We Together 2024 will take place on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 at the Baumann Centre and St John the Divine, Victoria.
Registration closes April 8, 2024.
About We Together 2024
We Together is our regular (once every other year) diocesan conference, to remind us of the ways we are connected; we are stronger together. We are bound in countless ways, in our structures, in our prayers and through the stories we tell. We are each others concern, and we are each others gift.
This year we are continuing to focus on our context. Building on the “here in this place” theme from We Together 2022, we will be looking at what it means to serve and minister in the most non-religious context in North America. We have unique challenges and unique opportunities.
The conference will begin on Friday evening, April 12, with an evening banquet at the Baumann Centre, followed by an opening address by our executive director, Brendon Neilson. On Saturday, we will gather at St John the Divine, Victoria. The program will include keynote speaker John Thatamanil, our diocesan theologian. John will be presenting two sessions with small group dialogue following each. We will end our time with the celebration of the eucharist, with Bishop Anna preaching and presiding.
For those looking for accommodation, the diocese has a corporate rate at the Inn at Laurel Point. If you phone the hotel (250-386-8721) and mention the rate, it will be applied.
Finacial aid information
If you would like to attend but the costs are unaffordable, please select the subsidized ticket rate and we will be in touch with you about completing the grant form. Funds have been provided by the Education Trust Board with the requirement that a form be completed. The available grants will cover travel, food and accommodation. There is max. of $175/person and funds will be distributed according to the diocesan travel reimbursement policy.
All grant funds will be mailed by cheque after the event is over and once the form is complete.
Schedule
Friday, April 12, 2024
5:30 p.m. Doors open and registration
6 p.m. Banquet and opening session by Brendon Neilson
9 p.m. End of event
Saturday, April 13, 2024
8:30 a.m. Doors open, coffee and registration
9 a.m. Opening prayer and welcome
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. John Thatamanil: When Did God Go Missing? The Disenchantment of the World
10:30 – 11 a.m. Coffee break
11 – 11:30 p.m. Small groups discussions/debriefs
11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. Lunch (lunch not provided)
1:15 – 2:15 p.m. John Thatamanil: Breaking Bread Together – Practices of the Church in an Interreligious Era
2:15 – 2:45 p.m. Small groups discussions/debriefs
3 – 4 p.m. Closing eucharist
4:30 p.m. End of day
About the speakers
John Thatamanil
John J. Thatamanil is professor of theology and world religions at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He is the author of Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity (2020) and The Immanent Divine: God, Creation, and the Human Predicament; An East-West Conversation. His areas of research include theologies of religious diversity, comparative theology, philosophical theology and eco-theology. He is committed to seeking interreligious wisdom by learning from the practices and insights of other religious traditions. He is also a past president of the North American Paul Tillich Society.
John is an Anglican priest in and diocesan theologian for the Diocese of Islands and Inlets. John was born in Kerala, India and migrated to the US as a child when he was just shy of 9. He traces his love for Indian religious traditions to his desire to learn more about what it means to be an Indian kid growing up in the US.
John is married to Kate Newman, who is the religious educator at Christ Church Cathedral School and currently a PhD student at the University of Victoria. He is father to Moses Dryden and Kate Fulton-John. The “Two Kates” problem is a source of regular hilarity at home.
Brendon Neilson
Brendon Neilson has worked in the synod office since 2018 and currently serves as executive director of the diocese. He has a PhD in theology and his academic interests have always been in what theology looks like in the lives of the faithful. He has an underlying conviction that faith is made true in the living of it. While property issues and redevelopment projects take up most of his time these days, the question of what faithfulness looks like in the systems and structures of our diocese is central to how he approaches the work.
Brendon grew up in an evangelical holiness tradition and has been shaped by the faith communities and places that have been a part of his journey — New Brunswick, Alberta and New Zealand. He has now found a home here in Victoria and in the Anglican church. Discovering and understanding the inheritance of our diocese (the good and the hard) is one ingredient for discerning a faithful future together. We Together will be an opportunity for us to explore this, together.
He is married to Melanie, who is a teacher (SD 61). Their three-year-old daughter, Remy, keeps them quite busy with adventures of all sorts.
