We had our Clergy Conference earlier this week – my eleventh since I managed one before I officially arrived.
Remarkable guest speakers – Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University and David Male with Alistair Warwick working on music.
Most obvious and encouraging was how we were as a group. Last year the empty chairs of losses from our clergy group were all too obvious. This year we had the stimulating presence of newly-appointed clergy and morale is significantly higher. Clergy Conference for us has always been very important. Our clergy don’t get to meet and encourage one another as often as we would like – the content of the Conference is important but that meeting even more so.
The theme of the Conference was Our aim for the conference is to help people to understand more clearly the interface between the
church and the secular world, and to discover how we can be more effective in bridging the gaps.
I offered three homilies in the worship