Melting Pot Notes
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Melting Pot 55 - Climate and Extinction
Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 55 - 14 February 2021 The Progressive Christian Network Britain has commissioned a series of short films under the title ‘made of stories’. The films are about six minutes long, and for this discussion, we will be using ‘Holly’s story’ - it can be found at https://madeofstories.uk/holly/. You can read the introductory notes for Climate and Extinction, as well as the Climate and Extinction Notes. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 54 - 10 January 2021
You can read the introductory notes for People Like Us?, as well as the notes from the meeting for People Like Us? Notes Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 53 - Christmas 2020 How well do you know your Bible? Here are are twenty questions to sort out the Bible stories from the popular tradition. You can read the Bible Quiz Questions and also the Bible Quiz Answers. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 52 - December 2020
You can read the introductory Leadership Questions, the document containing information about Biden and Trump, as well as the notes from the meeting: Leadership Notes. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 51 - November 2020
You can read the notes taken at the meeting: Covid and our Faith. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 50 - October 2020 How do we spend our money, what do we spend it on, and how this is impacted by our views on life, living and faith? We looked at:
You can read the notes at: Consuming. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 49 - March 2020 This was the third and final part on God's Words? looking at Language and how words change meaning over time. Part quiz and part information this was a fun evening covering
You can read the notes at: God's Words? - Language. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 48 - 09 February 2020 The second in our series looked at the process of translating the Bible and the extensive notes covered:
You can read the notes at God's Words? - Translations. There is also a detailed piece giving notes on Fifteen popular Translations, where they are on the equivalence spectrum, and with perceived pros and cons (edited from the Bible Society website). Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 47 - 12 January 2020 Robin Hamon led this session which looked at
The notes from the session can be read at The Dead Sea Scrolls. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 46 - 08 December 2019 Following on from the Melting Pot 42 session, Roberta Topham, who had been Convener of the working group which compiled the recently published report for the Methodist Church (God in Love Unites Us: Marriage and Relationships Report) talked about the group, the process, the timeline of the Methodist Church's deliberations on marriage and relationships, and some of the findings. Notes from the session can be read at God in Love Unites Us. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 45 - 10 November 2019 In trying to come to terms with ‘Contradictory Convictions’ we had an open session on what are seen as the ‘Beliefs That Divide’. The topics discussed were:
Unfortunately, the notes from the session have yet to be located, although the list above can be downloaded at What are the beliefs that Divide? Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 44 - 13 October 2019 This session was based on a DVD recorded at ‘Lectures at the Church’ Carrs Lane, Birmingham October 2017 (linked to the Progressive Christian Network, Britain), given by Gretta Vosper, an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada (West Hill Toronto) who is a self-professed atheist. A summary of the lecture can be read at Creating a world beyond beliefs that divide, which includes some questions. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 43 - 08 September 2019 This session is based on an article published in Progressive Voices 28 (March 2019), the publication of PCN Britain, written by Edward Hulme. He was ordained as a Baptist before joining the URC.
You can read his article, along with some relevant Bible passages, at Communion: Bridge or Barrier. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 42 - 12 May 2019 In April, Roberta led the Circuit Service in conjunction with Melting Pot. You can read her letter from the June edition of our church magazine Wider Horizons Living with Contradictory Convictions, which summarised her talk. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 41 - 10 March 2019 Following on from the Housegroup theme (talking about our faith), and with Robin Meyer's talk in mind (see Melting Pot 39 and 40) where 'being' trumps 'believing', we tackle ‘sharing our ideas about God and faith’.
Here are some notes taken from the meeting - Sharing our ideas about God and faith. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 40 - 10 February 2019 We watched the second half of the lecture. A highlight was the statement that early Christianity was not a belief system but a way of being. In Matthew's collection of Jesus sayings, his manifesto known as the 'sermon on the Mount' (Matthew 5:1-11), there is not a single word about beliefs - it's all about what to do, how to be. When Constantine brought together the quarrelling bishops in 325CE at Nicea, the result was the Nicene Creed in which not a single word is about what to do, but instead what to believe. We need to recognise this and reverse this reversal.
The full notes can be read at Saving Jesus from the Church (part two).
Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 39 - 13 January 2019 We started this 2019 season watching a video of the inaugural Progressive Christianity Lecture at Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney Australia 2016 given by Rev Dr Robin Meyer based on his most recent book. The Minister, Rev Dr Margaret Mahman, in her welcome gave a useful description of Progressive Christianity as characterised by
It embraces multiple theological streams (including liberalism, post-modernism and liberation theology), and is an imaginative and creative re-expression of our inherited tradition in ways that resource us to live well, open to the sacred, and in loving one another. It brings together our heads, hearts and hands; it is theological, spiritual, justice-seeking and compassionate. Robin Meyers went on to highlight a number of things taught in seminaries that rarely sem to make it to a sermon. You can read the notes from te first half of the lecture at Saving Jesus from the Church (part one), including a comment from our own minister, Rev Dr Roberta Topham. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 38 - 11 November 2018 An open discussion about what are our priorities:
You can read the notes from the session Purpose and Mission. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 37 - 14 October 2018 This session was based on the book by John Dominic Crossan. We looked at a number of 'difficulties' that can be found in the Bible:
We must read the Bible with an understanding of its own time and place. The full set of notes can be read at How to read the Bible and still be a Christian. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 36 - 09 September 2018 Although many see the Bible as ‘the word of God’, it was a humanly written, edited, redacted and translated document, with different versions in varying traditions. At our last meeting, the idea was raised that there are many examples in all categories of literature, art, film and music that can have an impact as equally powerful and compelling, in effect a ‘divine revelation’. we asked the question ‘What would you wish to add to ‘scripture’ if the Bible was ‘open-ended’. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 35 - 20 May 2018 Following on from the previous session, it seemed from what lots of us were saying that ‘worship’ was a central reason for us to go to church, but each of us had very different understandings and experiences of worship. We explored:
Robin Hamon's notes can be read in full in The Theology of Worship. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 34 - 08 April 2018 Following an article in the Methodist magazine 'Connexion', written by Rev Graham Thompson, Chair of the Plymouth & Exeter District, one member from Christchurch wrote an item for our own church magazine, Wider Horizons (March 2018), to start a debate. Worship is the central activity of the Church and – perhaps – we could do better? was Graham Thompson's theme. You can read his article, reproduced here as a starter for our debate on Why do you go to Church? In general we didn't agree that worship should be central, and yes, we could do better. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 33 - 11 March 2018 We followed up on Melting Pot 28 and once again used the technique of Narrative Analysis, or Literary Criticism (reading the Bible passage as literature - just as you would critically analyse Shakespeare) on the Easter Story. A better title would be 'How To Interpret Biblical Texts'.
The introductory page from Melting Pot 28 gives the Narrative Analysis colour codes we used, and the Easter Story Coding (from the NRSV) has the colour coding started. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 32 - 11 February 2018 We recognised that we have sanitised the end of life, and few people (unless it is part of their job) have much experience of death, seeing a dead body, or dealing with one - it's all done for us. You can read all the notes, including our resolutions about what we were going to do after the meeting in preparing for our own death, in Life's One Certainty. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 31 - 14 January 2018 We explored
This material can be seen as a primitive understanding based on ancient Jewish ideas of good and evil and the ‘end of the world’, and prefer to consider Paul’s later spiritual understanding about Jesus’ life and teachings and how we live our lives of faith in community, with no expectation of any existence beyond death. Jesus is here now, in spirit, and we live our lives in God’s kingdom love! The full set of notes on Jesus is Late can be downloaded. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 30 - 10 December 2017 Gary & Chris Knamiller led the evening in five sections: You can read the notes from What About Hope? Go to the Top of the Page
Melting Pot 29 - 19 November 2017 Helen Singleton examines the role of women within the Bible, both Old and new Testaments. How many stories about women in the Bible do you remember, and when was the last time you heard about them from the pulpit? You can read the notes from What About The Women? Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 28 - 17 September 2017 ‘How to read’ suggests, wrongly, that there is a ‘correct’ way – we bring our own ideas and contexts to our understanding - ‘Interpret’, which must be recognised as subjective, has a better meaning, recognising there is not one pure Christian understanding; the ‘Bible’ will depend on the translation and denominational collection, which strongly impacts on the interpretation before you even start to read; ‘Stories’ – the Bible consists of many styles and genres of writings (eg poetry, songs, erotic literature, history, myth, letters, discourses or sermons, gospel and apocalyptic literature, the latter two examples of particularly common styles of their time). A better title would be How To Interpret Biblical Texts. We were introduced to Narrative Analysis (or Literary Criticism), an academic technique where we were asked to read the Bible passage as literature (just as you would critically analyse Shakespeare). So you would look for It is important to ‘forget’ any preconditions or prior knowledge of the reading and treat this as if it was the first time you have read the text and met the characters. This was initially quite hard to do! We looked at the second creation story in Genesis 2 and 3, and there were some surprising outcomes as a result of the technique. We were able to read the story in new ways, and even pick out where later additions had been made to the original text. We were so enthused that we will repeat the session with a different text next Spring. Here is a copy of Robin's talk on How To Read Bible Stories - Narrative Analysis. There is also a set of Additional Notes including an example of annotated text. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 27 - 23 April 2017 If you do not hold a literal reading of the Bible, how do you approach Bible stories with children? How do you prevent children from putting Jesus into the same basket as Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy? Jude Hamon gave an overview of recent (this century) research into how children learn with some surprising results which challenge long held perceptions. We followed her introduction with a general discussion. Here are the full notes that Jude collated for What Do We Teach Our Children? or there is a two page Summary Document. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 26 - 19 March 2017 A sessison led by Rob Hilton, based on Margaret Baker’s book 'An Introduction to Temple Theology'. In Jesus’ time, people followed First Temple theology based on the tabernacle, God with us. Here are the notes from The Bible Jesus Knew. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 25 - 19 February 2017 We looked at the highly topical issue of migration and how it relates to the Bible discussing what migration is, noting that the Bible is a collection of writings written largely by migrants, and focussing on particular texts about migration. Here are Robin's notes on Migration and the Bible. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 24 - 22 January 2017 We look at the development of the Early Church as well as the New Testament Canon with books and letters bouncing in and out of the approved (Orthodox) list until finalised in 379CE. One of these was the Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered last century amid the 'Dead Sea Scrolls'. Tied in to a Gnostic approach to faith, we explore the idea of Gnosticism which, in it's early form, can chime with modern thinking. Here are the notes for The Fifth Gospel. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 23 - 11 December 2016 During the Year of Listening at Christchurch, Chris and Gary Knamiller had spent a week with te Iona Community where the theme had been 'Multi-Faith'. They wanted to put their experiences into te Melting Pot and had a series of questions to get us thinking: basically - What Is Religion? Here are the questions from the Iona Multi-Faith Experience and also notes from the session. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 22 - 13 November 2016 Bob Brunswick challenges us to consider how small we are. Where is God amidst the Chance of Evolutionary Creation? Here are the notes for Our Place In The Cosmos. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 21 - Sunday 09 October 2016 Robin Hamon led the session giving background to the language and formation of the Hebrew Bible and the cultural context of it's writing. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 20 - 22 May 2016 Because we didn't get to the end of the notes at our last session, we spent more time looking at the material. In particular we looked at some texts in the Letter to the Romans. We also considered some material from Richard Rohr about Easter. Here are the extended Notes for The Three Pauls, along with the notes concerning Love Not Atonement. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 19 - Sunday 14 February 2016 Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 are attributed to Paul. Scholarship suggests that seven books are genuine, three questionable, and three unlikely to be by Paul; modern scholars are moving to a seven six split. Radical Paul – 1 Thessalonians (<54CE), 1 Corinthians (54CE), 2 Corinthians(55/56CE), Galations (56 or 54CE), Romans (56/57CE), Philippians (55-62CE), Philemon (61-63 or 58-60 or 56-57CE). Here are the more extensive notes for The Three Pauls (which includes part two). Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 18 - Sunday 17 January 2016 Following many of the previous Melting Pot sessions, where we have deconstructed much of the ‘traditional’ view of the Christian Faith, we now seek to distil what it is we do believe in.
Here are the template notes from the What's left? session. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 17 - 13 December 2015 We explore our understanding of faith in a Scientific world, trying to probe the mystery of existence whilst avoiding the supernatural. We delve into Dawkins' book 'The God Delusion' and wonder at the psychology at play when looking at faith. Here are the notes for the I Agree With Dawkins session. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 16 - 15 November 2015 Exploring our ideas around two quotes: There is no supernatural God who lives above the sky or beyond the universe. There is no parental deity watching over us from whom we can expect help. There is no deity whom we flatter into acting favourably or manipulate by being good. There are no record books and no heavenly judge keeping them to serve as the basis on which human beings will be rewarded or punished. There is no way that life can be made fair or that a divine figure can be blamed for its unfairness. Heaven and Hell are human constructs designed to make fair in some ultimate way the unfairness of life. The idea that in an afterlife the unfairness of this world will be rectified is a pious dream. Here are the Introductory Notes used at the meeting. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 15 - 18 October 2015 Taking our information from the book Zealot by Reza Aslan, we explore the historical contect of the times when Jesus of Nazareth was alive, trying to understand the ruthless political situation, the power of the religious authorities, the huge social inequalities and the ferment of messiahanic expectation. You can download both the Introductory Notes as well as a Historical Timeline which seeks to give that context of the times and asks how we might respond to this information within our own understanding of Jesus. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 14 - 13 September 2015 A follow-up to the previous session, recognising that being a 'Green Christian' is not abn opt-in, and attempting to challenge ourselves regarding our 'Green-ness' under six headings: Transport & Travel, Energy, Food, Consumerism, Finance, Waste. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 13 - 05 July 2015 Robin Hamon led our thinking on ‘How Green Is The Bible' giving us a fascinating insight into the research he has done in recently completeing his Masters Degree in Biblical Studies. We looked at three passages from Genesis, Romans and Revelation to explain previous Christian thinking about the subservient role 'Nature' has played within creation. Detailed notes from his How Green Is The Bible talk, effectively a transcript, are available. Go to the Top of the Page The Eight Points of the Progressive Christian Network Britain. The following is taken from the Progressive Christian Network Britain website at http://www.pcnbritain.org.uk/about/the_eight_points, dated February 2015. PCN Britain offers these Eight Points, not as a creed, but as an expression of the Christian life. We are people who 1 Seek God, however understood, guided by the life and teachings of Jesus We discussed these points with interest. You can download the Eight Points Handout which lists the Eight Points along with some background, as well as the Eight Point Notes taken from the discussion. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 11 - 20 July 2014 We asked ourselves six questions. 1 What categories / types of Prayer can you think of? You can read the notes and comments in the Prayer document. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 10 - 15 June 2014 Once more, religion gets in the way, and our formalised Sunday rituals become more and more divorced form everyday reality, the 'being' that is the real meaning of worship. You can read the introductory notes and a brief report from the meeting in the Worship document. Melting Pot 09 - 18 May 2014 Our minister, Rob Hilton, explores seven of the theories of 'Atonement' - what meaning is there in the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross? The reaction of one person at Melting Pot: "I think the thing that really got to me was the dominance of what I would term 'negative' approaches which I found very depressing. When the message of Jesus' love and example is so positive and affirming I find it truly amazing that the church has been able to 'twist' this and make something so positive into such a negative force. Not how I want my religion / faith to be". Many see the intervention of Anselm, Bishop of Canturbury across the turn of the twelth century, as a sad day for our understanding of the meaning of Jesus death. The 'Jesus died for my sins' idea was formalised by him. Many today would simply say that Jesus died at the hands of the Roman authorities, with the active support of the Jewish temple authorities, because he spoke the uncomfortable truth about privilege and power and how God's love should be seen in (distributive) justice. He was upsetting the applecart! He was a troublemaker; he was a dissident. An understanding of the post-Easter Jesus comes from a reading of the Easter stories as parable, and that makes sense of how we can have relationship with God, without the need for guilt or sin or wrath being appeased that are spoken of in more traditional understandings. You can download and read Rob's precis in the Are You Saved? document. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 08 - 13 April 2014 An invitation to examine the Easter stories in each of the four Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John) and to identify details in common or differences. In fact, there are only two details that are common to all four Gospel stories. Resurrection does not have to be about believing the unbelievable: if you find the idea of a corpse being ressucitated difficult to accept, or if you are OK with that supernatural idea, it is in the past - simply ask the question 'what does it mean for me today' however you understand the new life of 'resurrection'. You can download the The Easter Parables document which includes a grid which examines the four Gospel stories, along with the 'answers' on page 3, and some introductory and closing comments. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 07 - 16 March 2014 Although we never quite reached the trinity, we did thoroughly explore the history of the early church and it's elevation of Jesus from humanity to Godhead. The debate recognised that the divinity of Jesus came with a package of other ideas connected to 'salvation' and that it was a scary prospect for some to move away from the 'traditional conservative' teaching of the church. The question was asked 'What do we gain (or lose) by accepting the divinity of Jesus?' - and some saw the arrogance of such a position as a significant barrier to community with those of other faiths, and also to those who see the supernatural as fantasy. "A really good liberating discussion. I didn't ever think I would be able to say I didn't think Jesus was divine under a church roof and not be shot down in flames. What a relief!" You can download the paper: When Jesus Became God which explores the early history, along with two book reviews attached to the topic. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 06 - 16 February 2014 After trying to list the world religions with the most adherents, we explored two extremes views of religion (absolutism - one's own religion is the absolute and only truth; reductionism - all religion is man made) and then sought an understanding that contained more contemporary thought. You can download the notes: Ways To God. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 05 - 19 January 2014 We explored a number of issues:
So what image of God do you have? How does it impact on your life and your lifestyle? What is worship? You can download the notes: Imaging God. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 04 - Sunday 08 December 2013 We started the evening with a quiz - which of the items were included in the gospel stories, and which were later additions or fabrications through 'tradition'? You can play this yourself by downloading both the Christmas Parables Quiz and the Christmas Parable Answers (which also gives the Bible references for each item). We then explored the two birth accounts, recognising them as parables, metaphoric prologues to each of the Gospels, each with their own truth within the fiction. The Christmas Parables explained is a summary of that background explanation. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 03 - Sunday 17 November 2013 The group looked at part of the process that led to the formation of the modern Protestant Bible. We compared the literal-factual against the historical-metaphorical paradigm for reading the Bible and checked out two 'classic' stories - doubting Thomas and Peter walking on water - to find that we need to be more careful in our interprtations as the Gospel writers had particular agendas underlying there versions of the stories. Go to the Top of the Page Melting Pot 02 - Sunday 13 October 2013 Allan Barr published his Diagram in 1938, this diagram enabled any bible reader the opportunity to see at a glance the parallels between Mark with Matthew and Luke, and also the parallel material in Matthew and Luke not found in Mark, often referred to as Q (from the German word Quelle, meaning source, although sometimes referred to as ‘Sayings’). You can read (and download) the Synoptic Relationships Diagram notes, which includes a picture of part of the Diagram. Melting Pot 01 - Sunday 15 September The four meanings of faith: Credo (I believe) does not have to mean agreeing to the literal and factual truth (although this is the understanding for many/most today), but rather commit to, give my heart to. The words believe and belove are related. Those present were asked to consider the Apostles' Creed and try and decide whether they could answer: Yes, No, Don't Know or Need to Define, against the twenty five statements in the creed. With a range from 2 to 23 in the 'Yes' column, a good discussion followed. This was very much an introduction to some of the ideas of Progressive Christianity, which gave permission to folk to step away from an earlier understanding of their faith and towards the emerging paradigm with a historical-metaphorical reading of the Bible. You can see (and download) the Introductory Notes and also The Creed for your own use. Go to the Top of the Page |
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