Pilgrim Reception Centre and Glaston Centre Founders
Founders are vital to any organisation. Not only because they initiate and establish something, but also because their energy, vision and impact lives on in the organisation, and it’s work. This is true even when the founder may have moved onto other things or died.
We in the Glaston Centre want to honour our two founders, Barry Taylor and Elisabeth Tham. We will forever be grateful to both of them for having such powerful and beautiful visions. They created and established the Pilgrim Reception Centre and the Glaston Centre. Two organisations that we love dearly. Their contribution to Glastonbury is both powerful and significant. Thank you Barry and Elisabeth.
Both Barry and Elisabeth are deeply spiritual people. They are nourished from the deep source of energy that guides Glastonbury. They are relentlessly inspired to help Glastonbury emerge as the great united centre for spiritual transformation and pilgrimage that is its destiny. Their commitment to the spiritual unity of Glastonbury lives on in our work today.
As current directors of the Glaston Centre, we are proud, privileged and honoured to continue the work that you set in motion many years ago. We are proud to honour and recognise you both, as our founders, and have chosen to share our love, respect and admiration for you through an interview. In so doing, others can experience you, each speaking in your own words below:
We in the Glaston Centre want to honour our two founders, Barry Taylor and Elisabeth Tham. We will forever be grateful to both of them for having such powerful and beautiful visions. They created and established the Pilgrim Reception Centre and the Glaston Centre. Two organisations that we love dearly. Their contribution to Glastonbury is both powerful and significant. Thank you Barry and Elisabeth.
Both Barry and Elisabeth are deeply spiritual people. They are nourished from the deep source of energy that guides Glastonbury. They are relentlessly inspired to help Glastonbury emerge as the great united centre for spiritual transformation and pilgrimage that is its destiny. Their commitment to the spiritual unity of Glastonbury lives on in our work today.
As current directors of the Glaston Centre, we are proud, privileged and honoured to continue the work that you set in motion many years ago. We are proud to honour and recognise you both, as our founders, and have chosen to share our love, respect and admiration for you through an interview. In so doing, others can experience you, each speaking in your own words below:
Barry TaylorInterview with Barry Taylor, January 2022
What inspired and motivated you to set up the Glaston Centre Limited (GCL)? The Pilgrim Reception Centre (PRC) was being run as an Association, not a legal entity. The banking, insurance, leases and other legal matters were in the personal name of Elisabeth Tham who had set up and was running the PRC. As the activities of the PRC expanded, it became apparent that this was not an ideal arrangement, so it was decided to set up a suitable company to hold the PRC. I set up the Glaston Centre Limited (GCL) as a company limited by guarantee. What is your vision for GCL? The initiating vision was to absorb the PRC and run it as an operating division of GCL. At the same time, I hoped it would diversify its activities and work closely with the Glastonbury Trust in actively helping Glastonbury to develop its full potential as a great centre of spiritual transformation. This to be done by providing support to individuals starting appropriate new projects, with initial funding and on-going management support. I also wanted it to initiate new projects where these were seen to be needed. When did you set it up and what was your journey like at the very beginning? I set it up in 2015. Initially it was simply run as the parent company of the PRC, later it began to expand into other activities. What happened next? The early days of GCL were far from straight forward. It became apparent that the PRC was not generating sufficient cash to enable it to pay the rent and run the PRC, so it was decided to close the High Street Reception Centre. Negotiations with the Library of Avalon led to them giving the PRC a table in the library, and a volunteer was able to be in the library during opening hours, to continue the work of the PRC. We also negotiated a subsidised rent from the Glastonbury Trust for an office on the first floor of 8 Market Place. Useful for keeping records, holding meetings and interviewing potential volunteers and directors. Morgana West developed new ventures and then John Capper joined as a director and has looked after financial matters ever since. Later Dr Lynne Sedgmore CBE joined and in 2022 three other new directors joined. We actively sought ways of making the GCL financially sustainable. Initially there was not an income stream sufficient to support the necessary minimum staff. I negotiated a source of funding to run for five years, Lynne and John wrote a strong business plan which our generous sponsors agreed to fund. This gave GCL time to develop itself as a sustainable entity, which it is now doing. More recently, the Town Council granted one of the ground floor rooms to the PRC in the newly opened Glastonbury Information Centre. This was an excellent arrangement as the services of the PRC are now more publicly available in a prominent position. We now work closely with the conventional Visitor Information Centre, which shares the premises. With the Covid lockdown income dropped drastically, but fortunately the GCL had the ongoing funding support from our supportive sponsors to keep it going. What services does GCL provide today? With the easing of lockdown restrictions, there has been a rapid expansion in the work of GCL. It is now working closely with Glastonbury Trust and is actively engaged in all aspects of our original vision. The most recent development is that income is being provided from the Town Council and income is beginning to flow from other sources. We can now be reasonably confident that GCL is sustainable for the future. What have you learnt from your experiences as founder of GCL? Working with GCL has confirmed one of the most important lessons of working in Glastonbury. Patience! In my experience, if the original vision is inspired by the over-lighting energy of Glastonbury, and if this vision is held with a consistent tenacity of purpose, despite any apparent indications that it is not working, eventually the vision will be brought into material reality. When inspired, if you accept and commit to the call to create something new, the Cosmos recognises that a channel has been opened and begins the search to find, and to inspire the people and resources that will be needed to help the new venture to flourish. This may take considerable time, and will only happen when the right people and resources are available; and the timing is right for the venture. And it will only happen if the vision has been held consistently throughout an extended period of time. |
Elisabeth Tham Interview with Elisabeth Tham, January 2022
What inspired and motivated you to set up the Pilgrim Reception Centre (PRC)? For some years I had been pondering over the mystery and tragedy of how followers of different religions easily become hostile towards those who are not on their particular path, not to forget all the wars that have been fought over religion. I wondered whether there was a way to heal it, and what role I might play in a solution! Several attempts to set up a pilgrim reception in Glastonbury during the last few years had come to nothing. Apart from the feeling of many people that Glastonbury needed a special place for pilgrims, many alternative shop keepers complained about spending more time answering questions about Glastonbury than selling their goods. So when another opportunity came, I decided to make my second attempt. What was your vision for the PRC? The vision of restoring Glastonbury as a centre of pilgrimage and spiritual learning and transformation formed the core of my vision. To welcome visiting and local pilgrims, whatever their spiritual path or religion. To help them find what they were looking for in terms of sacred places, printed information, and informed individuals. We placed special emphasis on sitting and listening to newly arrived visitors/pilgrims, especially those who sometimes got overwhelmed by the Glastonbury energies. When did you set it up and what was journey like at the very beginning? I started tentatively in September of 2005. It turned out to be a very uphill and challenging journey with the first 3 core members suddenly leaving the following year. Then followed a long search for new members, some of them very short lived. In total there were 10 adverts in the Oracle. In 2007 the PRC was finally properly set up. Who supported and helped you to establish and run the PRC? Morgana West, Jane Sanders, Pauline Ross, Ingelise Jensen and Barry Taylor were there at the very beginning. Morgana and Pauline had replied to the 10th, and final advert, in the Oracle newsletter. It felt like a miracle as they added the right energy and enthusiasm to get it all rolling. Tony Kennish, Vanessa Poulton and Caroline Ritherden made contributions. John Capper joined in 2010, then a few years later Dr Lynne Sedgmore CBE became involved. The PRC is now in a prominent position in the Glastonbury Information Centre and is a successful and significant part of what Glastonbury offers to visitors and pilgrims from all over the world. What services does PRC provide? Welcoming and helping visiting and local pilgrims. Supplying printed booklets of the sacred history and places in Glastonbury. Listing all the various spiritual paths being followed in Glastonbury. Holding the Unity Candle which has become a powerful symbol of Glastonbury. Organising talks and events, and training new volunteers. It also hosts all the information for The Glastonbury Way 7.5 mile walk and the PRC was a key player in the pilgrimage aspect of this walk. What have you learnt from your experiences as founder of the PRC? The power of the extraordinary way in which the project was guided and rescued in the last minute by circumstances, synchronicity, and the right people turning up on a number of occasions when I was ready to give up. I remember starting to doubt whether we would ever find the right members during the first year. I had to contend with the need to move to new more expensive premises, personality problems, dramas and rising costs to maintain the centre. This phenomena of help arriving in the last minute, at crucial times, continued after I left in 2012. So my main discovery was to experience for myself that if the vision is held by somebody or a group of people, and the over arching angel wants it to happen it does. |