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My Weekend in Robin Hood’s Bay

Rachel Cavill goes away, comes back, and tells us about it …

Being a first year who has only just joined MethAng, I was rather intrigued about what a weekend away with the group would be like. Although of course I’ve been on church weekends away before, it’s always been with people whom I’ve known for quite a long time before going. I suppose what I’m trying to say is I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but still I was looking forward to it. And so with these mixed feelings of expectation and possibly a slight nervousness I arrived in Goodricke car park on Friday evening with all my stuff.

When we reached Robin Hood’s Bay it was dark so I couldn’t see much of the place where I’d ended up, therefore this surprise was saved until the following morning. We were staying in the Methodist church, where although the downstairs was just like a conventional church, the upstairs had been converted into flats, and that was where we were sleeping. Our speaker was Stuart Burgess, the president elect of the Methodist conference (this means he has been elected to be president next year, apparently!!!) and he took all the sessions, although night prayer and the early morning service were done by us students.

The sessions were looking at the past, present and future of the church particularly in the local area. We especially looked at the Whitby Synod which was held many years ago when the Celtic churches from the Columban tradition to the north and the Roman churches from the Augustine tradition to the South met in Whitby nearby and debated the important issues of the day such as “tonsure” (how monks should cut their hair!!). We then went on to look at what we felt were the burning issues that should be on the churches agenda today. We discussed this thoroughly in small groups, which meant everyone’s views were heard and considered. Each group then presented their ideas to the whole. In the end (after much debating) we settled on four issues as the ones we felt should be put forward for discussion today.

Firstly social justice including the problem of debt with campaigns such as Jubilee 2000 and poverty in the world as well as on a more local scale. We also felt that prejudice and inequality should be confronted under this heading. Secondly we wanted to put forward the issue of women, their role in the church, ministry, and the wider community. The third point was unity and how or whether the church should put up a united front to the world on important issues. Finally we also wanted to suggest the topic of evangelism and in particular how to keep young people in the church, which is so often a problem.

As well as the sessions there were many other highlights to the weekend. I think one of the best of these for me was the early morning “sunrise” service. This was on the Saturday morning and those of us who went got up at 7 o’clock to go down to the seafront and have a short service there. Unfortunately the sun had got up even earlier so we missed the hoped for sunrise, but the essence of the idea was still there. Having arrived in darkness the night before I had yet to view the village and the steep hill with the church perched on top. It was only as I walked down the hill to get to the seashore that I began to appreciate the full beauty of the place we were staying in. Standing in the freezing cold on the seafront singing hymns early in the morning may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I felt really close to God and his creation as I could look down and see the waves coming in beneath us and look around at the green fields on top of the cliffs across the bay from us. Living in a city as I normally do (Manchester) I really appreciate the countryside when I get a chance to visit.

We also ‘did’ the service at the Methodist church on the Sunday morning where we looked at our journeys in faith and also how they related to the church’s journey, presenting the conclusions of our sessions to the congregation and challenging them to consider where they were on their journey individually and as a church.

These are only a few highlights from the weekend and if you want to know more about what went on talk to any MethAngers who went and I’m sure they’ll be happy to oblige, but I’d just like to leave you with a thought (well as near as I can remember it) from Stuart Burgess “maybe the Bible isn’t there to answer the questions, but to ask them”. This really hit me and got me thinking about my beliefs — maybe it will for you too.

Rachel Cavill

Last modified: 25th November 2005