We need more 'disorganised religion'

Michael Marten from the Critical Religion Research Group at the University of Stirling was recently invited to be part of a public conversation at Edinburgh’s Festival of Spirituality and Peace on the theme ‘Disorganised Religion’.

He writes: "I was asked to offer comment on how I see understandings of ‘religion’ changing and to reflect on whether ‘disorganised religion’ is a helpful term to reflect on questions of religion.  The conversation was chaired by Ekklesia’s Simon Barrow, and Ian Milligan from Exploring Anabaptism in Scotland and the Bert community in Glasgow was the other discussant.  The event was sponsored by Ekklesia and the Iona Community." 

"This blog entry is a lightly-edited and slightly expanded version of my opening remarks, reflecting also some of the comments from the 60+ audience who came to the conversation; warm thanks to them for their insights," says Michael.  

Read the full blog here.

The faithful way to peace

That God is a God of just-peace not violence is the revelation of Christ and the real truth of Christianity, two leading church figures have said.

One was a Catholic and the other a Presbyterian. But the tenor of the conversation is one that many Anabaptists and those influenced by the Historic Peace Church tradition will resonate with.

The comments came as part of a conversation entitled ‘The Spirituality and Practice of Peace in a World of War’, held at St John’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh on 22 August 2012.

The participants in the Festival of Peace and Spirituality conversation were Fr John Dear, a Catholic priest and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and the Rev Kathy Galloway, head of Christian Aid Scotland and a former leader of the Iona Community. It was chaired by Brian Larkin, coordinator of the Peace and Justice Centre at St John's.

More here.

More from the Festival

Here''s coming up this week at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, where Exploring Anabaptism Scotland recently shared a conversation platform on the topic of Disorganised Religion. We will be reporting more on that shortly...

Festival of Spirituality and Peace

Exploring Anabaptism in Scotland is involved in the 2012 Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh, through the public conversation  Disorganised Religion (Thursday 9th August, 5.45pm at St John's Church, Princes Street). There's much else to look out for, too...

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.