In November 2003 when I stumbled across the WCCM I never imagined that such a discovery would shape my life. I certainly never envisaged that I would have the privilege of serving as the national coordinator for the WCCM in the UK. Twenty years on and still at the heart of the WCCM is our mission statement:
To communicate and nurture meditation as passed on through the teaching of John Main in the Christian tradition, in the spirit of serving the unity of all.
This mission has found expressions in many new and innovative ways both locally and internationally, most recently through offering meditation, courses and retreats online. The Bonnevaux Centre for Peace has opened, offering a new vision of a monastery without walls and if the opportunity arises I can only encourage you to visit Bonnevaux (see bonnevauxwccm.org). The UK has often been at the forefront of new developments offering support to the international community, however while much has changed the basic mission remains the same.
Since the lockdownsthe UK community has been responding to the changes that have taken place. We have improved communications. We have integrated the online groups into our database and launched the new website – wccm.uk. We have moved our office so that we are now located with the international office. We have updated the flyer and the bookmark and introduced a postcard designed to be left in community spaces or on noticeboards ( Copies available from the office – you can see them here). And now with our newsletter editor moving on we are thinking about how the newsletter might look in future.
In the last 20 years so much has changed and we have evolved into a global community easily connectable with our international friends via the internet. However, at the centre of the UK community are meditators who attend our local in-person and online groups. We are now looking at how we might reorganise, to simplify our structure and refocus our limited resources to better support UK meditators, while at the same time working more closely with the international community. (See the articles on Meditatio’s Outreach work in several areas.) We don’t want to go back to how things were but rather to embrace the opportunities to go forward. Our mission hasn’t changed but the world has, the WCCM has and in the UK we want to respond to those new opportunities, while continuing to enable the deepening of our personal practice and sharing the gift of meditation. It is a gift that has the power to change lives in so many ways – it has certainly changed mine!
Please do get in touch if you have any thoughts (contact details).
Julie Roberts
WCCM in the UK National Coordinator