Thursday, November 17, 2011
a Drane-ing day
All go here at Uniting College, with a wonderful first day with John and Olive Fleming Drane.
First up, and throughout the whole day, Olive worked in our post-graduate programme, exploring spirituality2go and everyday life rituals. The invitation was for folk to engage with Olive in a way that enabled them to begin to design their own rituals for life, ministry and mission. Judging by the feedback and group engagement when I popped in, it looked to be a really energising day.
In the afternoon, John taught two sessions.
First was a session on the relationship between Scripture and human experience. I asked John to stretch us and he uncorked some of his most recent thinking, reflecting on the nature of Scripture and the implications for mission and ministry. It engaged head and body, with a real challenge about what it means to teach and lead.
Second was a session on emerging church in Scotland, with John presenting his research over the last few years. His commission from the Church of Scotland was to explore what is church from the ground up, from the perspective of new communities. And then to trace the implications for the inherited church. This session connected at many levels, in the telling of stories of new forms of church in Scotland, in the implications for structures and denominations and in what good research practice looks like.
Both of John’s sessions attracted a really diverse group of people – candidates, ministers, post-graduate students, denominational staff.
It made for a hectic day personally, but a really rich day, exactly where I want Uniting College to be – talking mission and leadership, spirituality and life – in ways that connect with many different folk from across the span of the church.
Well done John and Olive for being such human, interesting and connective people.
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