the third session of the Moot Lent Course 'Giving up for Lent', Vanessa Elston explores the theme of spiritual practices that give you life.

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In this the second of six podcasts, Vanessa Elston explores the theme of life in the spirit and life in the body, drawing on the biblical text of Matthew 7:13-14 concerning The Narrow Gate: ‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

This podcast was recorded for the Moot Community Lent Course at the Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary entitled 'Giving up for Lent'.

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In the first of six podcasts, Vanessa Elston explores the theme of personal transformation.  This was recorded in the Moot Community's 'Giving Up for Lent' course at the Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary in the City of London on Wednesday 17th March 2011.

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In this podcast recorded by the Fresh Expressions Team, Vanessa Elston and Ian Mobsby discuss with Norman Ivison the New Monastic basis to the Moot Community, and its vision now at St Mary Aldermary to engage with never churched spiritual seekers.

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In this podcast of the Moot Contemplative Service on the Second Sunday of Advent 2010, Vanessa Elston draws on the two lectionary readings of the day (Isaiah 11:1-10 and Matthew 3:1-12) to explore the theme of faith being an invitation to open up the spiritual landscape our lives, led by a loving God. Vanessa goes further to the challenge of Moot’s Rhythm of Life, Spiritual Practices and Postures as the means by which God is seeking to inspire to digger deeper.

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In this podcast recording of the homily in a Moot Community Eucharist on the 19th September 2010, Vanessa Elston explores the gift of Communion or Eucharist as a sign of God's unconditional love of us.  Not only this, but such a gift of belonging in the community that is the Triune God, opens the importance of human community, and tha challenge to sink roots that are beyond the temporary.

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In this Podcast of the Eucharist at the Moot Community on 13th June 2010, Vanessa Elston explores the theme of Christ’s call for the conversion of head and heart. This homily is the second in the series exploring Moot’s proposal to develop its new monastic basis with some virtues, spiritual practices and postures.

Vanessa Elston is a member of the moot community, a teacher, a mother and a student of theology – who has substantial experience of being involved in the UK alternative worship and emerging church movements. Vanessa, as a member of the Lounge Project Team, is currently helping us to explore the possibility of piloting a formation approach to Christian practices drawing on the wisdom of the twelve step programme.

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