Vagabonds at St James's
THE VAGABONDS are a group of mainly Christian spiritual enquirers. We meet informally once a month in a pub close to St. James' to discuss a topic of interest. We take our name from William Blake's poem The Little Vagabond, a character who prefers the alehouse to the church (Blake was baptised at St James’)
The Little Vagabond, by William Blake
Dear mother, dear mother, the church is cold,
But the alehouse is healthy and pleasant and warm;
Besides I can tell where I am used well,
Such usage in Heaven will never do well.
But if at the church they would give us some ale,
And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,
We'd sing and we'd pray all the live-long day,
Nor ever once wish from the church to stray.
Then the parson might preach, and drink, and sing,
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring;
And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church,
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.
And God, like a father rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as he,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
But kiss him, and give him both drink and apparel.
What we explored in 2009:
Monetary Reform: An Economy without Interest Rates
The Secret Life of Bees (discussion of the novel
Common Ground between Secular Humanists and Liberal Christians?
Meister Eckhart
William Stringfellow: No distant prophet (Speaker's hand-out on William Stringfellow)
Seekers Trust: A Spiritual Healing Community
The Happiness Hypothesis
The Theology of Migration
Madness, Mystery and the Survival of God
Meeting Structure
We generally start our pub sessions with a lunch and fellowship time starting at 13:00. We usually split our sessions into two periods, although this may vary, with a break in between. Our session ends no later than 16:00.
Location:
Most of our meetings take place at the Captain’s Cabin Pub near Piccadilly Circus:
Captain's Cabin
4 Norris Street
London SW1Y 4RJ
Hope to see you there!