Local Group
Tees Valley & North East England
Contact: Michael Wright
Phone: 01642 851919
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
A group of about a dozen people have met regularly at Middlesbrough for the past 3 years as a book club we call “Journeyings”. We have read books by Jack Spong, Marcus Borg, J.D. Crossan, Karen Armstrong, Lloyd Geering, Tom Wright, Elaine Pagels, Keith Ward, and David Boulton. Some of us go to the meetings in Newcastle of “Breathing Space” and between us we are in touch with a variety of progressive avenues of exploration. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month, 2.30 - 4.30.p.m. at the Friends Meeting House, 131 Cambridge Road, Middlesbrough, TS 5 5HL.
We are a mixed collection of Christians on a journey - Quakers, Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics - and will welcome anyone wishing to explore their own journey of faith, from whatever place they are.
Latest news
Programme for 2012
Last updated on 3rd November, 2011
During 2011 we’ve worked through Armstrong’s “The Case of God” chapter by chapter. Some found it tough going, but it certainly raised a lot of thoughtful discussion and inter-play with different individuals’ engagement with their own congregation.
In 2012 we are exploring a different type of book altogether. It is “a Just Church” by Chris Howson. (Continuum. ISBN 978-1-4411-9992-8).
He is an Anglican priest who leads a Fresh Expressions church in Bradford based at Desmond Tutu House. This book explores fresh and practical ways of worship, spirituality, and a prophetic ministry in the context of a lively faith and practical action, on:
Safeguarding the environment
Enriching our local community
Non-violence as a way of life
Solidarity with those suffering throughout the world
Providing sanctuary to those who have suffered
Aiming to make poverty history
Cherishing and protecting civil liberties
We will not be seeking to replicate the ministry of Chris Howson and his members, but we shall hope to be inspired, challenged and encouraged to identify appropriate and practical roles for ourselves, in our own communities, that we may so far have failed to notice or to respond to.
I think we may be adding to this list some of the repercussions of Occupy London. The Meeting House is part of a collaboration of local churches which host a group of homeless asylum seekers sleeping overnight one night a week, and is very committed to Fair Trade and safeguarding the environment, and very much committed to non-violence and the other concerns of this book.
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