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The
Church Hall not available for a week…..regular users inconvenienced…..casual
bookers turned away….
Even as the Hall Bookings
Secretary I saw in advance that Talking
Points was having an impact. Was it worth the effort? Did it raise the
profile of St Mary’s? Were those who attended stimulated, informed, perhaps
even disturbed? Did it attract people outside the St Mary’s congregation to
join in dialogue with us and see that Christianity continues to be relevant?
Did the speakers feel it was worth their while to brave crossing the river,
to persevere with the traffic jams in the Elephant & Castle, to penetrate
the depths of
Merton Park? Did the regular St Mary’s congregation feel refreshed by having
five nationally known speakers on the doorstep addressing difficult issues?
For those who weren’t
there:
Talking Points was five consecutive evenings where a guest speaker addressed
a broad issue; the audience was seated at tables; after the speaker had
concluded, the audience discussed the issues and submitted questions; and
the speaker addressed the questions for about an hour. Each evening had a
chairperson and those attending were refreshed by tea or coffee and
excellent biscuits.
The topics:
-
Multi faith society:
Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark
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Faith and science:
Richard Cheetham, Bishop of Kingston
-
Faith and education:
John Hall, Chief Education Officer for the Church of England
-
Faith and
relationships: Sue Burridge, Family Policy Advisor to the Church of
England
-
Faith and politics:
Simon Hughes,MP
Talking Points
must, in my view, be accounted a success. The hall sold out on three nights,
with latecomers being squeezed in, and there were near capacity attendances
on the other two. Several of the speakers were inspirational; an astonishing
range of questions was asked, with the Bishop of Kingston in particular
attracting such questions as:
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Why did God send Christ
to our planet?
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Is a godless theory of
life more elegant?
-
Can you doubt the
resurrection and still be a Christian?
-
Bishop, how do you
visualise God and Heaven?
And Tom Leary was much
commended by people for his contributions, as chairman, to the session on
relationships. A number of people were clearly unaware of his expertise in
this area.
Perhaps the most
extraordinary evening was the last. Simon Hughes got badly stuck in traffic.
But the capacity audience waited patiently (for a politician!). When he
arrived, he gave the most open, revealing, affirming address about
what faith meant to him. He said that his passions were his faith, politics
and sport – in that order. He talked about certain Christian colleagues of
his in Parliament as ”friends I would die for”. He was the very opposite of
the picture most of us have of politicians.
This success was mirrored
by the enthusiasm and response of the audiences. There were many newcomers
to St Mary’s; there were people who were so inspired by one evening that
they organised baby sitters so that they could come again – and bring their
husbands; there were teachers; there were schoolchildren and students; there
were people of other faiths, and people from neighbouring churches; and
there were many well known St Mary’s faces. At the end there were
congratulations all round to those who had organised the week long event,
and a great sense of satisfaction from all concerned.
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