Holy Spirit in the World Today Conference

Last week I was privileged to attend the Holy Spirit in the World Today Conference at Holy Trinity Brompton. Amongst others speaking were Jürgen Moltmann, Miroslav Volf, David Ford, Tom Smail and Rowan Williams – quite a line up!

The conference was significant for a number of reasons: firstly, it was determinedly church centric. Few academic conferences would be hosted in a church context, yet on a number of occasions participants explicitly noted that academia has lagged behind the church in exploring pneumatology. Jürgen Moltmann in particular reflected on his experiences in his church in Tübingen, echoing the cry of the ecological movement that we ‘think global, but act local.’ Secondly and strikingly, explicit connection was made with the Frontline. The second speaker on the Thursday was Ken Costa, Chairman of Lazard International Bank and creator of the God at Work course, speaking about the need for a pneumatology that embraces the workplace and the home.

The conference explored a number of questions:

How does the Spirit work in the church?
In what ways is the Spirit at work in the wider culture and the workplace?
How does the Spirit relate to the Trinitarian life of God?
How does the Spirit relate to the mission of the church?
Is the Spirit at work in other faiths?
How does the Spirit affect Christian life and ethical choices?
What does 'openness to the Spirit' mean?

There is little space here to go into each talk in detail, and I understand there are plans to release the talks from the conference on CD and DVD at some point in the near future. Already available is Archbishop Rowan Williams excellent opening homily on Romans 8. This short talk is well worth listening to as Rowan explores the question of what it means to be a human being fully alive. Listen to it here...

Update: All the talks for the conference are now available to download for free from the St Melitus website.