Nicolier, Howard Thompson, myself, and as an invited guest a prospective
minister, Frits Bot from Holland. (See photos on page 296.)
We were fortunate enough also to have several wives joining us: Josephine
Appelgren, Susan Cowley, Gretchen Keith, Jessica McCardell and Jeanne
Nicolier. At the last moment Debra Thompson had to cancel her trip,
something we felt very sorry for.
We did not have a theme but rather a sphere in which we could explore
things like ritual, outreach and counselling, all in the sense of becoming better
at touching people’s hearts and thereby opening ways for them to trust the
Lord and follow Him. The European scene is to a large extent something we
see in the rest of the Western world more and more – an independence of
thought that absolutely does not mean a rejection of spirituality but demands
of us to communicate in such a way that what we have to offer will key in to
their hearts and their needs. Here is a list of the presentations as described by
each presenter:
• Göran Appelgren: Times They Are A-Changin’ – reaching new people
and our young
• Frits Bot: The present state of the New Church in Holland
• Alan Cowley: A concept about modelling our worship services
according to the stages of repentance – not all within one service, but
from week to week – and how the whole service, including the music
and ritual, could reflect this each week.
• Peter Devassy: The challenge of presenting New Church ideas in the
hostile, dogmatic Christian environment of the state of Kerala in India
• David Gaffney: William Bruce’s “Matthew” – an effective way I have
evolved of presenting this to a mixed “audience”
• Olaf Hauptmann: Apologetics and keeping young people in the church
• Brian Keith: How the Lord Preserves Freedom, Yet Still Leads – by
Bending. Approaching the question of how much the Lord pushes us
while still respecting our freedom.
• Ethan McCardell: Empathy – connected to “tools for healing”
• Alain Nicolier: On traditions in the church and using the story about the
disposal of the ashes of sacrifices on the altar of the tabernacle – all this
in relation to the spread of the Second Advent dynamic in Europe and
the need to have a complete new approach and letting go of old models
that are obsolete and barriers to reach out to people in Europe
• Howard Thompson: Understanding Spiritual Harm
Needless to say we had very interesting conversations and learned a lot
from each other.
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