Lectio East began when one of our wardens, John Falcone, got a group of people together to pray and reflect on Creationtide — expressing our hope and our lament for our environment using images, music, spoken prayers, communal reflection, and most of all, by gently moving our bodies.
Since late 2020, we’ve been praying and plotting with folks from East London and all across the UK: from a service for Thy Kingdom Come for East Londoners to reflect on the movement from exclusion to welcome, to a St George’s Day service thinking about how connection can overcome isolation, ahead of the 2021 London Citizens Mayoral Assembly. We’ve also taken Lectio East on the road (both virtually and in person), giving workshops at Diocese of Oxford Clergy Conference, the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology, the Religious Education Association in the US, and two different seminaries in New York City.
In 2023, we’re planning to grow the work of Lectio East by holding monthly services for participants in the UK. We also hope to help train people up to use these techniques for prayer and reflection in their own communities.
Our organising team is made up of folks from St Matthew’s Bethnal Green and from St Stephen’s Manor Park.
To learn more about how we pray and why we pray this way, visit our webpage on ‘lectio visceralis‘ (embodied prayer).
Keep an eye on this page for future events, and email john.falcone@st-matthews.org.uk to get involved or to find out more.
Coming up…
Service of Remembrance and Lament – Winter 2022
- Remember those we have lost to age and illness; to Covid, violence, and war
- Hold the sadness and offer it up to God
- Share from your heart, through the screen, without words
Find out more and register: (link coming soon)