Monday, 7 September 2009

Restoring Prayer

This last weekend there was a Very Special Event at Ridley - the Simeon Centre's first conference - 'Restoring Prayer' - ready for birth after a two years gestation.

The marquee returned to the Ridley lawn and between Thursday and Sunday over 300 delegates gathered, hearing addresses from (amongst others) Eugene Peterson, the author of 'The Message', a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible, and Alistair McGrath, one of the few theologians that Richard Dawkins will lower himself to talk to. A varied programme of worship, addresses and seminars had been put together by a dedicated team from Ridley's Simeon Centre, and was supported by Ridley staff (my tutor was Eugene's chaffeur!) and students past and present.

As one of about 60 volunteers I got to go to anything I wanted to for free, and it's not often you get to hear the names on your bookshelf speak, so when I wasn't on duty setting things up or tearing them down I turned up to as much as I could and started to practice my note taking technique ready for the resumption of college in 3 weeks time!

Attention for me now turns to the small matter of writing a sermon for next Sunday when I return to my placement at Histon, and I start to think about the report and presentation on the placement which I need to get out of the way before term starts.

The conference organisers now have a chance to catch their breath, and possibly a little sleep.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hmm...A serious hang up on Richard Dawkins....