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faith as a human creation..."
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STOP PRESS: Non-SOF event
HowTheLightGetsIn2013, the world's largest philosophy and music festival
Hay-on-Wye, Thursday 23 May-Sunday 2 June, 2013
Hear Don Cupitt speak! Friday, 31 May, 3.00 pm
Hear Don Cupitt in panel discussion! Saturday, 1 June, 10.30 am
...and again on another panel! Saturday, 1 June, 5.30 pm
Get your 10% 'Sea of Faith' discount by using the promotional booking code 'philo123' when you book
2013 Sea of Faith Conferences
United Kingdom
United Kingdom 2013: For the Common Good!
London UK 2013: Secular Religion?
Overseas
Australia 2013: Sex & Religion!
New Zealand 2013: Tell Me the New, New Story!
United Kingdom Sea of Faith National Conference 2013
23 – 25 July 2013 at the University of Leicester
“For the Common Good”
The title 'For the Common Good' invites us to look beyond humanly created religions and ideologies to shared ethics and action.
Professor Tim Jackson, a British ecological economist and Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Surrey
Alom Shaha, author of 'The Young Atheist's Handbook'
Chris Howson, author of 'A Just Church' and Anglican Chaplain to the University of Sunderland
Full conference details and booking forms can be found on the conference website
Sea of Faith London Conference 2013
“Secular Religion?”
Saturday 21st September 2013
St John's Church, Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TY
11.00am to 5.00pm
Main Speakers:
Stephen Batchelor
Don Cupitt
Richard Holloway
Don Cupitt and Richard Holloway
Cupitt on Holloway: 'I first met Richard Holloway in about 1990....'
Holloway on Cupitt: '...Don Cupitt was the man I was too frightened to read....'
Stephen Batchelor
Christopher Hitchens on Batchelor's spiritual autobiography: 'In this honest and serious book....'
For Venue and booking details, click this link, print leaflet and post booking form
Want more information?
Click this link for full details of the London UK 2013: Secular Religion? Conference.
A Reasonable Faith
re-issued
David Boulton's original 'Sea of Faith' booklet,
'A Reasonable Faith: Introducing the Sea of Faith Network',
has been re-issued as a free e-book in PDF format.
Sea of Faith Oxford Conference 2012
Saturday 10 November 2011
“Education in Good Faith?”
Friends' Meeting House, Oxford
Do Free Schools, Academies and Faith Schools offer to help, or to hinder the development of children's life-skills for a just, open and free society?
To read a comprehensive report of the conference, click this link:
EDUCATION-IN GOOD FAITH?To download this Report in PDF form, click the following link:
EDUCATION-IN GOOD FAITH? PDF documentStop Press.
The Rev David Patterson, a Trustee of the Sea of Faith Network (UK), speaks on Channel 4, 7.55pm, 22 November: 'What can Religion learn from Atheism?'
David has been a Vicar in the Church of England for forty years, yet throughout that time he has never believed in the existence of God or in an afterlife. David wants Christians to learn from Atheists to reject the idea of a supernatural deity beyond our universe, and instead focus on living the best lives we can in the here and now.
You can watch his short talk on the following link (click the next line):
David Patterson: 'What can Religion learn from Atheism?'
A non-SOFN Event
Empathy and Compassion in Society: A Conference for the Public Sector including Professionals in Education, Health and Social Care
Friday 23rd November 2012
Karen Armstrong and Richard Layard were two of an expert world-renowned panel of speakers.
You can now watch videos of this very successful Conference on the following Link:
www.compassioninsociety.org
Anne Ashworth's new book.
“Not as the Crow Flies”
Journal and Selected Poems
SOF's latest publication is Not as the Crow Flies: Journal and Selected Poems by Anne Ashworth, which was launched at the SOF Conference in Leicester this year. The book can be ordered from bookshops, online or by post from:
SOF Hon Treasurer
Stephen Williams
157 Russell Road, Moseley,
BIRMINGHAM B13 8RR
United Kingdom Sea of Faith National Conference 2012
Friday 13 – Sunday 15 July 2012 at the University of Leicester
“Work and Worth”
The subject of this year’s conference was 'Work and Worth'.
Conference Speakers were:
Don Cupitt, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Professor Femi Oyebode
(Professor of Psychiatry , University of Birmingham)
Professor Harriet Bradley (Professor of Sociology, University of Bristol)
Martin Morgan , Consultant Occupational Therapist
Tony Windross, Vicar, Hythe, Kent; author of The Thoughtful Guide to Faith
Edited transcripts can be found in the current issue of Sofia magazine (September no.105)
SoFiC Day Conference 2012
Sea of Faith in the Churches (SoFiC) is a special interest group within the Sea of Faith Network that explores the interface between church and SoF, and is open to anyone who is interested.
It provides a meeting place for those SOF members (and their friends) who find themselves in the midst of, or hovering on the edge of, the Christian Church
This was held on Saturday 10 March 2012 Kensington Unitarians' Essex Church, London W8 4RT
BEING CHURCH - on a rising tide?
Brian Mountford, Vicar, University Church, Oxford; Fellow, St Hilda's College; author of Christian Atheist: Belonging without Believing
Tony Windross, Vicar, Hythe, Kent; author of The Thoughtful Guide to Faith
Richard Hall, former Curate, Holy Trinity, Eastbourne; emeritus Head of Religion, King Edward VI School, Southampton.
Click this link for full Conference details
Edited transcripts can be found in the current issue of Sofia magazine (June no.104)
2011 Conference Audio Recordings
Audio Recordings of the 2011 Annual Conference ('Brain, Belief and Behaviour') and the 2011 London Conference ('Lust for Certainty') are now available from Chris Avis. Purchasing details
Edited transcripts of three talks can be downloaded from the following links:
- Don't Narrow the Scope by Professor Gwen Griffith-Dickson
- Neuroeverything? by Professor Colin Blakemore
- Beliefs and Behaviour by Professor Alan Allport
Sea of Faith Banbury Day Conference 2011
Saturday 26 November 2011
“In Conversation with Tony Windross” Making Religion Accessible
This one-day seminar was led by Tony Windross, author of the book The Thoughtful Guide to Faith and the Why Bother? leaflets. It was organised by the North Oxfordshire local Sea of Faith group
Sea of Faith Oxford Conference 2011
Saturday 19 November 2011
“Reinventing Religion”
Friends' Meeting House, 43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW
Our principal speakers were Don Cupitt, Katy Jennison and Mohammad Talib
Read a short piece by Katy Jennison 'Invented Gods'
Then read Katy's talk at the Conference 'Reinventing Religion: the Neo-Pagan Experience'
Sea of Faith National Conference 2011
Friday 22 – Sunday 24 July 2011
“Brain, Belief and Behaviour”
Principal speakers were: Professor Colin Blakemore, Professor Gwen Griffith-Dickson, Professor Alan Allport and Don Cupitt
Audio CDs of all speakers' plenary talks and workshops are now available to purchase. Purchasing details
Sea of Faith London Conference 2011
In association with the philosophers’ magazine and markvernon.com
Saturday 26 March 2011
‘The Lust for Certainty’
Speakers were: Doctor Kenan Malik, David Boulton, Doctor Julian Baggini and Doctor Mark Vernon
Full speakers' details can be found on the conference website.
A transcript of Kenan Malik's talk is now available on the following link http://www.kenanmalik.com/lectures/moral_certainty.html
A 4-disc audio CD set of the conference is now available. Cost per set of 4 discs including P&P is £11 from:
Chris Avis, 37 Clifton Road, Exeter EX1 2BN
Please make your cheque payable to C. Avis, not SoF.
Alternatively, save on stationery and stamp by using Paypal to send £11 to Chris Avis. For Chris Avis' email address to input with your payment on the PayPal site, please contact the Webmaster.
Agenda for Faith
re-issued
Stephen Mitchell's original 'Sea of Faith' book, Agenda for Faith, has been re-issued as a free e-book with a new introduction.
SOF on Youtube
Take a look at our eclectic collection of on-line audio and video programmes. They mainly focus on the non-realist philosophy of Don Cupitt which informs the Sea of Faith (SoF) network. Some programmes, while not originating with SoF, or being directly about SoF, are relevant and throw some light on the philosophical and religious outlook of many members of the Sea of Faith network.
Dinah Livingstone's book is still available.
“Poetic Tales”
an essay in four chapters
If we regard God or gods and the whole supernatural realm as the rich product of the human imagination, what value can such 'poetic tales' still have for us, once we have discarded the supernatural? The surprising answer is as much as ever. Not only does everyone, atheist or otherwise, need some theology, without which so much of our history and culture remains baffling, but when taken and sifted with what Coleridge called poetic faith, those tales are found to contain treasures of wisdom.
Poetic Tales is subtitled 'Logosofia Down to Earth'. For more than twenty years Coleridge planned a huge work to be called Logosophia but never actually got round to it. This book is not, of course, the one Coleridge would have written. Although its scope has a dash of Coleridgean ambition, it is more a train of thought than a treatise, combining a defence of poetry, a natural theology (with nothing supernatural about it) and a quest for kindness. More...
Sofia - The Sea of Faith magazine
Read editorial and articles from the latest edition of Sofia magazine.
Sofia is the magazine of the Sea of Faith Network (UK) and is published quarterly. It is free to all members of the UK network but non-members can also subscribe to the magazine. Further details...
SOF Book
The new SOF book This Life on Earth, edited by Dinah Livingstone, was published at the SOF Conference in Leicester 2009 (21st-23rd July, 2009).
The book contains 176 pages with 38 contributors, 19 women and 19 men. It costs £9.50. Orders by post may be sent to:
Sea of Faith, 3 Belle Grove Place, Spital Tongues, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4LH.
Please send a cheque for £11 (to include postage) made out to 'Sea of Faith'.
This Life on Earth is also available online from Amazon.co.uk
Local Group Blogs...
Sea of Faith has a network of local groups throughout the UK. Everyone is welcome to attend a local group - you don't have to be a member of the national network. Many of the groups have their own publicity sites where you can see their schedule of activities. Click HERE to see the list of groups and links to their sites.
Please contact the webmaster if you have any comments. Contact details of other SoF officers
can be found on the Trustees page
New to SOF? Then start here with our new introduction and FAQ
Sea of Faith
See the Film!
The Film of the TV series of the book is available as a DVD set at a cost of £12.50 (inc p&p) More...
