SOF Conference: Changing Tides Patti Whaley gives news of the forthcoming conference which will reflect on the 20 years in which the Sea of Faith has watched the retreat of religion and the swell of spirituality.
The 2004 Sea of Faith UK annual conference will mark the twentieth anniversary of the original Sea of Faith broadcast. What better time, then, to reflect on what has happened over the past twenty years, and to assess where radical theology is likely to be twenty years from now. And who better to host such a discussion than us? So, mark your calendars now for 22-24 July 2004!
In addition to our usual conference, Sea of Faith will be hosting a marketplace of 40 to 50 organisations involved in radical and progressive spirituality, including for example the Progressive Christianity Network, the Living Spirituality Network, Greenspirit, Catholics for a Changing Church, and the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. In addition to these and other lay spiritual groups, we will be inviting a range of sympathetic publishers, academic centres, retreat houses, and media contacts. We hope to attract at least 200 people in addition to the SoF conference participants.
The "normal" Sea of Faith annual conference will run from Thursday noon until Saturday morning; the marketplace participants will join us on Saturday morning to set up stalls and bookshops so that participants can browse, network, and explore how other groups are approaching progressive spirituality. In the afternoon we will host an additional plenary to explore whether the spirituality of the future will be found inside or outside of organised religion. We plan to feature opening statements by two contrasting speakers, followed by a moderated dialogue between the two speakers, and further questions from the floor. SoFers who attended the 2001 conference, and remember the masterful chairing of the final plenary by SoF NZ member Noel Cheer, will be pleased to know that Noel plans to attend the 2004 conference and will again act as our moderator. Surrounding this plenary dialogue will be a range of other activities, including ‘soapboxes', workshops, and artistic displays.
This additional event is a response to a number of different stimuli. For some time the SoF UK steering committee has been considering the idea of replacing our normal conference with a broader festival; by organising the marketplace in this way, we hope to attract both those who prefer the normal conference format and those who are interested in a broader mix of approaches and viewpoints. Secondly, Sea of Faith is a member of the Roundtable network, an association of Christian and other organisations which develop and promote contemporary expressions of spirituality. In 1995, the Roundtable held a one-day marketplace, titled "YEAST: an Ecumenical Forum of Christian Groups for Change," which was attended by some 30 organisations. Our marketplace will be the second YEAST event, and a large number of the original YEAST participants are already planning to come. Thirdly, in the aftermath of the Jeffrey John nomination and the ongoing tensions between the progressive and conservative wings within the Church of England, a number of organisations have expressed the need for a forum to share views and to demonstrate the collective range and vitality of progressive approaches to spirituality. By hosting this forum, we are not planning to push a "Sea of Faith orthodoxy" (whatever that might be!), but to enable a much wider discussion about common approaches and concerns among progressive and humanist spiritual groups.
We hope you're planning to come to the conference, and planning to stay for the extra Saturday activities. Because we are expecting a larger-than-average crowd, the conference will be at Sheffield University. Sheffield has completely revamped its plenary hall and sound system, and is able to offer very flexible arrangements for meals, use of space, and registration. Sheffield itself is now the home of the Centre for Radical Christianity and the Urban Theology Unit, while the Sheffield Academic Press produces such journals as Ecotheology, Political Theology and Feminist Theology. There will never be a better opportunity to see so many radical and progressive spiritual groups in one place - so make sure you don't miss it.