Welcome

This programme completes the year's theme of Stewardship. Our intention has been to provide opportunities to reflect and re-evaluate our relationship with the material world.

We've noticed that inviting our speakers to frame their contribution within a theme both supports and constrains their approach. Some, such as Tracy Curran, David Nash, Wendy Smith and Alida Schieffelin-Gersie, have chosen to offer sessions which explicitly address the questions and possibilities of stewardship through poetry, story-making and self expression. Others, such as June Boyce-Tilman's session on Unconventional Wisdom, provide an intriguing and challenging perspective while Kim Nataraja will draw on the traditions of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. And we remain so fortunate to have contributions from Dom Laurence Freeman and Father Timothy Radcliffe, speakers whose reputation for wisdom and insight are such that, for many people, the chance to hear them first hand is perhaps more important than the topic on which they speak.

Support and constraint - the two parameters that are provided by any meaningful faith tradition. Just as we need wise words and inspiration to help us grown in faith and awareness, so too we need discipline and boundaries to prevent either spiritual atrophy or else an overly eclectic path. Wise stewardship embodies these parameters too, accepting and making grateful use of the earth's bounty whilst recognising and working within its constraints.

We hope that the events in our programme will further your appreciation of stewardship and inspire your spiritual journey.