Although many of you will have already heard, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about our new centre. We have exchanged contracts, and are hoping that we will be moving in the autumn into the new premises, which are located just a short distance from where we are now, adjacent to the Porchester Baths and Library. We are moving so that we can expand the range and depth of activities that we will be able to offer. The new place will have two shrine rooms and a dedicated yoga space, along with a study room and much larger reception area than we have at present. Links to the plans can be found below.

We have engaged a creative and innovative architectural firm and believe that the new centre will be both beautiful and functional.

As I am sure you can imagine a great deal of work has already been put into negotiations and all the complicated business of securing a new property. I would like to highlight in relation to this the role of Ratnaprabha, who has worked extremely hard to help secure our new home.

So I would ask you to consider if there is anything you feel you might be able to contribute to making sure that we really make the most of this wonderful new opportunity of offering the Dharma, meditation, yoga, mindfulness and related arts events to the community. 

Do you have skills that you might be able to contribute to helping with the move? Perhaps you have a couple of hours a week you could give to the situation as a volunteer. There are going to be many areas that we will need help with, ranging from supporting classes, taking part in arts events, reception, data entry, cleaning and so on.

However, this is not just about our need for help. We also want to encourage as much involvement from our own Sangha as possible. We really want to try and foster a sense of community, ownership and involvement in the new centre. More than anything we see our task as trying to support the creation of Sangha, community, by which we support one another to practise love and awareness. 

Please do take the time to consider if there is anything you can offer or anything that you would like us to be aware of in this new venture. The centre team here would be very happy to talk to you about any ideas you might have, Drop us an email or phone the centre.

We will try and keep you informed about how things are going as the work on the centre moves towards completion, it is part of a new-build so it will be a while till we are able to get access and start our own ‘fit out’ .
Metta,

Paramananda"