The process of 'Building our own Theology' seemed to us to have much relevance to Sea of Faith — hence our offer to run four 'taster' workshops, adapting material developed by American Unitarian/Universalist pastor Richard Gilbert as 'Building Your Own Theology' (BYOT). The programme is 'designed to help individuals understand, develop and articulate their values' and 'to delve into explorations of their religious meaning systems'.
Gilbert's programme is meant to spread over ten sessions held at regular intervals. For the conference we refashioned the material to provide a common introduction and then four workshops sessions focusing on Human Nature, the Ultimate, Religious Experience, and Ethics.
Participants worked on these areas with the aid of some materials and exercises provided. There was sharing of individual views and experiences in small groups, and more general sharing, but in all cases the aim was for the process to help each of the participants to clarify a little further their thinking and awareness around the aspect before them. For that reason there is no corporate outcome to report. However, some brief sense of the workshops might be of interest to others.
The first workshop, on 'Human nature — some self-understanding' attempted to draw out people's beliefs and experiences concerning the various elements of human nature and the influences on them. This is one element of the whole BYOT process whereby people are intended to develop their personal 'credo' — loose leaf Bibles.
Theology is seen as continuous personal development — a cycle of experiencing and reflecting on experience.
Then comes the 'so what'? — new conceptualising, new types of inquiry and action, new insights into what is meaningful — a process which needs to be sustained in a conscious and deliberate way.
The second workshop, on the Ultimate, was one where the group 'jelled' quickly and well. We were able to consider beliefs we still cherished as well as those we had rejected, and our identity and relationship in and out of the religious group. The ultimate purpose was how we defined God/ultimate reality, and the means of communication with the 'ground of all being' — possibly the most popular term. What others said, what others felt was so often helpful, and the joy of finding those who saw things your way, made it all worthwhile.
The third morning workshop, on Religious Experience, examined examples of different kinds of experiences so as to tease out the kind of effects they had had on those concerned, and what it was that could be said to make them religious. In summary, the experiences had tended to reinforce, stimulate, excite, inspire, deepen understanding.
While their effect was life changing, the changes did not have to mean discontinuity with the past but were generally small, internal changes accompanied by powerful feelings. These were sometimes of a sense of belonging to life as a whole in a closer way. They differed qualitatively from the flash of insight which produced new inventions because of the way the individuals were affected by them. Their motivating force could fade. The unfinished task was to look at what recognition or value we might individually want to put on such experiences or how they might inform our own religious view.
The last workshop, on ethics, looked at what individuals saw as being of overriding importance and why, leading to an examination of the issue "Are we now to be good 'for nothing'? Or are there reasons which we can make powerful enough to sustain us in living towards our Good, according to our principles?" Time ran short for this, and participants were invited to follow up the Workshop with an exercise of their own: to write an exhortatory prayer by reworking that of St. Ignatius Loyola, omitting reference to God's will and reward; or to create such a prayer.
The structured, BYOT-type approach to personal religious development, and the preparation of worship material in more meaningful forms — both of these seemed worthwhile considering for further SoF activity.