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Dear Friends, Every three years the Bishop calls all the clergy of the diocese together for a three-day conference at Swanwick in Derbyshire. The theme of the 2010 conference, held at the end of June, was Preaching into Poverty. As is often the case, I felt that 'the whole was greater than the sum of the parts' since a conference has many different aspects:
A conference is a great opportunity to talk with and be encouraged by other clergy working in different parts of the diocese –informally at meal-times etc. and in more formal “workshops” on various topics.
There was a great variety of styles of worship at the conference. Archbishop John Sentamu presided and preached at the closing Communion service. Other services were more informal. There were also opportunities for private prayer –for example a 'prayer labyrinth' had been set up in one of the conference halls.
There was some opportunity relaxing in the pleasant grounds of the conference centre, although there was not a lot of free time!
The highlight of the conference for me was a series of three challenging and inspiring Bible Studies by Walter Moberley (a theology lecturer at Durham University). He gave fresh insights into three Old Testament narrative accounts – the story of Job; the story of Cain and Abel and the story of Balaam’s ass. The second of these three (on the theme of 'Why is God so unfair?') was particularly thought-provoking!
The keynote lectures on the conference theme of 'Preaching into poverty' were given by an American professor Richard Lischer. His lectures were academic in tone, but challenging in their implications. He spoke of different types of ‘poverty’ including what he called 'the poverty of abundance' (the perils of consumerism in today’s society) and 'the poverty of loss' (facing suffering and death. Most helpfully, he outlined a pattern of preaching into a situation of material poverty in contemporary society. He said that such preaching should have four elements: 1. Proclaiming God’s love for the world and His concern for those (as he put it) “to whom the economy has not been kind”. 2. Exposing and confessing the sins of the world relating to wealth; greed etc. – e.g. focussing on Jesus’ parables concerning money. 3. Proposing and empowering a human response –helping people to deal with their situation in practical ways (although this was not spelt out in any detail). 4. Giving people hope from the good news of the Gospel. The theme of the conference was summed up by Archbishop Sentamu as he preached on the Magnificat – Mary’s great song of praise [LUKE 1:46-55] which speaks of God’s concern for the poor and of our need to be reverent, humble and spiritually hungry just as Mary was.
“My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour... His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation... He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts… but has lifted up the humble…
He has filled the hungry with good things, but has
sent the rich away empty...” Yours sincerely in Christ, Andrew J. Haslam |
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