Edinburgh cafe discussion on church and community

In terms of 'Exploring Anabaptism in Scotland', we have something cooking in central Edinburgh for Sunday 16th December, early afternoon.

It will be a small, friendly, informal cafe-style conversation. By which we mean it'll be in a cafe! We will have Mennonite guests from North America with us, too.

The meeting will take place in a community cafe not far from Waverley rail station at 1pm through to around 2.30pm or 3pm.

Appropriately enough, it will focus on the theme of 'church and community'

If you would like to join us, please email contact details to: simon.barrow@ekklesia.co.uk

The Canadian connection

As part of an Anabaptist Network visit, we are welcoming tow friends from the Mennonite Church Canada to Scotland (specifically Glasgow and Edinburgh) this week - to talk about collaboration and the future development of the Network, here and in other parts of these isles.

More to follow on this, another recent visit from Winnipeg, and also on the the brief visit to Glasgow next year of Anabaptist Network UK coordinator Stuart Murray Williams, who is also editor of the groundbreaking and well-regarded Paternoster Press 'After Christendom' series of books.

The green dove logo, incidentally, was developed by the Mennonite Church in North America.

Anabaptism and Disorganised Religion

We live in an era where people are inquisitive about spirituality, but hugely distrustful or even hostile towards ‘organised religion’, especially in its Christian forms.

But there are strong anti-institutional and non-hierarchical traditions in Christianity and beyond.

Can Anabaptists, Quakers, Nonconformists and loyal dissenters from within the major streams of Christianity offer a new vision of faith and an alternative to top-down religion?

Join the ‘vast minority’ at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh to discuss what a radical reformation in the Church has to offer - and how this relates to the wider demography of religious and belief-based change in a globalising world.

The event takes place on Thursday 9 August, from 5.45pm - 7pm, at St John’s (Venue 127), corner of Princes Street and Lothian Road, Edinburgh. £6.50 (£4.50 concessions).

Speakers: Ian Milligan, from Exploring Anabaptism in Scotland and the Bert community in Glasgow; Simon Barrow, co-director of Ekklesia, trstee for the Mennonite Centre Trust and former global mission secretary for Churches Together in Britain and Ireland; and Michael Marten, co-founder of the ‘Critical Religion’ research group at the University of Stirling. In partnership with the Iona Community (http://www.iona.org.uk/) and Ekklesia.

* Book now via the Hub

Join us on 9th August

Along with Ekklesia we are organising a conversation at the Edinburgh Festival of Spirituality and Peace between 5.30 - 6.45pm on Thursday 9 August 2012, at St John's Episcopal Church. This is at the junction of Princes Street and Lothian Road. The theme is 'Disorganised Religion'.

We live in an era in an age where people are inquisitive about spirituality, but distrustful or hostile towards "organised religion", especially in its Christian forms. But there are strong anti-institutional and non-hierarchical traditions in Christianity and beyond. Can Anabaptists, Quakers and nonconformists offer a new vision of faith and an alternative to top-down religion? Join the 'vast minority' to discuss what a radical reformation in the church has to offer.

Conversants: Ian Milligan (Exploring Anabaptism Scotland, Glasgow); Simon Barrow (Ekklesia, Edinburgh); Michael Marten ('Critical Religion', University of Stirling) and hopefully a woman from the Iona Community.

Our first 'cafe conversation'

The Anabaptist style of 'doing church' is less directed towards institutional expression, and more inclined towards different kinds of gathering and dispersal: the pattern seen in the Gospels.

So we in Exploring Anabaptism Scotland decided that it would be a good idea, following the example of Jesus' earliest followers in emphasising food and friendship around the table as a way of creating community, to hold a series of small "cafe conversations" rather than big speaker meetings - though we will be holding a 'Disorganised Religion' event as part of the Edinburgh Festival of Spirituality and Peace on 9 August 2012 - more on that in the sidebar (right), and to follow.

We will also be saying more about the "cafe conversations" idea as it evolves, and of course would welcome ideas about topics and venues. We are thinking about gatherings of no more than nine or ten people to start with, to keep it really conversational.

 The first cafe event took place at the Fruitmarket Gallery at lunchtime on Pentecost Sunday. There were six of us involved: Ian, Simon, Carla, Jamie, Donnie and Lesley Then there was an afternoon meeting with (another) Simon and Caroline at the less expected venue of the Whisky Society in Leith!

The emerging feeling is that it would be good to bring Anabaptist insights, reading and thinking into wider conversations in order to attract and engage a broader range of people. One of the significant questions we all face is Scotland's constitutional future, and what radical Christianity might have to say about a debate framed in terms which raise questions about identity, nation, church and other communities, social justice and much more.

Witness against nuclear weapons

Supporters of the new Exploring Anabaptism Scotland network joined members of Scottish churches at the 2012 Easter Witness for Peace at the Faslane at 12 noon on Saturday 16 April.

It was our first joint activity since deciding to 'formalise' the network in a frankly rather informal way!

The Catholic bishops in Scotland were represented at the act of witness for the first time.  He was joined by Rt Rev Alan McDonald, on behalf of the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, and Bruce Kent, Vice President of CND.

There was a shared act of worship outside the base, surrounded by barbed wire. Very symbolic. .  Music was led by members of the Wild Goose Resource Group.  The witness took place the day before Palm Sunday and involved a short procession with palm branches.

The event was organised by Scottish Clergy Against Nuclear Arms (SCANA). The Rev David McLachlan, Chair of Scottish Clergy Against Nuclear Arms, commented: “This will be an opportunity for Christians from different churches to meet together and to underline our belief that nuclear weapons are immoral and they should not be maintained or renewed.”

Welcome...

We are in the process of setting up this blog as an information source and exchange-point for those interested in Anabaptism, faithfully radical Christianity and 'disorganised religion' in Scotland.

The initial plans are for a series of "cafe conversations", around Edinburgh initially. There's also a discussion coming up on 9th August 2012 as part of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh. Plus there's an Anabaptist Study Group in Glasgow.

A number of us also took part (along with members of the Iona Community and people of faith from a variety of backgrounds) in the Easter Vigil and walk of witness at Faslane. So although things are just getting going, you can see that there's a lot happening already! We also have good friendships and links with the Mennonite Centre Trust and with the Anabaptist Network In Britain and Ireland. Have a look at some of the links on the right hand side of this page.

Meanwhile, watch this space... and leave us a message if you're so inclined.