Anglican-Boatrockers

"Conversations are Important."

Conversations occur around England throughout the year,
if you would like to find out if there is one near you
Email: secretary@anglican-boatrockers.net

Some of the topics that have arisen in Conversations:

   An ecclesiastical landscape:
   How will it look in 20 years time? What will its spires indicate?
   Fewer people are crossing 'the threshold' - but is our ecclesiology about
   crossing a threshold?
   Is it not about individual witnessing at work?
   Some people will never cross the threshold as the church currently operates.

   Yet are not the landscape 'traces' of our Christian heritage important
   for the story they tell?
   Can tiny old village church buildings become 'sacred spaces' that allow
   the whole community to share a spiritual journey?
   There's still something of kingdom value about a church operating as
   a corporate body in a local community/parish.
   This can be enhanced when churches work together across denominational    boundaries.

   Richness: Indeed the richness of humanity - how often do we dismiss as
   boring, or difficult someone who later reveals God to us in a totally unexpected    way?
   Thus humanity leads us into - Spirituality:
   Not necessarily coterminous with 'Church'.
   The institutional framework n.b. ordination may hinder human spirituality.
   Complexity: A vicar who can be pastorally discerning on the one hand may
   allow his own bias to silence members of the congregation and even the    congregation as a whole.
   We noted the complex organisation of 'Local Church'
   ie dynamic of congregation (with its own corporate story), priest, and
   the individual stories of members of congregation and indeed the priest/s.
   Congregation is both whole and fragmented cf light as waves and particles.
   Within this complexity is profound - Diversity/Difference/Destruction!
   Demonstrated within each of us; in our relationships, and in our structures.

   Listening and being heard:
   Attending to the questions rather than presuming we have the answers.
   This could be said to reflect a postmodern ethos rather than the modern.
   Connecting with daily life - the experience of shame in having had
   to use a liturgy that didn't connect.
   Consultation that engages directly with the people concerned,
   rather than about those people.
   The happening of 'conversation' makes a statement about
   the value and mattering of one another.
   Vulnerability - Allowing ourselves and others to connect with the feelings within.
   Creating a healthy balance between the Anglican/Methodist predeliction to    'services' re public worship and the more intimate group dynamic.