A STONE carver and Franciscan Tertiary, the Revd Lindy Cameron, is realising her vision to establish a community for girls, based at her rectory in Langton Matravers, in Dorset.
A house-for-duty Pioneer priest, she served her curacy at Hillfield Friary, near Dorchester. “My heart is for community working together,” she says of the ten-year journey that has brought her up to now. “Whoever I teach carving to, I hope to give you the option to share a part of that journey with stone.”
‘Take two tablets twice a day, and carve them! You’ll feel a lot better’
Ms Cameron first encountered Purbeck limestone 15 years ago, on a visit to the Burngate Purbeck Stone Centre, where she is now a tutor for carving groups. She can also be involved with a carving group within the village and is working with the local school on creating carvings for the Church of St Nicholas of Myra. She continues to run regular weekends taking a look at spirituality through the art of stone carving, which she began at Hillfield.
“I live to tell the tale the Jurassic coast, where the limestone beds run all the way in which from Portland to Swanage,” she says. “Local people here really do know their stones. The limestone is formed from living creatures and flora, with so many tiny shells and crystallisations: it’s amazing. You’re coping with the traditional of ancients. God created it, and it makes my heart sing and my spirit sing.”
The community has space for 2 single women to affix in living on the rectory, following a rhythm of each day prayer and energetic engagement with the communities of Langton, Worth, and Kingston. “I see the community as concentric circles, already widening: the inner ring, the church community and the parish, the area people,” she reflects. “When the whole lot is in place, we’ll officially open and the Bishop will come and anoint the home.”
Fellow community members can be invited to share their very own vocation and skills with the area people and the churches. Ms Cameron’s own calling to establish a community first got here with a visit to the Ffyald y Brenin retreat centre, in West Wales. “I had no idea how or when that might occur but I held on to the vision, the dream, that sooner or later it might,” she remembers. “This is but a snippet of how God has guided me and opened doors.”
