Convocation at Chisholme House, 4-6 September 2015

 

This weekend was about setting a new intention for the School at Chisholme
Understanding the Past: a talk by the Principal, Peter Young – read or listen here...
Considering the Present: an exercise in intention and imagination; read more...

Looking to the Future: 
               Richard Gault, the 'about-to-be' Principal, 
               Aliya Ryan the Development Office Coordinator, 
               Aaron Cass, Director of Studies for the next Six-month Course
               Tim Roberts, Chairman of the Institute
               Open Session – comments from participants

Sunday Morning: looking to the future...

Aliya Ryan, Co-ordinator of the Development Office, considers present and future possibilities

Good morning!  
What I wanted to try and do this morning, briefly, is just to give information about what’s going on at the moment so far as we know and we can tell...and what the immediate future is, for some of the initiatives that have been going on in the last few years, within what we have been calling ‘The Beshara Development Office’. It was set up three and a half years ago, just when I came to start working at Chisholme, at the beginning of 2012.  Hopefully, many of you know – more or less – what has been going on with that. The different groups that were set up to work with Publicity and Communications, Finance, and Course Developments.  Various things have come out of that over the last few years.

I want to focus – rather than talking about what has happened – to talk about what’s happening now.  In terms of the Course development – which is sort of the heart of it, and, it seems, is what drives the rest of the development – the Discovering Unity evening course, which was first run 3 years ago, has now been held in many places across the world, and in some places many times  – for example in Oxford, which is where it has been run the most, coming up to the 7th time!  So that’s going to be run again this autumn by Derek and Ally and then, hopefully also, it will continue to be run elsewhere. I think the people who have been involved in that course over the last few years do believe it is time to give it some kind of revision, and to look again at the material and the way that it is delivered.  But, for the moment, it’s a good course, and lots of people have given very positive feedback on that course.  I can’t remember off the top of my head the numbers, but a lot of people have done that course. 

The material which was developed for it, which was themed into six themes – one to be looked at each week over six weeks – then formed the basis for the Discovering Unity Two Year course, which has just completed its first full run this summer.  So, those themes, which were developed for the evening course, were used in the first year of the Two Year course, and were gone into in much more depth than is possible on an evening course, and more material was collected for that.   And then the second year of the course – which was last year until July this year – the students were looking at extracts from the Fusus from the new translation, which is still underway, by Stephen Hirtenstein and Cecilia Twinch.  Jane Clark gave us permission to use extracts from those translations, which aren’t published yet.  These were given to the students along with Introductions to study every week, to do at home on their own, and with questions to contemplate. Then they had contact with each other – the other students – and with the supervisors (about once a month with the supervisors, more or less).

So that course, which is just finished, is now being looked at again in time to be run for the second time – this time starting in Indonesia.  There is quite a good body of students in Indonesia who would like to do this course, and rather than add to the difficulty of logistics – most of them wouldn’t be able to get visas or be able to afford to come to Chisholme three years running for the residential modules - we are going to hold the first two residential modules in Indonesia.

So, hopefully starting April or May next year on the first module, and then they will have a year of study on their own...they might be able to meet more regularly, if there is a good group who live reasonably close to each other.  They will meet again for the second time at the end of the first year in Indonesia, and hopefully, for the final residential module, they will be able to come to Chisholme.  That is the intention at the moment.

All the material that was developed for that course will now be looked at again.  I think we learnt an awful lot about what the course was, as it was happening!  We had an idea, but we didn’t know the details, before it started, and so – particularly the first year – it developed through the year; it became evident what was required. So, particularly the beginning of the first year will need a lot of revision to get it ready for the second running of the course.  

A huge amount of new material was both found and collected from different sources, and also written, especially for that course.  Peter (Young) in particular spent a lot of time writing Introductions for the second year and also for the first year.  Alison Yiangou was also very involved writing new material for that course, and developing questions and mindfulness practices for the course.  Lots of those Introductions and new pieces of writing have been used here.   Some of them on introductory courses – but the material for the second year is the same as what the Fusus/Study retreats that have been happening over the last year have been using – alongside the extracts from the new translation.

Many of you, hopefully, have had a chance to see some of that material.  Those courses were run as a way of enabling people to see what’s been going on - to see the new material.   Whether or not those courses will continue to be run, is a question that hasn’t yet an answer, but it seems like it would be very good.  People have given very good feedback about it…but we can’t give you a course programme yet, about that.

There are also lots of chapters from the Fusus which haven’t yet been looked at in that light, and I believe that is something that Peter is hoping to be able to continue with, over the next few years…to complete that body of material.  

So, all the work that went into developing the two year course, is now there as source material also for the Six-month Course which is about to begin.  Exactly what they will use of that material I am not sure – I don’t think they know yet either.  Again, there will be an idea, and then it will be informed by the students and by the way the course happens…but there is a huge amount of material ready for it. 

So that’s sort of an overview of the courses.

In terms of the other groups that were working in the Development Office, there are two groups.   The Publicity and Communications group and the Finance group.  The way that they actually seemed to work over the last two years was that most of the work that was done, was to do with Chisholme, and to do with the day to day operating of the courses, publicising the courses , funding the different initiatives.  …and it seems that actually, they could most easily and simply be run directly from Chisholme with the involvement of the Principal and people here.  They don’t necessarily need what was set up as some kind of independent Beshara Development office, to give these groups  a particular energy, which they seemed to need at the time.  I think that was right for that time, but now maybe this is a different time, and they can come back into the Institute. 

The other group which was to do with the course development, may be slightly separate, because it is to do with ongoing research and development, and as soon as that becomes tied to the day to day, it doesn’t happen, because there is always the day to day to deal with, and that’s what we found over the last two years…that in order to get that work done, we really needed to set aside completely separate spaces and times, just dedicated to that.  So, hopefully, that will continue to happen.  I think the role of that group is to find out what the needs of the time are and how to respond to it, whether it is with courses or events or other kinds of happenings, or pieces of writing – all kinds of things could be within that. 

I think the team which has been working over the last few years – it is probably time to look at that again as well and involve the new Principal in it, and see who else might have a place there – whether it is individuals or just sort of functions – people with different kinds of experience and information.   Because of all the changes that have been happening, particularly over the last few months, including my leaving Chisholme, the imminent leaving of Peter and arrival of Richard, it didn’t seem like the right time to try and figure all of that out – because I think there is something else, which is in the middle of happening, and so let that happen. This mustn’t be forgotten, this ongoing research and development, because, as we said, this is what drives everything. But I think it can be held there and remembered, and then maybe in a month or two months, when other things have become clear, we can look at that together. 

Another aspect, which I was involved in quite a lot while I was here, was the course programme and the course development.  I think Richard has mentioned that he is very interested in looking at that – how it can be expanded and what can inform it.  I just wanted to mention that, and hopefully that will happen over the next few months. 

The final – unless I have forgotten something – the final important development of the Development Office was the relationship both to the alumni and to the groups working wherever they are – whether they call themselves [Beshara], or have an organisation which has the name Beshara, or whether they are just a couple of people who want to run a course somewhere. 

And I think having someone who can be the place where information and questions can come to and also where feedback can come from, is really important and is an ongoing need. 

For the moment, I have agreed to carry on being that place.  

How long that will continue and whether it is still the right way to do it, again, I think we will find out.  But it is certainly my intention to ensure that everything that was part of what was set up as a Development Office – that it doesn’t just sort of fizzle away. Either that it finds a new home or new people, or is built into something else. 

It seems quite simple.  

It seems like the way things have happened – the decisions and the developments of the last few months – have actually really simplified and clarified – for me anyway – what the Development Office is, and how it can work.  So hopefully that is true.   

Thank you! 

Aliya's talk was followed by Aaron Cass, Director of Studies for the next Six-month Course, and Tim Roberts, Chairman of the Institute.