Church offering deep discussions

BUNINYONG Uniting Church is inviting everyone to a morning of breakfast and conversation this Saturday.

The event will be hosted by South Ballarat Uniting Church minister, Reverend Paul Sanders, who will speak of his practice in combining Christian and Zen beliefs.

With over thirty years’ experience blending the two, Reverend Sanders said his talk will touch on a range of metaphysical ideas.

“Both have a great practice in sitting and being present, so I’ll definitely be speaking to that and addressing the way we think about the conceptual world and our thoughts,” he said.

“The idea behind this talk and others we’ve held is to engender discourse and conversations around precarious topics, whether it be arts, religion, gender, ecology, whatever.”

The event is the third in a series of conversations that started in February, with Reverend Sanders having hosted similar talks for over 10 years at Melbourne’s OASES Graduate School.

Following a breakfast, Reverend Sanders will facilitate the talk, and he said attendees will have the freedom to comment and ask questions throughout the conversation.

The previous talks had 20 to 30 attendees, and Mr Sanders said the aim of the sessions is to learn from each other’s experiences.

“It’s about offering a safe space to have these intelligent, rigorous conversations in a respectful way,” he said.

“There’s a deeply shared engagement around our common life and the themes that impinge upon them so it’s good to be able to unearth those ideas and learn something from each other.

“I’ve named this program Conversations on the Edge of a Mountain not just because we’re near Mount Buninyong but because of the notion of the precarious place which is where talks like these often lie.”

The event goes from 9am to 11am on Saturday, 9 July at Buninyong Uniting Church. Admission is $10 with $20 for families. To book call 0407 833 515.