Music & Meditation in the Meetinghouse – June 23 @ 7:30pm

SUNDAY EVENING, JUNE 23, 2013 at 7:30pm in the GLOUCESTER UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH

Corner of Middle and Church Streets
Open to the Public with Free-Will Offering
Social Gathering Afterwards with Refreshments

The Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church is pleased to announce the first in a series called Music & Meditation in the Meetinghouse (MMM) that will offer Cape Ann residents and visitors a unique and varied experience of beautiful music and relaxing meditation in the Gloucester’s oldest standing church.  It will be held in the candle-lit, early-evening setting of the church’s 1806 Sanctuary with golden light beaming through the stained glass windows.  Lanesville’s Mindfulness Meditation practitioner Dr. Michael Bresnan will team up with the Dorymates, Tony Hilliard and Janet Ruth Young, presenting a combination of meditation and heartfelt music for guitar and voice.

Following the event there will be a collation with light refreshments in the church’s Entrance House, giving participants the opportunity to meet the leaders and each other in a convivial atmosphere.  The Sanctuary is accessible for persons with disabilities via the Church Street Entrance.   A free-will offering will be received and everyone is welcome.

 Meditation Description:

Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhist meditative practice, and involves bringing one’s attention to subjective present moment experience without judgment – coming out of the world of conceptual thought in which we tend to spend most of our lives and connecting once again with the actuality of our life in the moment. By opening to experience just as it is, we create the space for life to unfold in a very different way. This practice has been the focus of a tremendous amount of scholarly research in recent years, with numerous studies demonstrating profound improvements in physiological and psychological health, even over short periods of practice.

Dr. Bresnan, whose practice is newly established in Lanesville, will lead the group through an introductory experience in mindfulness meditation, which will serve as an invitation for attendees to connect in a more vivid way to the musical portions of the program.