Common Dreams conference, 16th-19th

September 2016

Progressive Spirituality: New

Directions
Thirteen members of the Uniting Church in Western Australia made the long
flight to Brisbane to join with 300 others from around the world for the fourth
Common Dreams Conference, (CD4). It was a broad inter-denominational and
inter-faith gathering of religious progressives. Included in our WA UC group were
3 ordained Ministers, one Pastor, one millennial and eight laity. The Conference
enjoyed the use of excellent facilities of UCs Somerville House Girls School
provided to the Conference for minimal cost.
Artists in residence Rev Alexandra Sangster, Fairfield UCA, Melbourne who with
colleague Rev Ian David, UC Minister at Cowes, Phillip Island, Victoria entertained us
throughout the Conference with impromptu songs and mimes. They were passionate
about breaking open story in ways that liberate, inspire and awaken and in ways, which
create connections with those who are spiritually hungry but culturally anti institution.

Friday began with pre-conference talks on the History and Aims of Common
Dreams, defining Progressive Christianity as a movement and not a dogma.
Personal reflections from several delegates on What Progressive Christianity
had Offered Me, included from WA, Elizabeth Burns of Albany, Karen Sloan of
Wembley Downs and Marie Yuncken, Floreat.
Friday evening: The conference was formally opened by Rev David Felten, (coauthor of Living the Questions), who highlighted the significance of the
progressive movement and his experience of a co-ordinated attack on
Progressive Christianity by his neighbouring evangelical churches. It was followed
by Memorial Lecture 1 for the late Rev Canon Nigel Leaves, (a past Warden of
Wollaston College in WA), introduced by his widow Rev Jewlz Leaves and given by
UCA theologian Dr Val Webb. Val likened the progressive movement to flood
water slowly spreading across the religious landscape.
Saturday. Keynote 1, Fred Plumers (ProgressiveChristianity.org) title was,
Where have all the Millennials Gone?. His answer: being born into the internet
age, they have discovered that what the Church teaches and practises is too
often no longer believable or acceptable. Keynote 2 was a most engaging
lecture by Muslim, Ms Saara Sabbagh on Living with Faith in a Faithless World.
She shared the wisdom of Islams Sufi mystical tradition known to many of us
from the writings of Rumi.
Over lunch we watched the world premier documentary of Let me be Frank: the
traitorous turnabout of an evangelical heir apparent, about Franky Schaeffer
the son of the late Francis Schaeffer, an American Evangelical well known for establishing the
L'Abri community in Switzerland. As Franky worked with his father and prominent US tele-evangelists
to form the Religious Right in America, he became increasingly disillusioned with the violence that
followed their advocacy of doctrinal and moral absolutes.

In the afternoon three consecutive lectures were given on spirituality from the perspectives of Jesus
Sermon on the Mount (Rev Dr Lorraine Parkinson), Modern Judaism (Prof. Pamela Eisenbaum) and
building Christian Community (Rev Dr Margaret Mayman) highlighting the importance of connection to
historical origins. A concurrent session of Millennials was held on Exploring Future Forms of Sacred
Community giving millennials their own space to explore ideas.
Memorial Lecture 2. In the evening the late Marcus J. Borg Lecture was introduced with personal
stories by his widow, Rev Marianne Borg. Diana Butler-Bass then spoke of Marcus impact on her
own faith journey as she de-converted from evangelicalism to become a widely read authority on the
progressive movement. Her latest book Grounded: Finding God in the world, a spiritual revolution
has been awarded 1st Place in the 2016 Religion News Association Awards for

Excellence.
Sunday. Keynote 3, Rev Jana Norman of Pilgrim UC Adelaide spoke on Progressive Spirituality .. in
the Ecozoic Era, on the work of Thomas Berry. This era named for the human impact changing the
direction of the evolution of life on Earth and the spirituality needed to live sustainably with all other
forms of life. Jana concluded that our legal system while focused on individual property rights, ignores
the rights of nature on which all life depends. This she revealed was the basis of her next career
move into the study of law.
Followed were nine different elective workshops on progressive spirituality led by experts in the areas
of: (1) Political Lobbying from a Progressive Christian Perspective, (2) Prayer Beyond Theism, (3)
Beyondering Project - millennial communications, (4) Aboriginal myths and relationships, (5) Theism
and Humanism, (6) A Congregational Conversation on Progressive Spirituality, (7) The Conscious
Muslim, (8) Ecozoic eras new directions for spirituality and (9) Is a Radical Church possible? These
workshops were repeated in the afternoon.
This was followed by Keynotes 4 and 5 by Michael Morwood, a former Catholic priest on A new
template for religion based on the historical Jesus and Deshna Ubeda, Director of

ProgressiveChristianity.org on Engaging Millennials through Festivals

challenging us with the ethos of the Burning Man Festival of Black Rock
Nevada.
Evening Memorial Lecture 3. The late Rev Dr Ian Mavor, was a leading
progressive UC Minister in Queensland. Prof. Pamela Eisenbaum gave the
Memorial Lecture on The End of the Word as we know it? The Future of
Scripture Past, a fascinating talk on the evolution of the Scriptures from ancient
Sumerian Tablets to the modern digital world where many new possibilities of
interpretation are emerging.
Monday. The concluding Keynote 6 was given by Diana Butler-Bass on Sacred
Web: Nature and Neighbour as the Stage of the Divine. Diana summarised the
whole conference with a skyscraper elevator as metaphor for the vertical world
view with God at the apex of a divine hierarchy and hell in the basement. The
new world view one where God is discovered within the horizontal web of
relationships that binds together all living and non-living beings in the Universe
and is set out in her latest book Grounded. With demonstrative arm
movements Diana told how the progressive movement is the move from the
vertical (Theistic) to the horizontal (Panentheistic) understanding of God.
Rev David Felton who had opened the Conference gave the final summary using
a story of a US Church that discovered it had a secret underground passage. It
was a relic of the underground railway through which slaves from the south
had escaped to freedom in the north of America. This David used as an analogy
for the fourth Common Dreams Conference and progressive movement.

So ended a memorable conference with a dedicated organisation that provided an

amazing diversity of talented speakers and topics with many opportunities for open
discussion and debate. The expectation is that Common Dreams 5 will be held in Sydney
in 2019 in the Pitt Street Uniting Church where the movement began in 2007. In the
interim Common Dreams on the Road will be bringing Professor Hal Taussig to Western
Australia in October-November 2017 to talk on his latest book A New New

Testament, a landmark contribution to the two worlds of scholarship and

spirituality.
Richard Smith
Saturday, 1 October 2016

Members of Wembley Downs UC and All Saints UC, celebrating at the end of Common
Dreams (absent Kirsten Wendt).

Diana Butler-Bass articulating the move from the vertical to the horizontal world view
of the sacred in her book Grounded.

Diana Butler-Bass articulating the horizontal relationships within which we find

God

Members of Common Dreams listening to Diana Butler-Bass