I’m sorry to hear that the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Provincial Conference which had been planned for October this year has been cancelled. It must be very disappointing and frustrating for the organisers to get to this stage and then have to cancel. I like organising things like that and would have quite enjoyed working on a big project such as the Provincial Conference, so it is easy to appreciate how they will be feeling.

It seems to me that Ruth’s analysis of some of the issues around this conference are quite right. The only thing that I would add to what she said about this conference is that I think that perhaps people underestimate how much the internet has changed the world. There were a number of things that might have helped, such as drip feeding stories through the Episcopalian bloggers about the conference and also using the web for sign-up, payment and pre-conference activity (discussion/group allocation/lift sharing). I know that a lot of people don’t like the fact that the internet has changed people’s lives as much as it has done, but that is the way things are.

The cancellation is more significant in the life of the church than it first appears. It is quite a major failure within [Read more…]