A major four-day conference held by the Scottish Episcopal Church at Heriot Watt University from 2-5 September has been hailed a great success.   Over 300 delegates from across Scotland took part in the conference,  which was led by three key-note speakers - The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams; the Rt Rev John Miller, former Moderator of the Church of Scotland and Minister in Castlemilk, Glasgow and Rev Kathy Galloway, Leader of the Iona Community.

The Primus: Bishop Bruce Cameron

Each of the speakers reflected the theme of the conference which was based on the miracle of the loaves and fishes (Mark 6 :31-44) and was titled 'Our Offering, God's Blessing'.  Rev Kathy Galloway set the scene of where we are in Scotland today by considering many of the political, economic and cultural issues  which influence our everyday lives.  Dr Rowan Williams delivered a powerful and challenging biblical exposition of the miracle of the loaves and fishes.  Rev John Miller spoke through the moving stories of three of his parishioners.

The keynote addresses were a focus for the work done by the delegates in their small base groups.  Led by facilitators, trained in contextual bible study, these groups provided continuity as they worked through the conference theme and sought ways to take all they were learning back to their own congregations.  Delegates also took part in a wide range of activities on offer during the conference, including a reflective walk through a replica of the 'Chartres' Labyrinth and many workshops covering a variety of interests eg Faith and Politics, Religion and Technology, Money and the Church.

Archbishop Rowan Williams

The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev Bruce Cameron, says "We were privileged to have a good mixture of three excellent speakers who looked at our theme in different ways and who stimulated, moved and challenged us all.  There was a richness of diversity in our delegates who interacted through base groups, activities and sharing meals together and who welcomed the opportunity to take part in creative and imaginative worship based on our church liturgies.  People seemed to go away with a sense of enjoyment and feeling challenged and inspired to share their experience within their local situation and it is my hope that they will go back to their own situations feeling more confident in their Christian discipleship".

The conference in Edinburgh was the first official visit to Scotland for Dr Rowan Williams since becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury and he said "this is a Church, Country and City that I know quite well and it has been a real treat to be with people here."  He praised the conference by saying "what has impressed me about the conference is that it allowed the agenda to be led to some extent by people in groups so that they could move things forward as they wished, not just have a set of things imposed on them.  The conference had a very clear and coherent theme and the way the groups worked was exactly as it should be - feeding into the main theme but also letting people go off on useful tangents"