I have received a few emails asking me where the 'usual' content of the VtV blog has gone. One went so far as to ask if the content had been cut because I was working instead of posting! Oddly, the reason for the paucity of posts has been due to the very opposite in that I have been away at a clergy conference and have been out and about visiting other places. I usually find that I blog when I've been rushing around and come back to do paperwork, reflect on what's going on and get a brew on!
The last week has seen me up in Swanwick (between Derby and Nottingham) enjoying some great fellowship in what has to have been the most beneficial and enjoyable conference I have attended to date (and I have few under the belt now). The sessions were fun, the offline conversations were encouraging, enlightening and extremely valuable and the whole event was handled lightly and those present were treated as adults (not always the case with the mandatory this, that and the other and the feeling you're being monitored has made some a little less relaxed).
High point: Meeting so many clergy who are out there doing the stuff and making a difference (and could have probably met even more).
Low point: A conversation with someone who had sat at a table for breakfast with a bunch of other clergy (all friends) engaged in conversation which excluded, and ignored, the alien in their midst from beginning to end, failing even to acknowledge the outsider's presence (and making them even more of an outsider!).
Fun point: Got to use the word 'Multiperspectivalism' (a lá John Frame) thanks to one of the sessions (never thought I'd do that again!!!)
Pax
3 comments:
Hope that you are back refreshed.
Sad that at a Clergy meeting, some ignored the inclusive community, but we are all human, sadly.
Look forward to reading more soon.
Cor, Vic - high praise indeed...
It is sad to feel ignored (she said, as one who was not named by name in the thanks at the end of the conference...)...I have always found that it is best to "jump in" with meal-table conversations. Either that, or take a book.
Get used to the not being named, it keeps you 'umble!
As a techie that's one of the common elements - you do the powerpoints, sound and everything else and then are frowned at because you haven't 'cleared your stuff away!' by those you have facilitated :-)
It was sad that this was the last conference for the excluded minister in that it made them feel quite unwanted and totally disregarded.
Still - an excellent week indeed and 'Thank You' for the part you played in it :-)
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