Sea of Faith, Ipswich

2012 first meetings 18th january, 20th february

2012-01-19T15:21:00.002Z

A series of lecture-discussions with Dr Mike King has been arranged by Suffolk Inter Faith Resource (SIFRE). the title is "Faith and the origins of the Secular Mind" and the dates are 18th Jan, 15th Feb, 21st March and 18th April. Many of the group attended the first of these and plan to attend the others. Densely packed with ideas and information and leading to fascinating discussion, the first one was exhausting but stimulating. Meanwhile we will hold our usual home meetings. The next one will be at Cherrytrees and we have the Rev Simon Brown coming to speak to us on China. Simon Brown spends a lot of time teaching English in China and will speak to us about the western faiths in China. At the following meeting, in March, date and venue to be arranged, we plan to discuss the results from theYou-Gov Cambridge survey of religious beliefs and practices, researched in April and May 2011.

meetings september october november 2011

2011-09-02T08:02:00.002Z

Our next meeting, on Friday 9th September is in Holbrook. this is our "Conference debrief" for those of us who attended it to tell the rest of us about it, Sofia certainly makes it all sound fascinating. We are changing round the topics for the following two meetings. On Thursday 13th October we plan to talk about the differences between the holistic Eastern philosophies and religions and the Western faiths and religions. After our experiences with our speaker on Qigong and Taoism , John Millar, the plain sitting in the pews of my experience seemed curiously different from the physical involvement of Qigong. John Millar will be with us again, as our guest. In November, Date and venue not yet fixed, we plan to hold our "poetry evening" when we hope we will each bring a poem that has been important to ourselves, in expressing "the beyond", "something understood". the numinous, to each one of us. And for those who do not have that experience, something that enriches the here.

meeting Friday 9th September 2011

2011-08-04T21:19:00.003Z

The next meetng of the Ipswich SoF group will be on Friday 9th September, 7.30pm and will be in Lower Holbrook. We hope to hear about the Conference which a number of people attended. If you were there please come and tell us about it. If you cannot come, it would be good to if you could email your memories and ideas before 9th. We had a really lovely party in July, overlooking the river Orwell at Pin Mill, amazing weather , food, wine, conversation. It was hard to leave! For the following 2 meetings, in October and November. There is first a plan to hold a "poetry evening"when we will each try to bring a poem that is important to us. This idea has grown from John Nurser's sending us the articleby Mark Oakley in which he quoted from a poem by Les Murray "God at the end of prose, Somehow be our poem" The next idea grows from our meeting with John Millar speaking on Taoism and Qigong. To explore why the Eastern hPilosophies and Religions are more holistic than the Western Faiths. It is always good to have input on idea and speakers We are in touch with the Norwich Group of the SoF, since the Conference, and hope to organise a shared meeting on a Saturday.

meeting thursday 16th June 2011. Speaker on Taoism

2011-04-17T21:20:00.002Z

The June meeting of the Ipswich Sea of Faith Group will be on Thursday 16th June at 7.30 pm. It will be held in the Suffolk Interfaith Resource Centre on the University Campus , Ipswich. We have a speaker on Taoism and Qigong, John Millar. This follows the May meeting (Wednesday 4th) when we have Jnanmitra speaking on Buddhism. All are welcome to these meetings.

Meeting Wednesday 4th May 2011 Buddhism

2011-03-14T17:35:00.004Z

The May meeting of the Ipswich Sea of Faith Group will be on Wednesday 4th May, 7.30 pm and will beheld in the Suffolk Interfaith Resource room . The Long Street Building, University Campus Suffolk, Ipswich IP4 1QJ Jnanamitra, who is SIFRE faiths officer and a Buddhist will talk to us about her life as a practising Buddhist.

NB this venue may change as SIFRE may be relocated within the College.

For info nearer the time email charlottelstewart@talktalk.net

next meeting Tuesday 15th March 2011 7.30pm

2011-02-27T22:51:00.002Z

The next meeting of the Ipswich Sea of Faith Group will be on tuesday 15th March at 7.30pm . for Information about where please email charlotte stewart charlottelstewart@talktalk.net The last meeting was very well attended, we need more chairs! We discussed several topics including the Christianity Explored course which 2 members of the group are following. the feeling seemed to be that although there appears to be open discussion, there is an assumption of belief in the divinity of Jesus that is not challenged. A lively email discussion has followed the meeting looking at the myths and history of Jesus. There will not be a meeting in April, but an early May meeting is expected.

meeting Tuesday 15th February 2011

2011-01-12T19:14:00.003Z

The next meeting of the Ipswich Sea of Faith Group will be on Tuesday 15th February at 7.30pm Topic to be arranged. Venue will be announced nearer the time. At our last meeting we heard from a member whose Church is Pentecostal. It was such a good account, we learnt such a lot and the discussion was lively and informed. Watch this space for more info! to contact Charlotte Stewart, convenor charlottelstewart@talktalk.net

meeting tuesday 11th January 2011

2010-12-31T12:01:00.003Z

The next meeting is on Tuesday 11th January 2011 7.30 pm and will be in Chelsworth. If you need directions please contact Charlotte Stewart on charlottelstewart@talktalk.net A new memeber of the group who is a member of a Pentecostal Church, is going to speak to us about his church and pentecostalism. Judging by video links that I have seen, it is very lively indeed. Our last meeting in December "Bah! Humbug!" was very well attended, quite a few people sat on very uncomfortable kitchen stools. However the discussion and conversation, aided by plenty of more than slightly Christmassy food and drink, was lively and interesting. John Gamlin gave us a good account of Stephen Hawkin's latest book. We celebrated by listening to an anarchic carol and arguing about the likelihood of God. No firm conclusion was reached which is why we have to go on meeting! I wish you all a very happy 2011 and thanks for attendance and feedback for 2010.

meeting tuesday 14th december - Bah Humbug to Christmas

2010-11-22T17:43:00.004Z

Our last meeting of this year will be on Tuesday 14th December , 7.30 pm, at Charlotte's The Theme is "Bah Humbug to Christmas" . We seemed to have, at our last meeting, some idea that Christmas as now celebrated is not what it might be, given its origins. If we know what they are. Is your planning for this great festival completely overwhelmed by Tesco, or are you able to proceed through Advent to Christmas in a mood of thoughtful anticipation? If so -how? And if not- why not? Have you anything in writings, pictures ,ideas, songs, food- to support your feelings about Christmas? Positive , negative, clever, silly. If you are able to climb out from under the mound of wrapping paper and unwritten Christmas cards, do join us for some slightly un Christmassy fare and definitely Christmas discussion. At our last meeting we heard John Nurser's paper "Divine rights, Droits de seigneur" ( John was unable to be with us) I am still receiving responses to this paper and I hope John will be able to talk to us at a later date. A big stumbling block was the meaning of "Divine" and then the difficulty of what rights we might any of us have that are not laid down by law, that are above and beyond man's selfish decisions. Much food for thought. A Number of us attended the Suffolk Theology Forum evening with John Bell of the Iona Community , speaking on "Spirituality in a secular culture" . I hope we will discuss this on 14th December.

John Nurser speaks to us, Tuesday 2 November

2010-10-21T16:45:00.004Z

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 2nd November 2010 at 7.30 pm in Chelsworth. John Nurser, who is an Anglican Priest retired in Sudbury, and who has written on conscience, human rights and the EU, is going to speak to us. His subject is : "Divine rights/ Droits de Seigneur" This is an invitation to a special evening. The December meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 14th December. We have yet to fix a place. At our last meeting we discussed the Conference topic of "Religion and Social Justice" Exclusion and discrimination seem to be part and parcel of declaring a belief. The world religions all declare an ethic of loving one's neighbour or treating the stranger as a brother. Still we seem to close into our goups and view the outsider with suspicion. Seeing the wider view, trying to even out the inequalities, it is clear that we feel fairly helpless in the face of climate change, population growth, financial chicanery. We function better as individuals, caring for each other, trying to do our best for the environment. And then we looked nearer to home and considered the small ways we can change things, sharing journeys, recycling, the charities we support. An idea: That those of us who receive the winter fuel allowance and do not need it could pass it on. And that became our resolution, in a nicely Sea of Faith way, that, individually and privately we would find a charitable use for that sum if we could. We hope this idea will appeal to those not at the meeting. The Suffolk Inter Faith Resource topic for this year is "belonging" and a forum on 12th October discussed discrimination, particularly in relation to Gypsies and Travellers, but also looking at our behaviousr in other areas, disability, religion, colour, sexuality. How difficult it is to be without prejudice in some direction.

meeting TUESDAY 5th October 2010

2010-09-10T13:28:00.010Z

We have changed the day for the next 2 meetings to see whether that proves to be easier for some people. The next meeting is on TUESDAY 5th October at 7.30pm and will be at Cherrytrees Lower Holbrook. We have no particular topic for this meeting except that it would be good to hear about the Conference. We don't seem to remain silent for long in the absence of an agenda! There is a great deal going on theologically at the moment. Stephen Hawking and the response to his new book. The visit of the Pope, a pastor planning to burn the Koran. And many more hot topics. Some of us are involved with a series of discussions on "communities together" through Suffolk Interfaith Resource-SIFRE. The first was on the myths and stories of our faiths. Our November SoF meeting will be on TUESDAY 2ND NOVEMBER at Chelsworth. John Nurser is going to lead this meeting, which is very much something to look forward to. Our party at Chelsworth on 3rd September was a really good evening, Kit and Cara gave us a lovely welcome. Conversation, company, food, drink, comfortable chairs! It was hard to leave. For information about venues or other things please contact Charlotte Stewart

meeting Friday 3rd September 2010, Shared meal

2010-08-20T09:12:00.003Z

Our next meeting will be on Friday 3rd September, 7.30pm at Chelsworth, and will be a shared meal. This is our late summer party. We have had several really interesting and challenging evenings lately and it will be good to have some feedback. And also to hear about the Conference. Our last meeting, in July, was very well attended, 18 of us, at the Suffolk Interfaith REsource Centre in Ipswich. Our speaker was the Revd Malcolm Rogers, who is an Evengelical Priest.He gave us a good acccount of his beliefs. We were quite restrained in our questioning of him, I should like to know why?! compared to our fairly rigorous interrogation of other speakers. At the September meeting we will set some dates for next year and discuss who we might like to have to speak to us. If you would like information about the September meeting please email Charlotte Stewart at sofn.ipswich@gmail.com

Monday 19th July 2010 meeting "Evangelicalism"

2010-07-09T20:15:00.004Z

On Monday 19th July the Ipswich SoF Group will meet in the Suffolk Interfaith Resource room in Ipswich. Our Speaker will be the Revd Malcolm Rogers speaking on Evangelicalism. This follows our very interesting meeting in June when the Revd Stephen Brian spoke to us on "Alpha". We had a very thorough assessment of the beginnings of Alpha and its place in the Church of England. It was hard to feel that Alpha is in any way an answer to the great questions. It certainly brought home the value of our SoF open discussiona We plan to have a late summer shared meal evening in Chelsworth on Friday 3rd September. For more information about meetings please contact Charlote Stewart at the email address sofn.ipswich@googlemail.com or 01473 328039

Assessing Alpha 17th June 2010 Revd. Stephen Brian

2010-06-16T13:34:00.004Z

The meeting on Thursday 17th June will be held at the SIFRE (Suffolk Interfaith Resource) Centre. Longstreet Building,University College Suffolk, Ipswich IP4 1QJ telephone -01473 233447- at 7.30pm Stephen Brian will speak on "Assessing Alpha". The meeting is open to all and free. For more information please contact Charlotte Stewart at sofn.ipswich@gmail.com or 01473 328039. The following meeting will also be at the SIFRE Centre, on Monday 19th July, when the Revd Malcolm Rogers will speak on Evangelicalism. After that we hope to have a late summer evening where we could look at Karen Armstrongs "The case for God" Several of our group went to her talk at Friends' House in Euston on 9th June. We will find a date at the June meeting.

Coming out- of Evangelicalism, from 26th April

2010-05-14T06:39:00.002Z

Terence and Maggie Cooper talked about their own experiences of evangelicalism. First they looked at the characteristics of what they as children and young people were introduced to. These included taking the Bible literally as the inspired word of God with no opportunity for exploring other ways of thinking about it. Secondly by using their own early experiences they tried to address the question of what makes people stay in the evangelical tradition. What might be people’s deepest needs and in what ways does an evangelical church purport to meet those needs? They looked at a little of Freud’s views on religion and attempted to generate some discussion. Maggie indicated that she was a decade into her journey away from evangelicalism; she no longer attended a church and has needed time to rethink her views about God, the church and the Bible. Terence had begun his move rather more recently and was still in membership of a local church.

Thursday 13th May 2010 meeting

2010-05-08T17:16:00.002Z

Our next meeting will be in Chelsworth on Thursday 13th May at 7.30pm. For directions please email: sofn.ipswich@gmail.com . We plan to watch the "beautiful minds" programme about Jocelyn Bell Burnell. At our last meeting Terence and Maggie Cooper talked to us about their journey from Evengelicalism towards The Sea of Faith, was very interesting and moving.

about future meetings. April, May ,June ,July

2010-04-12T17:07:00.007Z

The dates and programmes of our next four meetings are:- April, Monday 26th "coming out---from Evangelicalism" Terence and Maggie Cooper. At Cherrytrees, Lower Holbrook. May, Thursday 13th, "beautiful minds," looking at the recent television programme about Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who was one of the speakers at last years SoF Conference on "Science and Raligion" June,Thursday 17th. Stephen Brian will talk to us about "Alpha" Stephen has recently written: "Assessing Alpha:Does the Alpha Course Explore the Meaning of Life?" July, Monday 19th. Malcolm Rogers will talk about Evangelicalism. Malcolm writes that while he is at ease in the evangelical world, he has also been influenced by Russian Orthodoxy. Venues of the last three to be announced later. We meet at 7.30 pm Our last meeting, discussing the Elegiac Stanza by Wordsworth inspired by a painting of Peele Castle in a storm by George Beaumont, was really good. A wide ranging discussion and lots of ideas to mull over. If you are interested in our meetings you can contact us through our email address.

Thursday 25th March 2010 , 7.30pm meeting

2010-03-10T08:28:00.012Z

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 25th March , 7.30 pm at Charlotte Stewart's. Richard will lead us using Wordsworth's Elegiac Stanza, inspired by a painting of Peele Castle. It contains the line quoted at the Charter for Compassion discussion, " a deep distress hath humanised my soul" At the last meeting ,on 25th February, we discussed the Islamic Conference at Essex University, the Charter for Compassion, and ideas of religious fundamentalism and evangelical Christianity. It was very productive, instructive and interesting. Everyone had something to add to the discussion. At the April meeting (MONDAY 26th April), Terence and Maggie Cooper are going to lead us through their journey from Evangelical Christianity to the Sea of Faith.Their talk is entitled COMING OUT....OF EVANGELICALISM this promises to be a good evening for us all. We were very pleased to welcome some new members to our group,the discussions get ever more interesting. If you need directions to meetings or any other information, please contact us at our group email address.

Thursday 24th February 2010 , 7.30pm .meeting

2010-02-01T18:29:00.003Z

Our discussion of Karen Armstrong's Charter for Compassion made a very good evening. Lots of insights, constructive criticism and very helpful and useful ideas. A difficult topic in our selfish society. A great idea,support it if you can. Richard quoted a Hymn by Faber "There is a wideness in God's Mercy Like the wideness of the sea..." It doesn't seem necessary to believe in God to see the relevance of that. The meeting on 24th February, will be at Charlotte Stewart's, get in touch if you need directions. Before then some of us will have attended the day conference at Essex University on "Does God Exist?" organised by the University Islamic Society, and that will surely be a good starting point for discussion. There is also a meeting of the Ipswich Forum of Faiths which David and Charlotte will attend, and that too is likely to produce some discussion possibilities. The following month, on Thursday 24th March when we meet- venue not yet decided- Richard will lead us using Wordsworths Elegiac Stanza, suggested by a painting of Peele Castle by George Beaumont. It contains the line he quoted in response to the Charter for Compassion discussion "A deep distress hath humanised my soul" Find the poem on the internet , It will be included in the next SoF letter to the group.

Thursday 21 January 2010 meeting.7.30pm Chelsworth.

2009-12-15T22:51:00.003Z

The Ipswich Group of SoF will meet on Thursday 21st January 2010, 7.30pm at Chelsworth. For information and directions please email sofn.ipswich@gmail.com We plan to discuss Karen Armstrong's Charter for Compassion. You can find out about it at : www.charterforcompassion.org . Helena Woddis will lead the discussion. Our last meeting was pretty packed and the dicussion covered a wide scope of topics, including responses to the evening with Bishop Spong and his book "Eternal Life: a new vision" and to our talk by Brian Tora on the matters leading up to the credit crunch, and passing through climate change, population control,Christmas,Church services and more. Look forward to seeing some of you in the New Year