By Terry Doyle
Meditatio are pleased to announce they are partnering with the national Homelessness Charity Depaul UK and the Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough to offer the opportunity for 3 people from our meditation community to spend some time living and working from the John Paul Centre in the heart of Middlesbrough. The required funding is currently being sourced to provide a small stipend and living costs for the successful applicants.
The vision is to establish a daily meditation programme from the centre whilst at the same time receive professional training from Depaul to be able to work as volunteers on their Positive Pathways Project which seeks to serve the town’s most marginalised adults. The project will be supervised by Terry Doyle who is an Oblate with WCCM and also employed by Depaul.
The vision has the full backing of Fr Laurence Freeman and offers the chance to nurture and share our meditation practice as handed down by John Main to both Positive Pathways clients as well as the wider public ,whilst also embodying the symbol of the WCCM , ie two doves on the chalice; one representing the inner work of healing through prayer and contemplation,the other representing the natural outpouring of compassionate social action in our communities.
The John Paul Centre is a hub of social action in that it houses various charities that work alongside Middlesbrough’s most vulnerable adults ie people who might be rough sleeping, or lost in destructive addictive behaviours, or have mental health issues, or are lonely and isolated, or maybe asylum seekers and refugees. The Positive Pathways Project seeks to encounter and build wholesome therapeutic relationships with people who can be difficult to engage with and has recently secured funding through the help of the Anglican Church Urban Fund CUF, and is now ready to expand it’s level of support and engagement with the help of the right volunteers.
This will be a challenging yet hugely rewarding opportunity for anyone who feels the call to share the gift of meditation as well as the very real and gritty work of getting alongside people living on the very margins of society.
If you feel you would like to know more about this opportunity then please contact Terry Doyle by email on terry-doyle@live.co.uk
