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SUMMARY:Good Friday Meditation and Reading of the Dream of the Rood
DTSTART:20240329T160000Z
DTEND:20240329T170000Z
DTSTAMP:20260620T121705Z
UID:10428412024-03-29 16:00:00+00:00achurchnearyou
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DESCRIPTION:Outside round the Bewcastle Cross (or in the church if the wea
 ther is inclement)\, a service of meditation listening to a reading of the
  ‘Dream of the Rood’. It will probably take around 15 mins to read\, a
 nd will finish with a period of silence. The whole service will last about
  30 minutes.  I'm not aware of this having been done before\, but I'm sure
  it must have been. For those who don't know it\, the Dream of the Rood ha
 s been described as ‘one of the greatest religious poems in English lite
 rature’ and is one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon poems in existence. A sec
 tion of it is inscribed in runes on the Ruthwell Cross in south Dumfriessh
 ire\, not far from the Solway coast. In fact\, these runes are the oldest 
 Anglo-Saxon poetry anywhere in the world. The Ruthwell and Bewcastle cross
 es are closely-related sister crosses that both date from the early 8thC. 
 It is likely that they were either inspired by the poem\, or inspired the 
 author(s) of the poem\, as they are more or less contemporary with it - th
 e close relation between them being evident through the runic engraving. T
 he poem is about an elderly monk who dreams about the cross (the 'rood') i
 n his sleep\, and as he meditates the cross begins to speak to him about t
 he events of that day. It is typical Johannine Anglo-Saxon theology\, in t
 hat creation speaks of God's presence to those who pray\, and the colour\,
  holiness\, gore\, majesty\, wonder and awe flow back and forth through th
 e poem as the Christ climbs up to mount his victory throne\, which is\, of
  course\, the rood. We will be gathered\, praying around perhaps the actua
 l cross that 'speaks' in the poem. If you would like to be seated outside 
 you will need to bring your own furniture.
LOCATION:Bewcastle Church
URL:https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/12259/service-and-events/events/
 1042841/
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