September lecture series – Interfaith theme

This year, our Autumn Lecture series, held jointly with our neighbours, Greenbank Parish Church, took an interfaith theme.
The lectures were held on 4 Sunday evenings in September, with the theme,  ‘The joys and challenges of being a (Christian/ Jew/ Buddhist/ Muslim) today’.  All our speakers were excellent and the series has proved extremely popular, with large audiences. This showed the interest and commitment to sharing and understanding different faiths within our country and world today.  

The lectures took place on Sunday evenings at 7pm.  

Sunday 3 September: Roman Catholicism.  Dr. Mary Cullen, former officeholder in SCIAF (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund), and editor of the Scottish ecumenical monthly Open House.   She recently completed a Ph. D. in ‘Receptive Ecumenism’, and its application to the relationship between lay and ordained in the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Dr Mary Cullen, with Jennifer Stark, Associate at Morningside Parish Church, following her lecture on 3 September.

 

 

Sunday 10 September: Judaism.  Rabbi Mark Solomon, lecturer at Leo Baeck College in London, honorary Jewish chaplain at the University of Edinburgh and Co-Chair of the London Society of Jews and Christians.

 

Rabbi Mark Solomon, with Dr. John Stevenson, Locum Minister at Greenbank Parish Church.

 

 

Sunday 17 September: Buddhism.  Bryan Webb, a practising Buddhist in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn. Bryan leads courses in mindfulness, and on meditation for Christians and Buddhists together. He rightly sees a lot of mysticism in Jesus as well as in the Buddhist traditions. 

 

Bryan Webb with Revd. Scott McKenna, after Bryan shared some of his experiences of Buddhism on 17 September. 

 

 

Sunday 24 September: Islam.  Professor Carole Hillenbrand, Professorial Fellow in Islamic History, University of St Andrews, and the first non-Muslim recipient of the King Faisal Prize in Islamic Studies.