March to June 2014 update of activities
Tuesday 8th July 2014
So far this year we have been examining the implications of being honest about Church in the light of being honest about Jesus. The review of PCN’s Eight Points gave us the opportunity to think about what we were happy to say was our approach to Christian life in all its senses. This led us to focus on what positively we wished to develop in the life of our local churches. We looked in turn at our responses to Adrian Alker’s Jesus-inspired expectation of Church: being passionate about Justice, Compassion, Love and Healing; being Prophetic and Inclusive; being Holy and mediating the Sacred; blessing all of life and thus being a blessing to the community; offering a thoughtful journey of questioning and discovering. As a result of our discussion, we have recently looked at how church services might be re-formed to reflect a progressive Christian approach. We have used Gretta Vosper’s book ‘With or Without God: Why the way we live is more important than what we believe’ as a starting point to focus on different elements within religious gatherings. In April we considered the role of music and, in May, thought about non-biblical readings. Our June meeting will consider the role of prayer, especially for the non-theist. We are looking forward to Gretta Vosper’s visit to Oxford on 26-28 September. We enjoy welcoming new members as they hear about us; we recently accepted an invitation to provide a stall at our local ecumenical partnership’s annual celebration event.