Workshops
Now that we can say Forum takes place ‘next month’, 14-16 March at The Hayes, anticipation is mounting. Very soon delegates will be asked to choose from an exciting array of workshop options (see cte.org.uk/Forum2022-workshops)
All workshops will explore a particular aspect of the theme of the Forum: Reconciling Hope, a broken Church for a broken world. It’s a wider range of options than we have ever before offered, including a workshop exploring reconciliation and interfaith, led by theologian and former President of the Methodist Conference, Inderjit Bhogal, and also reflecting this Forum’s collaboration with Christian Aid and Tearfund, who are leading workshops using a contextual bible study approach and reconciling racial and climate justice.
Indeed, justice runs strongly through the workshops, with one of CTE’s Presidents, Tedroy Powell, offering a workshop on reconciliation through the lens of decolonising the bible. Tessa Henry-Robinson, a Womanist Practical Theologian, one of our speakers (see cte.org.uk/Forum2022-speakers), looking at reconciliation through a womanist practical theological lens, and CTE’s incoming General Secretary, Mike Royal, helping us to reflect on reconciling social justice with social action. There are yet more – consult the workshops webpage to see the whole range of options. Delegates will soon be invited to choose two workshops and it’s a choice not easily made. Any tips on how to bi-locate, anyone?!
Worship
A smaller array of options face Forum delegates for morning worship on Wednesday morning where they can choose between Orthodox morning prayer, a Quaker meeting for worship based on silence, Catholic Mass, Pentecostal and Charismatic worship, worship in the style of the Iona Community and a structured morning prayer from the Order for Baptist Ministry Daily Office. Many delegates will use this time to take the opportunity of experiencing a style of worship new to them – one of the joys of the very diverse and broad gathering which is CTE’s Forum.
The marketplace
Forum is a cornucopia of experience – the huge diversity of people present, the workshops, the worship – quite apart from the content of the programme and the home groups. A key element of Forum is the marketplace (cte.org.uk/Forum2022-marketplace) which will run throughout Forum and be staffed on Tuesday afternoon. Here our Bodies in Association and other partner organisations will be sharing information and enthusiasm so that Forum delegates can discover new and perhaps unexpected ways of engaging ecumenically.