‘While all is fresh in my mind,’ I said to myself, ‘I will write down impressions of my first Sea of Faith Conference, and I will begin at the end.’
For the final lunch I somehow found myself between two ENGLISH SPEAKING BOARD ladies, their organisation intending to occupy the comfortable University Halls of Residence we had just vacated.
These ladies were friendly enough for me to mistake them for SoFers until I noticed their badges.
‘What has your conference been working on?’ asked the lady on my right. Somewhat apologetically I replied: ‘Theology, Politics, Ritual, that sort of thing.’
A few moments of silence while this was considered, then: ‘I am interested in theology. For instance, it has occurred to me of late that the Virgin Mary probably got herself pregnant and as this was quite unacceptable she thought up a unique and obviously convincing story.’
We are off to a good start here, I realised! So I further encouraged our conversation by pointing out that the family tree of Jesus is traced back in the Bible through the male line, starting with God and Adam, Abraham through to King David and on to Joseph, husband of Mary. And from that mundane beginning we ate our meal talking about:
The supernatural ‘goings-on’ in the scriptures being untenable in today's world, but that they were valuable mythology and symbolism. That the time had come to take a new look at faiths, beliefs and ethics. A need to conjure up fresh visions that could enable us to lift our mood, give us some contentment, courage and tranquillity. Who knows, it may even be possible to discover that ‘elusive feel good factor’!
We talked about fewer people appearing to believe in a life after death and there seemed to be, at least, two reactions to this:
First — ‘If this life is all I am going to get, I must look after number one and make sure that I get as much enjoyment out of it as possible.’
And second — ‘If this life is all I am going to get, I must see that the privilege has been worthwhile for myself, my nearest and dearest and some others I meet along the way.’
At each Conference mealtime, and on many other occasions during these precious two days, I was able to discuss freely and openly (for the first time ever) my deepest beliefs and non-beliefs; to ask questions and share my hopes with like-minds. What a relief! But I did not expect my last in-depth discussion to be with an English Speaking Board-er.
Postscript
I wrote of this conversation 24 hours after the event. How much did we literally say to each other and how much constitutes what I personally want to express? I hope it is an honest representation — but 24 hours is a long time . . . and so was thirty some-thing years between the death of Jesus and the first written Gospel . . .