Our Regional Conference in Bristol.
The first of what we hope will be a new series of regional one-day conferences organised by NFN and hosted by local or area meetings took place at Bristol Redlands meeting house on Saturday October 28th. More than 50 Friends (with a variety of views) attended from Bristol and South-West England and were given a warm welcome by Celia Beeson on behalf of Redlands meeting. Hugh Rock from the NFN steering group chaired the two sessions which included small-group discussion and lively contributions from the floor.
I introduced the theme, Nontheism among Friends: Its Place in our Religious Society, looking first at the many ways in which Quakerism has changed over the centuries, then opening a discussion on what the current dialogue on nontheism means for Quaker language and practice. After a tea break we looked at the work of the Quaker Faith and Practice Revision Preparation Group and its efforts to ensure that we all escape the trap of seeing theism and nontheism in simplistic, binary and polarised terms. United in our belief in an open, inclusive Society, we concluded with reflection in meeting for worship.
The steering group is grateful to Redlands meeting for taking the initiative in inviting us, and publicising the event in the region. We hope other meetings in major Quaker centres such as York, Newcastle, Manchester and London will consider inviting us to join them in similar events. David Boulton
Steering Group member
Lucy
There are no local NFN groups operating at present but I will enquire whether we have any mechanism for putting people in touch with each other locally. It might be helpful to know if you are a member or attender at a local Quaker meeting and if so which one.
You can email me about this and you will now have my email address.
Trevor Bending (NFN steering group web person)
Hi, is there a Bristol,group I could find out more about as I would be I interested in linking up. Thanks
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Lucy
There are no local NFN groups operating at present but I will enquire whether we have any mechanism for putting people in touch with each other locally. It might be helpful to know if you are a member or attender at a local Quaker meeting and if so which one.
You can email me about this and you will now have my email address.
Trevor Bending (NFN steering group web person)
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