Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Assembly
The Baptist Assembly's over for another year, next year Plymouth (which doesn't begin with "B").
Plenty of blog comment (Andy has a bit of list of who has commented so far).
Overall it was a good time on Bournemouth, staying in a nice place (even if the staff struggled to do maths on more than one occasion when asked to split a bill), good weather (Tim has a great pic of the beach), and hanging out with good people.

In terms of the event itself, I always quite like these things. My boss, Pat Took did a great job speaking on the final morning on being "a Radical Community", and Kingsley Appiagyei spoke passionately about the need for renew and revival in the UK (seemed to me to be without some of the "revivalist" hype).

Could it be better? Probably. The average attender remains white and grey haired, but this is shifting for the better (and it is a strange way to spend May bank holiday!). But overall there seems to me to be a more positive "vibe" around the Union. I was glad to hear Kingsley's remarks about rejecting cynicism, a trap we can all fall into. And we need to take seriously the call to prayer. It's always going to be difficult to do an event for a diverse range of churches that make up the Union, but this is a good step in the right direction I think.


Some photos from this year and last are on Flickr (not mine!).

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