2007

‘In Our Hands: Discovering Our Shared Ministry’

Do you feel enthused and fulfilled by your contribution to the ministry of your Unitarian community? Is your community a place where people come together in right relationship: a safe space where potential is nurtured, you can try new things, and it’s OK to make mistakes? Does your community have a clear sense of purpose and is this shared vision communicated to the wider world? Let’s discover anew the part that each of us can play in making our community come alive. Truly shared ministry invites and celebrates the gifts and potential of everyone in the community. We have asked our theme speakers to show us how such a culture might be developed, to offer us practical steps towards a collaborative approach, which will encourage, enable and empower every one of us to play our part.

Engagement Groups

A: ‘Diversity: Being Different Together’ with Mel Prideaux and Elizabeth Birtles

Diversity is more than being different. In this series of workshops we will explore what it means to live in our diverse world, to worship within a diverse congregation, and to navigate our own 'cross-cutting identities'. Within an engagement group setting we will provide participants with some practical and personal resources for exploring issues including ethnicity, sexuality, and religion. As well as providing training relevant to congregational life, and outreach to the wider community, the engagement group style will allow the content of the sessions to be affective as well as effective, and provide a supportive setting for personal growth and exploration.

B: ‘Listen That You May Live (Isaiah 55.3)’ with Margaret Kirk and Nancy Crumbine

Are we REALLY listening? This workshop, which will be run as an engagement group, challenges us to discover how good we are at the art of listening and to explore the different ways in which we do it. We shall explore a variety of approaches to listening: in dialogue, in conversation, in discussion meetings and also in meditation or prayer, through the practice of silence, stillness and contemplation. How does it feel not to be heard: at work, at home, in church, as a member of a minority group, in a relationship…? A workshop of fun and fellowship to deepen confidence, skill and understanding in our relationships with others.

C: ‘Dwelling in Possibility: The Secret Ministry of Writing’ with Margaret Hamer and Lindy Latham

Everyone can write. Everyone has something to say. But only rarely do we find the space and time to explore the world of possibilities that we can conjure up when we allow our imaginations the freedom to roam. This workshop is about discovery: of trying to catch something of the evanescent flow of life in words; of inventing new identities and revisiting old ones; of playing with shapes and forms and images; and of recognising your own distinctive voice. Some of the work will be solo, some collaborative. The atmosphere throughout will be respectful and supportive. Bring yourself, a pen and some paper, and don’t be frightened of taking risks!

D: Children’s Programme with Heather Foster and Glenys Baird