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Glastonbury’s
Spiritual Economy.
Over
50 people gathered at St Mary’s Church Hall on Thursday
April 26th to hear Dr Marion Bowman talk about Glastonbury’s
Spiritual Economy.
Dr
Bowman is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open
University. She told us that a number of academic establishments
have become interested in Glastonbury - its like a “Site
of Special Spiritual Interest” (as a parallel to the
scientific variety!). It is seen as an unique example of a
contemporary pilgrimage town. Marion’s current research
is into the effect on Glastonbury’s economy of the increasing
influx of visitors and “incomers” from all over
the world, many of them with plenty of money to spend. She
has obtained information from large numbers of people in the
town who serve these pilgrims, from butchers and gentlemen’s
outfitters to B & B’s and healers. The results will
be publicised in due course, and the Glaston Group will make
them available.
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Glastonbury
is an ideal venue for assessing the spiritual and religious needs
of a community and how this affects business and everyday life.
Its attraction for pilgrims has relevance in its history when the
Abbey was in its heyday, but now there are so many different religious
orientations represented that Marion and her colleagues see our
town as a microcosm of spiritual diversity, so fruitful for their
investigations. Research students from Europe and America have visited
to investigate the spiritual diversity in Glastonbury and it is
likely that a permanent Centre for Research into Contemporary Spirituality
will be set up in the town.
The
talk was so well received, and so many people wished they had heard
it, that the Glaston Group prepared a 40 minute DVD . We are sorry
not to be able to show you the discussion which followed as the
audience was obviously engaged, but it offers Marion’s animated
delivery and lots of illustrations.
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Copies
of the DVD of a talk given by Dr. Marion Bowman, Senior lecturer
at the Open University, at the April 2007 Glaston Group Gathering
are available from the following outlets in Glastonbury, priced
£5.00:
Psychic
Piglet, Growing Needs, Chalice
Well bookshop. |
For
more information about Glastonbury visit Glastonbury
Online and IsleofAvalon
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