SCM Easter Gathering 2010

A new event for SCM
The Easter Gathering was a new event for SCM, replacing the usual spring term gathering weekend with a longer event. There was an emphasis on creativity, community and sharing experience and skills. Participants came from Wrexham, Southampton, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Bristol to spend four days together at the Crossways Centre, a converted URC chapel near Northampton.

A creative and participatory programme
An online Wiki space was created which participants could use to plan the programme in advance, suggest activities and take responsibility for planning sessions. A varied and flexible programme was put together in this participatory way, framed by morning and evening prayer, and shared meals. The timetable was stuck up on big post-it notes in the common room, and was changed and added to as the event unfolded.

A taste of what happened
Thematic sessions included a discussion on Nonviolence, a conversation about co-operatives, and a session on different Creeds and statements of belief, which led to an open and honest discussion about our beliefs and how we articulate them, both as individuals and as a movement.

Easter ran as a theme throughout the event, with discussions on resurrection and a showing of the film Son of Man, a dramatic South African interpretation of Jesus’ life and death. We also looked at sustainable lifestyles and interpretations of wealth, through a workshop based on research by Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam.

The programme also had room for creative and reflective elements. We had an inspiring and confidence-building Gospel singing workshop, a session on Lectio Divina, introducing people to a prayerful way of reading scripture, and a workshop on Guerrilla art which touched on how we can creatively challenge consumerism.

Building community
One participant summed up the gathering by saying “I will take away with me a strong sense of how much a good community can achieve”. The sense of community was built through shared meals, conversations around the table, and collective tasks like cooking, washing up and making bread. We also spent time volunteering in the Crossways Centre grounds, weeding the flower beds and laying a new path to the Peace Garden.

Photos from the Easter Gathering can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scm_uk/