Second meeting (new venue): “Drinking from others’ wells”
Wednesday 4th November 2015
Our second meeting was at The Emporium, London Road, Brighton. Our speaker was again Chris McDermott who kindly stepped in when our original speaker was called away on an emergency (we hope he will be available to lead at a future meeting).
Starting with the passage from John, 14:6 where the writer puts these words into Jesus’ mouth: ... “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Is this a relational, confessional expression, not a literal one? - In the same way that we might say our partner is the most amazing person on this planet (to us) is this what the writer intends about Jesus? Wouldn’t others from different religious paths think or say the same about their take on life?
Being in a space, or position of epistemic humilty allows us to be uncertain and welcomes the attitude of mind that “this is what I believe, profoundly ... but I might be wrong” it also opens our minds to hearing other traditions and perspectives and ‘drinking from other wells’.
Chris led our thinking around being enriched by embracing other ways of thinking and understanding; of dual belonging.
We spent some time in conversation exploring questions such as:
Can actually we be enriched or nourished by the practice of drinking from other wells - by other traditions than your own? What has been your experience of this?
Is it possible to ‘authentically’ belong to more than one tradition?
One of the thoughts which seemed to resonate with most of us was that all (most?) traditions point to a way of love, that love is at the root of ‘the way’. Doing love - as Gretta Vosper’s book ‘With or without God’ sub-title says ‘how we live is more important than what we believe’.
Suggested books/links coming out if this meeting will be listed under our resources.