Hucklow Summer School 2023

ONLINE APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN! CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Our theme talks (speakers TBC) will be streamed live each morning from Monday-Friday and will be freely available to all. For the first time this year it will also be possible to sign up for an online-only engagement group, running for two hours daily from Sunday-Friday, enabling those who are unable to travel to Great Hucklow in-person to join in remotely with our core small-group activity.

‘Real Life: Telling the Truth of Our Lived Experience’

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” asked Freddie Mercury. This year’s Summer School is about sharing the truth of what life is really like for us, and being curious and compassionate about what life is really like for others, especially those whose lives are invisible to us and whose voices are unheard. Additionally, over the last few years, the distinction between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ has been blurred, as the new communities and relationships we have created and sustained online have shown themselves to be equally vital and valuable, particularly for those who were excluded or isolated by their personal circumstances from many ‘real world’ opportunities for connection, engagement, and participation in community life. Through talks, engagement groups, and personal reflection, we will be exploring what it means for us to truly ‘be real’ – with ourselves, in our relationships, in our communities, with God – and how we can make space for others to do likewise.

Engagement Groups

Each person is part of a small workshop group which meets for two hours each day to explore a given theme. Please indicate your 1st and 2nd preference workshop (A, B, C, D, E) when applying.

A: ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So…’ with Sarah Tinker and Charlotte Chanteloup
Summer School provides space for gentle exploration, away from our everyday lives. In this workshop the invitation will be to go deeper, to consider our identities beyond those social veneers. Together we’ll create the trust needed for us to share our life stories, both tough and tender, and express more of ourselves – through conversation, journalling, silence, collage, poetry, movement and sound. We’ll seek ways to strengthen and protect ourselves, for our work out in the world, whilst staying open-hearted, better able to accept ourselves and others as we truly are.

B: ‘A Life Less Ordinary?’ with Danny Crosby and Laura Dobson
The invitation of our engagement group is to explore the spirituality of ordinary and extraordinary experiences, affirming the sacred nature of our whole lives, from the mundane to the magical. We will explore experiences on the physical and more-than-physical planes, from activities grounded in our bodies and our earthly existence, to such things as dreams, mystical experiences, epiphanies and revelations, synchronicities, signs and symbols. We will consider how we discern truth, how we create our own reality in dialogue with others, and how the pandemic has changed our experience of reality. Together we will create safe spaces to share our experience of life and listen to one another, working with a variety of ‘bodyfulness’ practices to help us be fully present with ourselves and others.

C: ‘The Natural Network’ with Kate Dean and Eleanor Chiari
‘If we could surrender to the Earth’s intelligence we’d rise up rooted as trees’ – Rilke
Our engagement group explores the idea that in inventing our abstract human reality we have forgotten how to belong to the wider ecosystem. Inspired by author Richard Powers’ invitation to imagine and speak for non-human consciousness, our group will explore ways to find our place in a world where humans are not the centrepoint. We will do this through practical activities, creative exercises and meditative practices.

D: ‘Keeping It Real’ with Jane Blackall and Lizzie Kingston-Harrison (ONLINE via Zoom)
‘Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.’ ―Brené Brown
In this group we invite you to share true stories of what life is really like for you in all its messiness and complexity. We hope to co-create a compassionate space in which we can hear honest accounts of each other’s lived experience and, in so doing, nurture a deeper understanding of our own and others’ reality. We will also look at ways we might equip ourselves to live ever more authentically in our relationships, communities, and spiritual lives. This online engagement group will require some advance preparation; all participants will be asked to prepare a short written reflection on some aspect of their lived experience to share with the rest of the group during summer school week (guidance will be sent ahead of time). We will explore these reflections together, with sensitivity and care, in a structured way. [Note: we will meet at the same time as residential groups are meeting so our first session will be held from 2.15-4.15 on Sunday, subsequent sessions from 10.45-12.45 Monday to Friday, and we ask all participants to commit to setting aside the time to attend the whole series of six group sessions].

E: (for under 18s): ‘Reality vs Virtual World’ with Claire Maddocks and Caroline Boyce
Imagine a world where you can decide your own rules, live the life you want to lead, dress exactly how you’d like, only live with the people you choose who all share your interests, thoughts and morals. It would be so perfect and peaceful wouldn’t it? Well, that’s a world you will be creating whilst at Summer School. We’ll begin the week looking at your reality – where you come from, your interests and morals. As the week progresses, we’ll devise our own virtual world where you’d love to live. We’ll then end the week looking at how we can make some things of our virtual world reality for us to make a pathway to living a more peaceful life.

Nicola Temple will be our Coordinator and the primary contact person for queries during the week in Hucklow. Nick Morrice will be our musical director. Rev. Michael Allured will be providing pastoral care and staff support as Minister for the Week.

ONLINE APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN! (click here to apply). Applications are due by 5th May. A deposit of £100 is required for residential participants. Full payment of £75 is required for online participants. The balance will be due on 1st July 2023.

Prices and Application Process

Adult (Residential): £595
Children 12-16: £435
Children 5-11: £370
Children under 5: £165

Adult (Online Programme): £75

Please Note: We aim to break even and do not typically make any profit out of summer school. The rates we set reflect what it costs for us to put on the event. £511 of the standard rate is the cost of a week’s full-board accommodation at the Nightingale Centre in a shared twin room. The remainder is a ‘conference fee’ of £84 which helps to cover the provision of a team of staff / organisers (the team do not receive any payment for their work but their accommodation and expenses are covered).

Rooms at Summer School are usually shared. Availability of single rooms is very limited and so these places will be carefully allocated on the basis of need for people with special circumstances. If you have particular medical or other reasons why a single room is essential then you must inform the panel of your circumstances at the time of application so that we can take this into account. A supplement of £50 will be payable for places in single rooms or shared-en-suite rooms (£100 supplement for a single en-suite room). We cannot guarantee your room preference but will notify you of room allocation when places are confirmed in May. Please Note: It is a policy of Summer School that family members/partners should participate in different engagement groups.

The panel aims to attract approximately one third newcomers to participate in the Summer School every year. We have set a deadline of Friday 5th May 2023 for receipt of applications. Shortly after this date (in mid-May), places will be allocated by the members of the panel, giving priority to first-timers, ministers, and ministerial students, subject to the constraints of available accommodation. If your application is unsuccessful we will refund your deposit at a later date. Deposits will only be refunded if you are not offered a place. If you need to drop out after you have been allocated a place neither the deposit nor the full balance is refundable. Please consider appropriate insurance in case of this eventuality.

Please do let us know if you have any particular skills or abilities that you would like to share during the week (e.g. music, dancing, art and craft ideas, worship, meditation, leading a one-off religious education workshop, etc.) by giving some details at the time of application. Members of the panel will contact potential session leaders in late May, after Summer School places have been allocated, to finalise the timetable.

ONLINE APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN! (click here to apply). Applications are due by 5th May. A deposit of £100 is required for residential participants. Full payment of £75 is required for online participants. The balance will be due on 1st July 2023.

Bursaries: Please do not let a shortage of money prevent you from attending! Some Summer School bursaries are available to help with the cost. We encourage you to seek support from congregations and districts and we may be able to put you in touch with other potential funding sources. Please contact us as soon as possible if you are likely to need assistance with funding. Donations to the Summer School Bursary Fund are always very welcome!