Thank you for visiting Permission to Speak.
Permission to Speak is a teaching ministry delivered by John Churcher through regular preaching engagements, seminars, workshops, residentials and conference talks. The diary is open now for appointments in 2014. If you are interested in booking an event in 2014 then please contact John Churcher by email at jchurcher@ntlworld.com
Permission to Speak encourages:
- the open minded and those who are disillusioned with contemporary Christianity and all its creeds, doctrines, literalism and fundamentalism.
- engagement with the Scriptures that we might be transformed by the Spirit that lives within us all.
- orthopraxis [a way of living] rather than orthodoxy [a way of believing] that responds to people and their genuine needs as holy.
John is a retired ordained Methodist Minister with a teaching support ministry especially to those on the edge of Church life or who have fallen off to become members of the Church Alumni; to seekers after a Jesus-based spirituality who may not necessarily want to be associated with any traditional, institutional Church; to those of other faith communities who wish to dialogue as partners in living the values of the Eternal Sacred. Much of his ministry is now Internet based.
Labels are limiting but perhaps the quickest way to describe the thinking underpinning the 'Permission to Speak' ministry of John is that of a 'post-modern theologian'. In 2008, as part of Permission to Speak, John undertook a preaching / seminar tour in USA and Canada, and returned for an extended preaching / seminar tour in 2010 which included taking part in the Theologian in Residence Program at the First United Methodist Church in Boulder, Colorado. He is the current Chair of the Progressive Christianity Network Britain.
Religions are an expression of an experience of the Sacred, of the Spiritual that is both within and beyond each person. Perhaps the often heard accusation that those who are religious are also 'hypocrites' has some foundation in that some people may be religious without being Spiritual?
The ministry of P2S understands Jesus of Nazareth as its Spiritual Gateway to the God-experience. All who have found other Gateways are respected and honoured. It is reassuring in these difficult times in which religion is often seen as the cause of so much unrest in the world, to find readers and contributors from other faith traditions willing to share ideas and experiences.
P2S values the past in different faith traditions as being important in understanding the present, but P2S is more concerned with Spiritual Truth lived in today's world than it is concerned with tradition. Through P2S, people may find support for their own spiritual pilgrimages in these uncertain, fast-changing times.
For more information or to make comment, email: jchurcher@ntlworld.com
The following books are also available from the author by emailing jchurcher@ntlworld.com
'Setting Jesus Free'
'Dying to Live'
The following series of studies for group discussion co-authored with Ted Bishop and Betty Saunders.
'Through Advent to Epiphany'
'From Epiphany to Easter'
'From Easter to Pentecost and Beyond'
