Contents
Articles
- Press Release (The One We Never Sent), David Boulton
- Our Dual Agenda, Don Cupitt
- Religion as a Human Creation?, John Shelby Spong
- From the Rituals Strand, Andy Kemp
- The Tale of Quark, Quiz and Quest: A Fable for Our Time, Andy Kemp
- From the Theology Strand: Mapping Exercise
- From the Politics Strand, David Boulton
- Conference Closing Address, John Shelby Spong
- Local Group News, Helen Fisher
Poetry
- Last Things, Barbara Ratcliffe
Editorial
EDITORIAL It has been gently pointed out by one or two friends that this, my first SoF Magazine in the editor’s chair, has come out a week or two late. But look at it another way: this issue is also doing duty as our 1995 Conference Report.
These reports have tended not to appear until we have already booked up for the following year’s gathering, so I invite you to welcome this publication as a Conference report six months early, rather than as a quarterly magazine a few weeks late!
As well as accounting in part for its lateness, the nature of this issue as a conference report also means that it is rather duller of appearance than I could have wished. The two splendid opening talks by Don Cupitt and Jack Spong defied the editor’s blue pencil, and between them — even without any seductive subheadings or enlargements of juicy quotes — take up half the available space. I also felt that Jack’s closing address to the conference deserved to be quoted in full — and pondered at leisure.
My apologies for having to omit many other items relating to the conference sent in both officially and unofficially. I am glad to say that some will appear in subsequent issues as pieces in their own right.
Meanwhile please note next year’s Annual Conference date: 25-27 July 1996. The theme for this our ninth conference will be ‘Creating Human Values’.