Lindisfarne Revisited

Recently I received this comment on one of my earlier postings on Lindisfarne (part of my Virtual Island Hopping tour):

Visit to the Community of Aidan and Hilda on Lindisfarne, December 2007, impressions of a new Way - I have done a retreate with CAH on Lindisdfarne in December 2007 and decided to become an Explorer with the Community. To be an Explorer means to write a Way of Life for oneself with guidance of a Soul Friend. This are two basic, elements of the Celtic spirituality as practised at CAH: pilgrimage and Soulfriendship. This brought a great challenge to my life, and which resulted already in a better balance, and that is bringing out the full richness of life much more. Basically it comes down to Contemplation-in-Action, which is all about living a contemplative life in the midst of our own sometimes turbulent daily lifes. We don't need monastries for doing just that, do we?

I am looking for like-minded people that are interested in this kind of spirituality. If you are interested don't hesitate to get in touch and contact me at my email (jcborger at cs dot com) or by leaving a comment here. Lets bring Lindisfarne just a bit closer to the continent! Johannes Borger in The Hague

Johannes, thanks for commenting and maybe you will find linkeminded travelers, seekers and soulmates here! Blessings!

And the winner is...

Me (of course). Check Vicki's blog for the official announcement. Wow, what a competition this was. I'm glad it's over, because I could barely stand the tension and excitement. And I didn't really try to get in touch with the people on Easter Island. I think they are too busy carving new sculptures anyway. But hey, it was fun.

My Very Own Easter Island Moai

So, here it is: my very own Easter Island Moai - made out of a gigantic Dutch potato and photographed twice against the background of a real Easter Island scenery on my laptop screen. You all have just a couple of days to beat me (until October 15, 2007 to be precise.) You still have a chance to claim this fantastic price: eternal fame in blogosphere! Vicki will be the Judge and Jury - so you better make sure that you come up with something really impressive and artistic! Click on the labels below to find out all about this. Come on, blog friends - don't let me down! Make a Moai statue and upload a pic on your blog. Leave a comment here to let us know about your contribution to this global fun project.
I will be in Frankfurt for the next couple of days to attend the Book Fair. I hope to be back on Saturday and of course I do expect to see some new entries for this exciting competition. What are you waiting for? And maybe Mike can try to get in touch with some islanders?

My Very Own Moai Statue

The Statues of Easter Island

The famous Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl led the first archaeological expedition to Easter Island in 1955- 56. In 1962 he gave a series of lectures to the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography in Stockholm. Read more here

Rapa Nui / Easter Island video

Known locally as Rapa Nui. An island of Chile in the southern Pacific Ocean about 3,701 km (2,300 mi) west of the mainland. Discovered by Dutch explorers on Easter Day, 1722, the island is famous for its hieroglyphic tablets and colossal heads carved from volcanic rock. The ancient remains, of unknown origin, have inspired many legends and theories.
Watch this video if you want to experience the approach by airplane to runway 10 in Easter Island. Click on the labels below this blog entry to read more about virtual island hopping, Easter Island and the Create Your Own Moai Competition!

More about Moais

This picture was taken at the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano. This place is the quarry where most of the sculptures (Moais) were carved. Source

Moai (pronounced MOH-EYE), the large stone statues for which Easter Island is world famous, were carved during a relatively short and intense burst of creative and productive megalithic activity. Archeologists now estimate that ceremonial site construction and statue carving took place largely between about AD 1100 and 1600 and may have consumed up to 25% of island-wide resources.

According to recent archaeological research 887 monolithic stone statues, called moai, have been inventoried on the island and in museum collections. This number is not final, however. The on-going statue survey continues to turn up new fragments, and mapping in Rano Raraku quarry has documented more unfinished statues than previously known. In addition, some statues incorporated into ceremonial site construction surely remain to be uncovered.

Although often identified as "heads", the statues actually are heads and complete torsos. Some upright moai, however, have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils. Most moai were carved out of a distinctive, compressed, easily-worked volcanic ash or tuff found at a single site called Rano Raraku. The quarry there seems to have been abandoned abruptly, with half-carved statues left in the rock. However, on closer examination the pattern of use and abandonment is more complex.

The most widely-accepted theory is that the statues were carved by the ancestors of the modern Polynesian inhabitants (Rapanui) at a time when the island was largely planted with trees and resources were plentiful, supporting a population of at least 10,000-15,000 native Rapanui. The majority of the statues were still standing when Jacob Roggeveen arrived in 1722. Captain James Cook also saw many standing statues when he landed on the island in 1774.

It's unclear why the islanders erected the moai and what their function was. A mystery to cherish all the way. Source

This is an interesting educational site where you read more about Easter Island and have a look at some pics.

Read more about Easter Island Click on the virtual island hopping label below this blog entry to find out more about this expedition to Easter Island. You can also join our Make Your Own Moai Statue Competition - see last blog entry.

Carol's Stuffed Moai (Easter Island Statue)

Do we have a winner? It certainly looks like it, but only time and Vicki will tell. This is Carol's stuffed moai (= easter island statue) - the first entry in our Create Your Own Easter Island Moai Competition, part of our world wide virtual island hopping project... Who's next? Click on the labels below this posting if you want to read more about this! You can email your very own moai pic to me: abspoel at gmail dot com - until October 15, 2007!

Easter Island - let's go there with Google Earth!

I don't know whether you've all installed Google Earth yet - if not, don't hesitate any longer and get yourself this great tool that is bound to give you hours of fun and a chronic lack of sleep (I did warn you!)
Why am I so excited again? Let me explain. First I used Google Maps with my laptop computer to have a closer look at Easter Island because I wanted to upload some nice pics (satellite/aerial imagery) for our virtual island hopping tour. However, the only thing you'll see with Google Maps is a tiny little green spot in a gigantic blue ocean - far away from the Chilean coast. You can't zoom in to the island, so Google Maps was not the right tool for me. Of course I wanted to see more details and some spectacular photos, so I started Google Earth on my desktop PC. And wow - you just have to do this yourselves in order to understand what I mean! You can have a look at every little piece of this island and you can click on loads of pics that visitors have made especially for your enjoyment! It is just like going there in your lazy chair - no travel costs, no exhausting long journeys, but the closest thing to the real experience: the sheer thrill of virtual island hopping!
Please also check the blogs of two of my cyberspace travel companions: Mike and Vicki and join us on our journey - it doesn't matter who you are or where you're coming from, all that matters is where we are going and that together we will finally get there! Yes, that is a philosophical statement too: I am a thoughtful person who easily gets lost in the labyrinths of my own mind... But where was I?
Okay, click on the virtual island hopping label below this post to see the first entry and reports about other island 'visits'. You can also take part in our create your own Easter Island statue competition - but you'll have to face strong opposition, because I will make my own statue with one of our XXL Dutch potatoes and I come from a land of artistic geniuses such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh. So: beat me!

Easter Island, here we come!

Okay, visitors from outer cyberspace! Mike asked me to continue our interesting virtual island hopping tour and who am I to say no? So... pack your backpacks and follow me on this next stage of our world-wide expedition. Let's all go to EASTER ISLAND!

Mike doesn't know this yet, but I have just decided that he will be my assistant tour guide... so he will help me with finding some interesting information and getting in touch with the locals (don't know whether there are any islanders out there with internet connection, but finding out about this is part of the fun.)

This is our mission: we need to find out as much as possible about this island's location, geography, history, culture, population (if any), natural environment and spiritual state. My most important questions are: did the message of Easter ever reach the hearts and souls of the islanders, does the island have a rich Christian heritage and is there still a community of Christ followers that we can get in touch with today? I need all the help I can get, so you are all invited to send me useful links, cool pics and email-addresses from all your friends and relatives living on Easter Island (I'm sure you will all have some contacts there...)

There is also a special competition connected to this adventurous expedition: I want you all to make a picture of your very own Easter Island Statue - made from a potato, a piece of clay or cabbage or any other useful material. Upload your picture on your own blog and leave a comment here so that I can have a look at your creative masterpiece. The best home-made Easter Island Statue will receive eternal glory in cyberspace (thanks for the correction, Vicki) and the winner will be announced at the end of our tour. The winner will be selected by Vicki (President and only member of the jury) - before October 15, 2007. I am not a member of the jury, because I want to participate in this competition myself and I intend to win!

Why do we go to Easter Island? Well, because Mike asked me to go there, but also because I just found out that Easter Island was found and named by its first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen. Yep, I come from a small country, but we did explore the entire globe in the past and I am planning to do it again. This time with the help of modern technology, some good blogger friends and nothing but peaceful intentions... Join me and start blogging about this exciting expedition and competition, so that we can make some waves and raise some attention for this virtual journey through cyberspace.

Click here (first island) and here (other visited islands) if you want to find out more about earlier stages of this tour!

Dig deeper for some interesting comments

Hi, this is your virtual island hopping tour guide speaking. Please take some time to read the interesting comments that I recently received on my postings about Lindisfarne / Holy Island. This blog really has two layers: don't pay too much attention to my superficial thoughts and ramblings, but please go one layer deeper if you want to read the real interesting comments from people who actually know what they are talking about. For instance because they really visited the islands that I am only daydreaming of. Enough said - go deeper, please - and feel free to leave some traces in the intriguing underground world of blog comments.

A mole, digging in a hole - Digging up my soul - Now going down, excavation - I and I in the sky - You make me feel like I can fly - So high, elevation...

Watch this clip: YouTube read as: U2-b (the goal is elevation...)

Marc's visit to Lindisfarne

Fellow Dutchman and king size blogger Marc van der Woude visited Lindisfarne back in July 2006. You can read his posting here and I have invited him to leave a comment on my blog with some spiritual insights and retrospectives - or something like that ;-) The floor is yours, Marc! And thanks for the pic that I've borrowed from you, knowing that it is far easier to get forgiveness than permission (click stolen pic to enlarge your view and my guilt.)

Blessings from Lindisfarne!

Today I received a friendly reply on my email message to the ‘The Open Gate’ community on Lindisfarne! I am happy to share this message from Graham Booth with you:

“The Open Gate retreat house and resource centre is a full time ministry in the business of re-digging the wells here. This is the ‘mother house’ of the internationally dispersed Community of Aidan & Hilda and we are planning to develop a larger Centre of Living Spirituality on this site. The island has a Heritage Centre and the Priory Museum that very fully describe and explain the heritage through the ages but our passion is to show people that the God of Aidan, Cuthbert and the other Celtic Saints is still alive and well. To develop a place where God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are seen to be the ‘Three of Limitless Love’, now in the C21st, and can still be experienced through the glory of creation, in a personal relationship of love and trust and in the context of a living community. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is a wonderful place, a ‘thin place’ where the gap between heaven and earth is indeed thin in the experience of many who come here. To find us why not visit our developing website?”
Blessings
Graham Booth, Warden ‘The Open Gate’
Holy Island, Berwick upon Tweed

Thank you very much for taking the time to write to me, Graham. May the Lord bless you, your wife Ruth and the Community of Aidan & Hilda. And of course I do hope to visit you one day!

Impressions from Lindisfarne

Diary of an Island reveals what it's like to live on Lindisfarne over a whole calender year - from the solitude of the mid winter to the bustle of high summer and back to Christmas again. Holy Island is one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. But it's also home to more than 150 islanders. Now you can get a glimpse of their lives for the first time... Source

Maybe I will buy this DVD - but I rather go to the island myself one day. Here are some clips from YouTube - just to give myself and my fellow virtual island hoppers some impressions! I like this one:

Cross on Lindisfarne

Click pic to enlarge - This picture I received today from Erica Kramer - one of my colleagues at Ark Boeken (the Christian publishing house in Amsterdam where I work). Erica visited Lindisfarne a couple of years ago and now I invite her to leave a comment and share some of her Lindisfarne experiences with us! Maybe she can also tell us why she took a picture of this cross. Erica?
By the way, I still need to get in touch with a Christian community living on this island - Mike gave me a link and some questions that I can ask them by e-mail. If anybody else has some questions or wants to share his or her own personal Lindinsfarne memories with us: please feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line abspoel at gmail dot com!

These are Mike's questions:
- How closely to the islanders interact with each other? Do they all know each other well?
- Describe what it is like to be on the island in a storm.

My own questions:
- What is left of the ancient Christian spirituality on Lindisfarne? Is it now a mixture of New Age beliefs or is it still grounded in the orthodox Christian faith?
- Do you hope / believe that the ancient wells of Christian spirituality (like Lindisfarn, Iona and Glastonbury) can be re-opened to give us living water again? If so, what does it take to make this happen?
- Do you have any insights you would like to share with us, like a thought-provoking quote or a personal testimony?

If you have a personal connection with Lindisfarne, because you visited this island as a pilgrim for instance, or if you just want to share your opinion about this - please do so by leaving a comment here! You can click on the virtual island hopping or Lindisfarne labels to read all related posts.

Lindisfarne / Holy Island

Click on the pic to enlarge! Mike from The Upper Room has kindly told me a little bit more about his visit to Lindisfarne - the next destination in my world-wide virtual island hopping tour. I also received a friendly comment from Phil (see also Phil & Sue) - please take some time to read both comments here.
Lindisfarne, an island that can be reached by causeway only when the tide is low, is an important centre of early Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England. In the next couple of weeks I want to learn more about this island and - if possible - get in touch with people who are actually living there in a Christian community. I have no idea whether these people will have access to the internet or not, but finding out about this is part of the fun!
If you want to ask some questions too, please feel free to drop me a line (mail to abspoel at gmail dot com or leave a comment below). I am looking forward to hearing from you!
You can use Google maps to have a look at the map and a satellite image of the island by clicking on this link. It is fun to see how the causeway suddenly disappears in the sea on the Google image. If you click on the combined map / satellite view option, you can follow this road all the way from the coast to the parking lot Mike is referring to in his comment.

View of the nave in the priory church with decorated pillars. Visit this site from English Heritage to find out more.

Re-opening the ancient wells in Europe

Please read Mike's posting about Lindisfarne and Glastonbury - the birthplaces of Christianity in England. I also ask your attention for the comment and prayer that I posted on Mike's blog.
I highly recommend Brian Doerksen's CD Holy God and Neal Morse's prog rock epic project Sola Scriptura and his folk cd Songs from the Highway. Both Christian musicians / poets are from the other side of the Atlantic (from my perspective), but they are clearly sending out a call for prayer for Europe.
Brian Doerksen has recorded a special devotional CD on which he shares his heart and ministry for this continent. Neal Morse also responds to God's calling to come to Europe and inspire God's people. He even wrote a song called Prayer for Germany - you can listen to an audio clip here.
Please let me know what you think and pray with me that God will re-open the ancient wells of living water in Europe.

Destination Lindisfarne

I hope you will all join me for the next stage of my world-wide virtual island hopping expedition! This time I want to visit the holy island of Lindisfarne, a tidal island off the north-east coast of England.
At the moment I know almost nothing about Lindisfarne, but that will surely change in the next weeks. Do you have any questions about this island that you want to ask? Please do let me know and I will try to get in touch with some people who are living on this island or who have been visiting it. You can read a bit more about Lindisfarne on Wikipedia. Mike, thanks for suggesting this island to me!
(Click pics to enlarge. You can also click on the virtual island hopping label below to read about other islands that I visited - well, sort of.)

A Message from Patmos!

Yes! I just received a reply from Jason Kefalas from the website Patmos Island!
Thanks for taking time to send me this email, Jason, it's great to hear from you and I really appreciate your help - please also read my first comment on this entry...

This is Jason's message from Patmos today - not a new revelation but an interesting read nonetheless,

Hi Paul,
sorry for the delay, things are picking up here for the tourist season and I have been thinking about this email and trying to see where to start from.
I would have to start from Patmos has become a tourist destination, tens of thousands of pilgrims show up with the cruise boats and visit the monastery of St. John and the cave of the Apocalypse, all in high speed, not having enough time to absorb our island.

Our island is dry, there is not enough water to go around so we import water from neighbouring islands, it has been dry as long as history can tell, its dry and rugged terrain is one of the reasons Patmos was a place of exile hence the arrival of St. John.

As for Christianity, all the locals are Greek Orthodox, things get very holy around Easter time but lost during the summer were locals work hard to gather as much money as they can to cover there expenses over the long winter, busy season is July and August for all the island, although some people are busy already.

To speak about the island of the Apocalypse would be like talking about The Book of Revelations, its very personal, you can read it a hundred times and have a different feeling at the end, different people either theologians or professors from around the globe come up with there own theory about what St.John wrote about, the truth is that St.John didn’t write a word, his student Prohoros wrote The Book of Revelations, St. John was in a daze and tried to explain as much as possible of his vision.

I could go on and on, but one things for sure the Apocalypse has a different meaning for every reader and so does the island it was written on. The only way to see what it means to you, is come and read it on the island it was written and see for yourself.

Jason Kefalas

Please click on this link to read all about my quest for information about the Greek island of Patmos!

A Message from Patmos to our Orthodox Brothers in the West

I came across this interesting website from the Orthodox Research Institute. In the first comment on this entry (see below) you can read the text of my email to this organisation. Now... let's wait and see if I can get an answer from them! In the meantime, feel free to let me know what you think of this next stage of my world-wide virtual island hopping tour. By the way, I could use some help with this quest. Please join me in trying to get in touch with people who live on Patmos or who have been there as a tourist. I haven't received any replies from this island yet, so your help with this will be highly appreciated!
Please click on the labels Patmos or Virtual Island Hopping to read all related posts.