Here's his original post which caused many to find their way here.
I think my further two comments would be
- Lee Abbey has more points of support than Scargill which has (from my guess) cushioned it to some extent from the harsh measures that have been necessary up North, they have a number of bases with supporters, Scargill has only the one and certainly way back when I was on community we felt ourselves even then (maybe unjustly) to be Lee Abbey's poor relation - ironically in some ways as it felt that we had a better set of buildings (and chapel!! - the inspiration that George Pace building was to us both in the quiet(?) community morning prayer and as a resource to lead guests on in their spiritual walks).
- Again guessing that the strong support I've seen from people from people who have supported the community for many years, leads me to guess that the Scargill support is aging - in order to give it a long term future they needed to reach out to a younger base and the remodelled programme was (IMHO) an exciting attempt to do that.
- I believe that there may be some form of closure service, for those outside the community, being prepared.
I should also mention Messiaen's flickr photostream which have many photos of Scargill and the surrounding area, Yockenthwaite, Hubberholme...
2 comments:
May I ask Robert what he means by "points of support", and that Lee Abeey has more than Scargill.
On the Church Times blog he and I seem to disagree about programmes.Let's face it, support for post 2001 progs. rapidly diminished -even Christmas and Easter events drew less customers.I think it is because the leadership lost its way; good to explore other faiths and invite others along, BUT SCARGILL HAS BEREN THERE AS A CHRISTIAN WITNESS -maybe we almost apologised for that recently.That chapel and buildings should be saved as a Christian venue -it could be renewed in the right hands. Mr. Baker talks of the place not being necessary -i notice on the Progressive Christianity site a series of events to be held at Askrigg -close by - accomodation to be obtained locally...that COULD have been Scargill!
Yes let me unpack a bit more what I meant by 'points of support':
I was really thinking that Lee Abbey has also the club in London, the summer camps and a couple of communities around the country. Scargill tried to set up a wider network - in the 80's and I think since but for whatever reason they never got off the ground. As a result - in my opinion - Leee Abbey has more stability and sources of income hence making things less rocky when things are tough.
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