Posted Sunday 25 January 2009
Plans are well underway for the next Provincial Conference of the Scottish Episcopal Church which takes place from 2 to 4 October 2009 at the MacDonald Highland Resort, Aviemore. The theme of the conference is ‘Living Well – Proclaim, Discover, Respond’ and is based on the Biblical story in John 4:3-43 – the encounter between Jesus and a woman at a well. The Rt Rev Dr Bob Gillies, Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, chair of the Conference Planning Group, shared some of his visions for the conference.
What’s different about this next conference?
The difference from previous conferences is that this one will take place in a dedicated conference venue with good facilities all around us and staff that are well up to the task of supporting every delegate. The format will in many ways follow what we have done before in that we will have a principal speaker – Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Reading – and two supporting speakers: Ms Annabel Goldie, MSP and Rev Erik Cramb. Between them they will explore the main themes of our conference based on the Five Marks of Mission.
A large number of group leaders will be working at the conference with groups exploring different aspects of the Five Marks of Mission in relation to the biblical story in John’s Gospel about the woman meeting Jesus at the well, her going off to tell the Samaritan villagers about Jesus and then them coming to him and believing the story of his message.
Why this theme?
Stories about people are popular! This is a classic story about a human being – Jesus – who randomly meets a woman at a well. He’s thirsty, wants a drink and then the whole thing is turned upside down by him offering her the water of eternal life. There’s something very human in that and yet at the same time it is giving her and giving us something of what is only God’s to give – so we have the meeting of the ordinary and earthly and the heavenly and spiritual all in one narrative. It is a wonderful story to work with!
How do you envisage this experience of ‘encounter’ will develop during the conference?
A lot of what goes on at the conference will be in the small groups. Facilitators will be able to bring out different contributions that different people bring to their groups in relation to the bible story. I would like to see people coming to the conference almost like the woman who came to the well. She came to the well, met Jesus there and something very unexpected and very surprising happened to her and so I’d like to see the people come to the conference themselves and when they weren’t expecting it for something surprising to happen to them that will change their lives. Principally, that means an encounter – an encounter with Jesus. The woman wasn’t expecting this encounter and didn’t think it would take the form it did and I would like to think that the conference delegates will have that same sort of experience as she had and to really be living the biblical text in their own lives.
How does the Five Marks of Mission theme link to the key speakers?
Stephen Cottrell will be addressing the first three:
- proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God
- teach, baptise and nurture new believers
- respond to human need by loving service
Annabel Goldie will lead us in how to:
- strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
Erik Cramb will look at ways to:
- seek to transform unjust structures of society
If Anglicans do not fundamentally start thinking about what mission means and how they are going to apply mission and how mission applies to them then we are really losing the plot about what being a Christian is all about. Unless we are concerned about mission then we may as well pack up our bags and go home and become secular social workers.
An invitation to the conference has been sent to members of the Youth Network – what role will they play?
Young people will be absolutely crucial in the leadership of worship during the conference. They can bring a freshness to a conference like this that a middle aged person like me couldn’t even begin to envisage so we need them to take an active, leading part in the conference. One of the things I would like to see developed is that when people arrive at the conference the first thing that happens as they go in the main hall is that we begin with worship which the young people will already have begun in an empty hall, gradually building up an atmosphere so that as people arrive we begin the conference by launching in to something big that really gathers us all together. If the young people are there at that point leading in worship then everyone will see who is really at the helm of the conference. It is not people like me working in the background but it is people who are on the ground on the day taking this active part who are really setting the whole scene. That’s exactly what I want the young people to be doing and where I want them to be.
What are your expectations for the conference?
John’s Gospel is full of human passages like the encounter at the well and if people can begin to discover those for themselves and the impact they have on their own lives then we will have fulfilled our brief for the conference. There will of course be an element of surprise during the conference – just as there was in the story of the woman at the well.
What message do you want people to take away from the Conference?
I hope that people will carry on working with the skills and gifts they’ve been able to use in the conference, so that the really valuable thing from the conference in terms of people’s use of the gifts that they’ve been given will be in developing these in their own congregations and bringing extra life to their congregations. In other words, them doing what the woman herself did at the well so people in their own congregations are encountering Jesus where they are in their own particular local context.
Category: Bishops, Dioceses, Aberdeen & Orkney, General, Provincial Conference 2009
