No sitting on 27 October

 Hi all - as I'll be away attending the Autumn Sesshin that week, we will not be holding zazen on the evening of Weds 27 October. We'll pick back up the following Wednesday as usual.

Zen cancelled this evening

Apologies to all, but I'm afraid I am sick (and, more importantly, infectious!) and won't be able to make it to Zen this evening. Have tried to get hold of a couple of people individually, but hopefully this post should also help! We'll pick up next week as usual. 

Sorry this is such late notice, has come upon me quite fast. Lateral flow test tells me it's not Covid, but feeling awful!

Meetings moved back to Wednesdays!

If you get emails from StoneWater (and if not, you can sign up using the form at the bottom of the main page at www.stonewaterzen.org), you might have noticed that the online Zen sessions are being moved to Thursday evenings because of difficulties with 'broadcasting' the main Wednesday evening in the Liverpool zendo. 

For those of us outside Liverpool, this is great - we'll be able to sit together on Zoom and have interviews with Keizan Roshi, Shinro Sensei or Suigen Sensei each week. 

But, of course, this now clashes with the rescheduled zazen sessions in Northampton! So, from Wednesday 6th October 2021, we're moving our Northampton group meetings back to Wednesday evenings to enable us to participate in the online Thursdays. 

Nothing else changes - venue, times, etc - just the day. And do please note that we'll be meeting on Thursdays for the rest of September. 

Meetings moved to Thursdays

Right, I've confirmed our booking with the Quakers, and it's all sorted. Note, though, that we're moving our Zen evenings from Wednesdays to Thursdays. 

So - our first meeting back will be Thursday 2nd September, to arrive before 7.00pm (and a bit earlier if this will be your first visit). 

The move to Thursdays keeps Wednesday evenings open for us to continue sitting online with the Keizan Roshi and the wider StoneWater community via Zoom. Currently (i.e. for August), the sittings are limited to weekday mornings, but the evening sessions will be restarting in September. No specifics yet, but details will follow, and I'm sure that the online Zendo page at www.stonewaterzen.org/stonewater-zen-online will be updated as things are decided.

Can't wait to meet up again! All very exciting.

SWZ Northampton re-opening!

Well, finally it's time to post again because we're hopefully going to be re-opening in a few weeks!  

I have heard from the wonderful folks at the Northampton Friends Meeting House, and they're opening up again from the 1st of September.

I've also asked them if they would be able to accommodate us on either the Tuesday or Thursday evenings instead of the Wednesday evenings, so that this doesn't absolutely stop us from joining in with the online Wednesdays that I believe are going to continue, pandemic or no. I've no idea whether they'll be able to accommodate us with this, but I'll keep you all posted. 

It's been a long, long 18 months, and while the online sittings with the national - and international! - sangha have been a godsend (is that appropriate?!), I can't wait to sit with people in a room again, breathing the same air, having a cup of tea afterwards and just interacting in the usual way! It will feel very odd sitting without Lorna - her absence will be the hardest thing about meeting up again. But I think she'd have been upset if we didn't pick things up again as a group.

So - pencil in Wednesday 1st of September into your diaries for our first zazen of the re-opening. I'll post again here and in the Facebook group if the day or date changes.