THIS PAGE CONSTANTLY EVOLVES
as events are advertised and newly published books are added:
Please check back again every few weeks

Please scroll down the page to access all the things listed below.

At the top of the page you'll find mostly FREE resources you can access any time on-line to support you during the Covid-19 pandemic, including
  • ​an on-line Meditation Chapel to pray with others
  • a link to a free streaming of the film In Pursuit of Silence 
  • Sources of Wisdom: an access any time seven part retreat with Fr Laurence Freeman of WCCM
  • multiple podcasts from the Encountering Silence series
  • a new Turning to the Mystics podcast series with James Finley from Centre for Action & Contemplation
  • a brand new and free on line self-study course, The Monk Within, written by Dr Beverly Lanzetta
  • all the World Community for Christian Meditation's (WCCM) Sound Cloud talks and lectures
  • a new Contemplative Path through the Crisis website from WCCM
  • three videos with Cynthia Bourgeault on Oneness: The Secret Embrace, poems by Thomas Keating
  • a series of lectures on The Wisdom of Julian of Norwich in Times of Isolation with Stefan Reynolds
  • and more, including several talks by Rowan Williams, Sarah Bachelard and Thomas Keating ...
Beneath these you'll find info on residential retreats advertised for 2021.
As of 21st January, it's possible that none will be able to run until May, given the latest scientific advice about re-opening the hospitality industry under Covid-19.
Then you'll find info about on line events, study days, webinars,  retreats and conferences to be live-streamed in 2021 on specific dates. 
Many are free or suggest a small or discretionary donation. 
Lower down you'll find a some recent books about silence and meditation.  These including the Frankie the Still Fox - ​a book teaching meditation to young children - and many more by established and emerging authors in this area.
Further down the page you'll find the 2021 pogrammes of events and retreats for several
​organisations that support developing a spiritual discipline of silence in different ways.
Please note that, given Covid-19 circumstances, some details about events below may change at short notice.

Coronavirus:
Resources for these uncertain times

On the Resources menu tab you'll find a button taking you to resources specifically for Covid-19. This includes a collection of over
50 poems that can speak to us all in the current situation.
There are also tips on retreats at home as well as for dealing with family tensions when living with family all day, every day, along with a variety of other resources to help in the pandemic.

As retreat centres and faith groups still have limited opportunity to meet face-to-face, below are some on-line links to support and sustain you.
Try the on-line Meditation Chapel, offering a way to keep meditating in groups with others. Just register as a Chapel user, find a group and time that suits you and away you go! For help and information go to the 'Using the site' and then 'Getting started' tabs.
In this on line meditation chapel you can meet together with people from all over the world for regular meditation at a time that's convenient to you. There are groups based in WCCM or Centering Prayer practices as well as different faith traditions.

On line Retreats, Videos, Lectures and Podcasts that are available to access at any time:

​A NEW website from WCCM:
A Contemplative Path Through the Crisis
This new website is WCCM's response to Covid-19 or Corona virus. It seeks to meet people's needs in a variety of different ways. It looks at each of the following: Meditation; Spirituality; Health; Education; Business; Science; Environment.
For many who have a meditation practice of prayer, this crisis is a call to deepen it.
For those who never had time to develop a path before, this is an opportunity to begin. 
​A NEW series of talks addressing Covid-19 from
The Centre for Action and Contemplation (Richard Rohr et al):
​Wisdom in Times of Crisis
CAC have created a series of 20 freely accessible videos featuring Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, Brian McLaren, Barbara Holmes, and James Finley speaking on the pandemic. They share what this moment has to teach us, relevant practices, and the contemplative wisdom to be found in death.
Five free to access webinars
Inter-Contemplative Dialogues
A series of conversations between Allan Wallace, Eva Natanya and Lawrence Freeman - three spiritual friends and teachers from different traditions, with long-term meditation practices and a shared love for unity found amongst all sources of wisdom.
Originally planned to take place at Bonnevaux, WCCM's retreat house in France, but eventually taking place on line due to Covid-19, they are now freely available to all.
An on line retreat in 7 flexible sessions
Sources of Wisdom
with Fr Laurence Freeman OSB, Director WCCM
​Designed so that you can participate in a way that suits you!
The retreat is structured into one-and-a-half hour sessions: meditation, video of a talk, followed by a time for personal reflection. It doesn’t involve setting aside lots of time, but will work best if you designate a period during which you are on retreat: a morning, an afternoon, a day, a weekend, a week or a month.  ​Cost £40
Free to access conference recordings on line
Oneness: The Secret Embrace
with Cynthia Bourgeault
In these three video recordings from early May this year Cynthia Bourgeault presents “Oneness: The Secret Embrace,” Thomas Keating’s final gift to the world, expressed through the poetry of his later years. Cynthia deftly and gracefully presents an evolved view of the being and theology of Fr. Thomas through a review of eight poems from the book, The Secret Embrace, available to buy here.
See further down the page for a new opportunity to explore these poems in greater depth in an interactive e-course on these poems, taught by Cynthia, from 31st August to 25th September.
 A series of three on line talks
The wisdom of Julian of Norwich
in times of self-isolation
with Stefan Reynolds - listen any time!
 The lives and teachings of the mystics transmit the timeless wisdom we all may have lost and need to recover. In this new series we are introduced to wisdom from the mystical tradition relevant for our time. They reflect on what it could offer us spiritually to be isolated and slowed down by uncertainty and anxiety. 
Encountering Silence: Multiple Podcasts
Over 100 podcast interviews explore the wonder of silence from spiritual, mystical, religious and philosophical perspectives, as well as reflecting on the psychology of silence, silence and the arts, silence and education, and far more!
The list of interviewees contains many names that are familiar to
Christians with a discipline of silence, including Martin Laird, Richard Rohr,
Cynthia Bourgeault, Mirabai Starr, James Finley, as well as well-respected meditators from other traditions involved in interfaith dialogue about silence.
A podcast series
Turning to the Mystics
A weekly podcast for those searching for something more meaningfully, intimate and richly present in the divine gift of their lives. James Finlay, clinical psychologist and part of faculty at the Centre for Action and Contemplation's Living School, offers a modern take on the historical contemplative practices of Christian mystics like
​Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton and many more.
Free on line self-study courses:
The Monk Within with Dr Beverly Lanzettta
A brand new series of online courses based on Lanzetta's teachings of the universal call to contemplation. The author of many books on new monasticism and emerging universal spirituality, Lanzetta is dedicated to a vision of theological openness and spiritual nonviolence. Her work is considered to be a major contribution to what theologian Ursula King called “a feminine mystical way for the 21st century.” 
Courses are 5 to 8 on line sessions each. Titles include: The Monastic Personality; The Cloud of Unknowing; In the Beginning; and Christian-Sanyassa: A Path of Mystical Union in Bede Griffiths and Abhishiktananda
A NEW podcast series, from February 2021
​Film director and co-host of the Encountering Silence podcasts, Cassidy Hall, is now beginning a new podcast that brings you conversations with contemporary scholars, mystics and activists as they explore the undeniable intersection between contemplative spirituality and social justice.
Listen now: WCCM Sound Cloud
The World Community for Christian Meditation's audio channel, with interviews, lectures and  talks. It holds over 1,000 tracks, including the John Main Memorial Lectures from recent years, teaching from WCCM's Director, Laurence Freeman, and other well-known meditation teachers.
Listen now: What The Body Knows
​Rowan Williams at WCCM's Annual Conference
The former Archbishop of Canterbury was the guest speaker at the WCCM annual conference in July 2019. You can download all four of his talks on the body and meditative practice by clicking the button. They are well worth listening to!
Listen now: A Contemplative Christianity for Today
The John Main Seminar, August 2019
with Sarah Bachelard
Sarah Bachelard, internationally respected theologian, retreat leader, priest and founder of the Benedictus Contemplative Church in Canberra, Australia, gave five talks at this August's JMS in Vancouver this August. Contemplative experience increasingly looks like our best hope for the world. But what does this mean for Christianity itself? In an age where many say ‘just meditate', who needs religion? Hear her thoughts here.
Watch now: The Spiritual Journey
Multiple video teachings by Fr. Thomas Keating
All of the videoed recordings of Thomas Keating (1923-2018) on Centering Prayer and spiritual journeying have now been made freely available on youtube.
Overall, there are 75 different recordings, ranging from initial teachings about the method of Centering Prayer via teaching on prayer as resting and relating to God to his videos on liberation from the false self and contemplation and action - with a whole lot else in between! Most are between half an hour and an hour in length.
Read now: Former Belgian Prime Minister and President of the European Council on Meditation
A transcript of a talk by Belgian politician, Herman van Rompuy during an online seminar for WCCM Belgium on 6th March, 2021. As a meditator, he says: 
“Meditating on meditation, I would like to offer a few thoughts on why meditation has a place in today’s society. It is at odds with the spirit of the times. ...
​We become more empathetic towards our fellow human beings."

Face-to-face events and Residential Retreats
A small number of retreats are now beginning to be advertised, with very limited numbers of participants to allow for social distancing . Other retreat centres are offering accommodation but using laptops for accessing content.

Residential retreats: 
St Bueno's, Flintshire, Wales
From May 17th 2021 St Bueno's will resume offering both residential Retreats. Some will be fully guided Ignatian Guided Retreats (IGR's) of from 6 to the full 30 days. But there are other different retreats also planned. Early booking is advised to avoid disappointment as there are likely to be lots of people looking to go on retreat asap as centres open up. Their programme listings also include ON LINE retreats.
Residential Retreats 2021:
IGR's, Centering Prayer and more!
at The House of Prayer, East Molesey, KT8 0PB
This well-loved retreat centre already has a variety of residential retreats planned from March throughout 2021, from mid week or weekend IGR's to 5 or 8 day more intensive silent retreats. Retreats will have socially distanced procedures in place. As few places are booking yet demand is likely to be high, so book early!
Some retreats are listed below. Click the button for their full 2021 programme. 
Cost: £180-£630
WCCM's Residential Annual Conference 2021, 
​Touch the Earth Lightly:
Meditation and the Future of the Planet
with Fr Laurence Freeman and James Thornton
Friday 18th-Sunday 20th June 2021, Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick
For all who want to deepen their understanding of the ecological emergency and find a contemplative response. Explore how meditation and contemplative practice can awaken us to a more sustainable life; help us to respond to the current crisis; bring hope and courage in the face of the uncertain future for civilisation as we know it.
Cost: from £185
Martin Laird OSA leads Sunrise of Wonder:
A Contemplative Prayer Intensive Retreat
Launde Abbey, 27th-30th June 2021
Space to deepen the practice of contemplative prayer and overcome the stumbling blocks on the contemplative path. We will discuss the barriers of afflictive thoughts, intractable depression, judgement of our practice, and other topics. In time sitting together in silence, we'll learn to release more generously into contemplative prayer. 
Cost: £305 if booked before 4th April, £325 thereafter.
Weekdays residential retreat: 
​ The Experience of God
Monday 5th July - Wed 7th July, East Molesey House of Prayer
led by Jill Benet
This retreat will explore Raymon Panikkar's book, The Experience of God, and will be underpinned by extended period of Centering Prayer and meditation.
​Cost: £180.00
Weekend residential retreat: 
​ Going Within: Centering Prayer Immersion Weekend
Fir 9th July - Sun 11th July, East Molesey House of Prayer
led by Jill Benet
This weekend offers the opportunity to spend time in silence with a small group and deepen the experience of Centering Prayer.  This retreat is suitable for those experienced in Centering Prayer as well as those establishing their practice.
Cost: £180.00
Young Peoples (20s-30s)
Seaside 6 day residential retreat: 
Jesuit House, Barmouth, Mid-Wales
23rd - 30th July, 2021
This retreat is particularly designed for younger adults in their 20s and 30s who may be discerning how God is calling them in their daily lives. The retreat is made in silence to give you time and opportunity to pay attention to God and to be more aware of God’s work in your life. It also gives space to pray and to reflect on your life, to consider the decisions you have to make, and the priorities you want to set.  
Cost: 6 day £455
Seaside 8 day residential retreat: 
Jesuit House, Barmouth, Mid-Wales
21st - 30th July, 2021
These retreats are held in silence. You will meet with your own retreat guide each day to reflect and discern. Retreats are based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. The beautiful, rural setting of St Beuno’s provides a still and sacred place that is conducive to prayer.  Eucharist and half-an-hour of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for communal silent prayer will be available period available each day.
Cost: ​8 day £585
Weekend residential retreat: 
Touching Silence in Body and Mind
Friday 30th July - Sunday 1st August, with Jacqueline Evans
​East Molesey House of Prayer
​Jacqueline Evans is an Alexander Technique teacher. On this retreat she will be teaching techniques for rediscovering your inherent ease and freedom, which help to calm your breath and quieten your body-mind, both on and off the meditation cushion or chair. Using some of the principles of Alexander Technique you will discover ways of touching into Silence as you go about your life.
Cost: £180
Weekdays individually guided residential retreat: 
​Longing for God
Monday 6th - Friday 10th September
East Molesey House of Prayer, led by the House of Prayer Team
This retreat provides an opportunity to step aside from the busyness of everyday life and spend time in quiet prayer and reflection.  A retreat guide will be available for daily individual meetings to accompany you through the retreat. It is a time of listening to God who is present in the experiences of prayer and daily living.
Cost: £360

On line retreats & other web events in 2021
As new event details are available these will appear below.

Please check back every week or so for new listings as 
2021 plans are gradually emerging as organisations and
​retreat centres work out how to operate in Covid. 
  On line silent IGR's throughout 2021: 
Silent Individually Guided 4, 6 or 8 day Retreats
Led by team members of the St Bede's Pastoral Centre, York
Any dates where there is capacity to accommodate within programme.
For those who have previously experience of extended times of silent prayer.
​Be guided through a silent individually guided retreat. Retreatants will need to remain undisturbed and in silence for the full length of the retreat and have access to an internet connection for the daily spiritual accompaniment meeting. 
Cost: £25 per day Please email St Bede's office for more information.
​NEW monthly in 2021, on line series from WCCM:
Bonnevaux Speaker Series: Jan-Dec 2021
​​Liz Watson: Imageless Prayer and the Power of Imagination
Thursday 10th June, 7.00-8.30pm UK time
David Lorimer: A Quest for Wisdom
Friday 29th October, 7.00-8.30pm UK time
with other monthly sessions until ...
Kim Nataraja: Why Meditate?
Thursday 16th December, 7.00-8.30pm UK time
Cost: €15-35 per talk or
€90-120 all 12
On line retreat series: WCCM
A series of 8 retreats, from January to November 2021
An opportunity to meet with people from all over the world to deepen your understanding of Christian Meditation (as taught by WCCM). This series of 8 thematically-linked retreats over the year highlights WCCM communities across the world: from Asia to Europe. It will address areas including The Brick Wall of the Ego; Breakthrough; Gradual Enlightenment; Living Life Anew; The Forces of the Unconscious and Strengthening the Muscle of Attention.
Cost:
€80 min - €320
On line afternoon workshop:
Experiment with Light
12th June, 2021, 2-5pm UK time, with Angela Greenwood
"Experiment with Light" is a Quaker spiritual practice where we open to the ‘Light’ - how Quaker's speak of God - within a context of stillness. We might hold a particular concern in the Light, and just wait … becoming open in silence … to insights, images, inspirations or challenges. This is a guided meditation practice anyone can engage with and practice. Angela is a Christian Meditator in WCCM.
Cost: £10-15
On line evening talk: 
​Prayer of the Heart in the Hesychast Tradition
16th June, 2021, 7-8.30pm, with Sr Marie Claude
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly." - Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince.
This profound truth has long been recognised by the wisdom traditions and mystical philosophies of the East, whose spiritual teachers taught Hesychasm as a way of spiritual and psychological transformation This talk will explore the place of the heart in the Hesychasts’ spiritual journey and interpret it through the lens of Jungian Psychology where the heart is regarded as an archetypal symbol of transformation.
Cost: £15
Weekly, on line session from WCCM
​Breathing for Meditators
Every Thursday, 9-10am, UK time, with Lucy Barnes
on Zoom - Meeting ID: 621 042 7417  Passcode: 402407
A morning sequence of breathing exercises to support your meditation practice with Lucy Barnes, a long-term Christian meditatior, ballet dancer & yoga teacher.
 Donations welcome:  meditatio@wccm.org
Cost: donations

New or recent books on silence & meditation

New book: published February 2021
Conversations with Silence:  
Rosetta Stone of the Soul
by Sally Longley
Sally Longley, pastor, retreat leader and former president of the Australian Network for Spiritual Direction, invites you to tune the eyes and ears of your heart to the cadences of silence. It takes you to the Rosetta Stone of an ancient, forgotten language that some call God, or the soul. Immerse yourself in the silent realm of mystics, musicians, poets, and pilgrims as companions to explore the nuanced vocabulary of the worlds of silences.
New book about meditation for Children: May 2020
Frankie the Still Fox
by Ernie Christie & Mary Hosking
In this book children make friends with Frankie and learn meditation along the way. It begins, "When you turn the pages of this book you will learn how to become still and silent. Even when the world around you is so noisy and busy and distracted, you, like Frankie, can choose another way of being and learn to be attentive. By being still, really still and being silent, really silent, you will learn to just 'BE'. "
Cost: $14.00 (US dollars), including shipping to the UK, or $18.75 outside the UK.
Out in paperback from 18th December, 2020 at routledge.com 
​Women Choosing Silence:
Relationality and Transformation in Spiritual Practice
by Dr Alison Woolley
This book discusses Alison Woolley's research findings about the role, value and impact of chose practices of silence in the faith lives of contemporary Christian women.
Based in her in-depth interviews with 20 women in the UK, it explores how their engagement in silence-based prayer brings about transformation in the women's relationships with God, with themselves and with others.
Also available in hardback and ebook formats.
New book: published 2020
God is All in All: The Evolution of the 
Contemplative Christian Spiritual Journey
​by Thomas Keating
In July 2018, approaching the end of his life, Fr. Thomas gave permission for the editors to publish in book form a keynote talk that he gave at the 2012 Annual Conference of Contemplative Outreach in Snowmass, Colorado. It addresses the infinite compassion and the mercy of God; the three stages of the transformational spiritual journey; the new cosmology, human nature, science and their relationship to spirituality; the message of the cross for our times; and the meaning of redemption.
New book, published June, 2019
Mindful Silence: 
The Heart of Christian Contemplation
by Phileena Heuertz
This will be our new book for the Bradford Silence Book Group in January 2020.
​Contact Seeds of Silence for info on joining us.
The hallmarks of contemplative spirituality — solitude, silence, and stillness — have never been more important for our fast-paced society. Filled with insights and wisdom from personal experiences, Phileena Heuertz introduces us to themes and teachers of contemplative spirituality, as well as several prayer practices, and invites us to greater healing and wholeness by learning to practice faith through prayer.
New book, Sept 2019. Chapters by:
Richard Rohr, Thomas Keating, Sarah Bachelard, Phileena Heuertz & more
Contemplation and Community:
A Gathering of Fresh Voices
for a Living Tradition
This collection brings together the diverse voices who have emerged as new leaders of the contemplative movement. Exploring a multitude of themes, such as silence, imagination, meditation, embodiment, community and social action, this volume introduces the new voices who reflect globally on the gifts, challenges, differences and commonalities of Christian contemplation today for communities and people of faith.
New book, published May 2019: Searching for a Silent God
by Sarah Parkinson
Following a bereavement, Sarah found herself searching for a God who no longer seemed to be there. Through prayer, exploration and spiritual direction, gradually her relationship with God grew into one that was more profound and mature. Searching for a Silent God, combines autobiographical reflection with poetry written during her experience of divine silence, enabling others to engage with their spirituality in a new and different way.
New book: published March 2019
​Giving Up without Giving Up:
Meditation and Depressions by Jim Green
Drawing on extensive experience of meditation within Christian and Buddhist contemplative traditions, as well as his own times of personal loss and bewilderment, Jim Green offers a moving account of how this wisdom practice can accompany those who make 'the gentle pilgrimage of recovery'. Guiding readers through 'the invention of depression' in the mid-twentieth century, he questions the increasing tendency to medicalise human suffering. 
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Latest book by Martin Laird, OSA:
​An Ocean of Light:
Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
This is Laird's third book about a spiritual discipline of silence.
It is aimed at those already well-established in a daily practice of silence and is full of wonderful wisdom. I love this sentence from the end of page 55: "Our created, creative identity flows from and is consummated by the eternal splendour of the ineffable, divinizing humanity of the mystery of God in Christ." I recommend it!
Silence Clinic 
with Alison Woolley, Director, Seeds of Silence
Next Silence Clinic: Wednesday 24th February , 7.30-9pm.
​Now running on Zoom: please email for Zoom link
Are you curious about silence?  Is silence already an intentional part of your prayer life, but leaves you with more questions than answers?  Would you like an opportunity to talk about the difficulties and challenges of sustaining silence-based prayer?  Or maybe you rarely have opportunities for more extended periods of silence-based prayer with others? 
If so, come to the next Silence Clinic​: now running on Zoom.
Find more info and the five other 2020 Silence Clinic dates by clicking the info button.
Please email Seeds of Silence if you plan to come so we know numbers. Thanks.
New film release, Autumn, 2020:
Day of a Stranger

A film about Thomas Merton by director, Cassidy Hall.

An intimate film about the final years of the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, from 1965 until his untimely death in 1968. Interweaving meditative images of his hermitage at Gethsemani Abbey with selected material from over 150 hours of rarely heard audio recordings that Merton made in the space. 
Now running via Zoom:
​Please email via contact page for Zoom link
Silence Book Group in Bradford
Next evening: TBC, February 2021, 7.30pm, on Zoom.
We meet every 6-8 weeks to discuss our slow reading through two books about silence based prayer and meditation; a chapter of each between meetings.
​ Each book group meeting also includes 20 minutes of shared silence.
Praying without Words
7.30pm Thursday evenings, monthly at Whirlow Spirituality Centre, Sheffield
This group will explore questions such as 'am I doing this right?', 'nothing is happening, why bother?', 'how can I stop my thoughts?' and provides opportunity to practise and share in our journeys. Open to people with all levels of experience and all faiths or none. 
Silence Retreat Programme 2020:
House of Prayer, Kingston-upon-Thames
The House of Prayer is a space for prayer and meditation run by the Sisters of the Christian Retreat. As well as providing a tranquil environment close to London, the House of Prayer has a program of silence-based retreats, courses and regular groups to help people on their spiritual journey. Click button to see their retreats programme.
The Meditatio Centre Programme, 2020
The Meditatio Centre is part of the outreach of the World Community for Christian Meditation. Inspired by the vision of the Benedictine monk, John Main, it seeks to teach meditation to help restore the contemplative dimension of life.

The Meditatio Centre shares the fruits of meditation with the wider world and directs its wisdom towards the crises of our time with wide-ranging programmes addressing education, interfaith, mental health and social justice.
 ​World Community for Christian Meditation
2020 Events Programme
This lists events with key figures from WCCM
​in the UK, Europe and globally in 2020.
​
A 2020 Highlight:
29th January - 15th February 2020: WCCM Pilgrimage to India:
"Christian Ashrams and St Thomas Churches"
Parceval Hall
 Retreats Programme for 2020
A variety of retreats and opportunities to deepen your faith in a beautiful rural setting in the Yorkshire Moors.  From single days to longer weekend or mid-week retreats, from silence to making music, or exploring literature to walking in the stunning countryside, there's something for everyone.
St Beuno's Centre, North Wales,
Retreats Programme for 2020

Guided silent retreats from a few days to the full classic 30 day Ignatian retreat in the gorgeous surroundings of North Wales. Self-guided retreats also available.

Includes twice yearly special 'Budget Retreats: 
​£220 for 6 days and £90 for 3 days for those under 30.
Priority given to young and those on low incomes.  
April & July budget retreats have places available, but book soon! 
Bonnevaux News​

In this video Giovani Felliconi from the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) discusses the three levels of silence that WCCM hope to offer at the new Bonnevaux retreat centre in France.
THIS PAGE WILL CONSTANTLY EVOLVE:
Please check back again every few weeks
If there are events - local to Bradford or elsewhere in the UK- that
you think it would be good to link to from this page,
​please use the Seeds of Silence contact page to suggest this.
Thank you