Autumn gathering report

SCM’s autumn gathering took place at Wrexham Methodist church on 20th-22nd November. It was well attended by folk from all over this fair land (and from Dublin!), and those from north of the border found that it isn’t as hard to get from Glasgow to North Wales as some may think!

We arrived from late on Friday night (after evening prayer) and were happy to find some pasta left from dinner. This was my first national SCM event but my fears of not knowing anybody were quickly dispelled by everyone being really welcoming! I laid out my sleeping bag on the floor and proceeded to chat for ages and almost forget to go to bed.

Morning Prayer on Saturday was led by Aileen and then we then moved down the road to Trinity Presbyterian Church for the day’s activities starting with Bible study on Christ the King. It was great to hear so many different views expressed in a Bible study. This is something I’ve loved about my brief involvement with SCM so far!

We then broke into small groups on writing, vocation and growing the movement.

Our next group session was with our speaker for the weekend, Richard Sharples. Richard is the minister of Wrexham Methodist church and the former warden of Iona abbey. He spoke to us about what it means to live as a dispersed community. He drew upon his experience of the Iona community to challenge us to think about what it means for SCM to live as a community. We also took some time to reflect on the five-fold rule of the Iona community.

After a wee break to explore Wrexham we congregated back at the Methodist church to eat lots of curry before the evening’s entertainment. We played 'theatre from scratch' which was hilarious before head across the road to the pub for continued chat before evening prayer. Evening prayer was led by Joe on the broad theme of ecology. Much tea was consumed and further chat was had.

On Sunday morning we joined Wrexham Methodist for worship before saying our goodbyes.

I’m relatively new to SCM and the gathering was a great chance to get to know what the movement is like at a national level. During the weekend I felt welcomed but also challenged and I look forward to seeing how the movement will develop over the coming year as a community.

Holly McGuigan, Glasgow SCM

You can find more information about the gathering including pictures here.