Last Wednesday over sixty chaplains and readers gathered on Zoom. They joined together as part of to hear from Christian Hofreiter, chaplain at CityKirche, Vienna on apologetics and ministry. The one-hour session both unpacked and applied our thinking about the Trinity and how that plays out in helping people inside and outside the church to name and explore religious experience. The event was part of the Diocesan events to mark Nicaea 1700.  

Bishops’ Study Gathering is a new learning initiative for our clergy and Readers. It looks into a topic of theology and ministry in a way which is stretching, relevant and accessible.

On November 6^th Bishop Graham Tomlin leads the next Gathering on apologetics in the public square. It will be a whole day event based in-person at Holy Trinity Brussels and accessible via Zoom.

Canon Celia Paterson, Diocesan Director of Reader Ministry attended and said: 

“One vital point to remember about the nature of ultimate reality is that God's love is at the core of everything.  In contrast we were told that Richard Dawkins's bleak vision of the nature of ultimate reality is as 'nothing but pitiless indifference'. What a contrast! Love against pitiless indifference!

It was a new idea to include clergy and readers together and I think this was a very successful event – I learned a lot!” 

Deacon Jonathan Halliwell writes:

"As I prepare my sermon for Trinity Sunday, this study event helped me to think about the relevance of the Nicene Creed both in our life together as Christians and in defending our faith in the public square (apologetics).

 I appreciated Christian's nuanced critique of the Western and Eastern understandings of the relations of the Trinity as two different ways of describing the same reality. I was inspired by the bold suggestion that at our baptism, we stand in the River Jordan alongside Jesus, invited into the communion of the divine persons and drawn into the life of the Trinity."