On Thursday morning (Feb 5) from 10am-noon:  Worship/ministry/community.  Peter will tell some of the story of Ikon, and open up a converstation about what ministry and worship can look like in a postmodern world.  While this event might have special appeal to those “in ministry”, it is open to all. Location:  St George’s church on the U of A campus;  11733 – 87 Ave.

On Thursday afternoon from 1:30-3:30 pm:  Faith in a postmedern world:  Peter will highlight some of the themes of his work as a means of fostering conversations.  Location: St George’s.  Both sessions at St George’s will be informal, with opportunity for conversation, feedback and interaction.

On Thursday evening at Taylor Seminary (7:30 pm) Peter Rollins will lay the groundwork for the rest of his presentations by addressing why Christians need to move beyond belief.  He is referring to his subject as “Beyond Belief:  Faith, Fetish and Religion without Religion.”  Location:  in the chapel.

On Friday night, Peter joins the emerging jazz group Elphida Trio for TheoloJazz at Dewey’s Coffee Bar and Lounge.  This is the event for networking, stimulating conversation and friendship. Pete and Elphida will engage in alternating sets of twenty to thirty minutes – Pete putting forth his post modern musings and fielding questions about life and love and faith, and Elphida responding with jazz classics and original compositions.  Delyle of Elphida says ‘the artists will engage in a philosophical dialogue: one with the musings of the mind, the other group with a musical echo.’ Deweys is on the U of A campus, in the North Power Plant Behind the Dentistry/Pharmacy Building. 8:30 – midnight.

On Saturday morning at Taylor Seminary 10 am:  Peter Rollins will address worship in the postmodern era, with focus on what the Ikon community does, some of the values that lie behind their experience of ‘transformance art’ and how these might influence the way a church thinks about corporate worship.  His working title is “Transformance art: Revelation, Rupture and the Worship Experience.”

Parking Tips:  The majority of the parking at Taylor Seminary is at the 115th Street entrance, though there is also some on the west side of the campus.

Saturday’s Interface Worship service will be at St. Paul’s Anglican. Interface creates and stages alternative worship services that involve the extensive use of unique rituals, symbols and imagery to engage in spiritual theology. There will also be music, art, the Altarwalk devotional exercise for prayer stations, offerings from Pete, contemporary liturgies, and a walk through liturgical sculpture created for the communion rite.  And no sermons – only proclamations. Church as you have never seen it. St. Paul’s is on the North side of Stony Plain Road, between 145 and 146 street. The service starts at 7:00 PM. 

Peter will be speaking Urban Bridge Church February 8 at 10 am: “The Aftermath of Theology” – If theology comes to be understood as the place where God speaks, then we must seek, not to speak of God, but rather to be that place where God speaks.

Location:  Meets at the Royal Alberta Museum Theatre, 12845 102 Avenue NW.  Here’s more info about the Urban Bridge Church.

Facebook event

Peter Rollins in Edmonton

Feel free to download & distribtute the rollins-poster-pdf around town…

Faith in a Postmodern World with Dr. Peter Rollins.  The Anglican Diocese of Edmonton,  Taylor University College & Seminary, Urban Bridge Church (P.A.O.C.), and Interface Worship are partnering in bringing Peter Rollins to Edmonton for a series of events. As an author, public speaker, working philosopher, creator of theo-dramas, and founder of the experimental collective Ikon, Dr. Rollins is an innovative and important voice for emerging Christianity.

“Here in pregnant bud is the rose, the emerging new configuration, of a Christianity that is neither Roman nor Protestant, neither Eastern nor monastic; but rather is the re-formation of all of them. Here, in pregnant bud, is third-millennium Christendom.” —Phyllis Tickle, author of “The Divine Hours TM” series, and “The Great Emergence”, commenting on Rollin’s book, “How (Not) to Speak of God”

Free public events include the following:

Faith in a Postmodern World:  an open conversation

Thursday, Feb 5, 1:30 -3:30 pm.   St George’s church on the U of A campus;  11733 – 87 Ave.   

Beyond Belief Towards Practice:

Thursday February 5, 7:30 pm
Taylor University College and Seminary
11525 23 Avenue
Stencel Hall in the seminary building
A free public lecture by Peter Rollins: A Postmodern Church Beyond Belief   

Beyond Belief Towards Experience and Practice:

Friday February 6, 7:00 pm
Dewey’s Lounge University of Alberta
Located at North Power Plant (Behind Dentistry/Pharmacy Building)
Jazz (Elphida Trio), conversation, and Q&A with Peter Rollins

Beyond Belief Towards Experience:

Saturday February 7, 10:00 am
Taylor University College and Seminary
Stencel Hall in the seminary building
11525 23 Avenue
A free public lecture by Peter Rollins: Worship for a Church Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief Towards Revelation:

Saturday February 7, 7:00 pm.
St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 10127 – 145 Street
An alternative worship experience with Interface Worship & Peter Rollins

Beyond Belief Towards Community and Experience:

Sunday February 8, 10:00 am
Urban Bridge Church
Meets at the Royal Alberta Museum Theatre 12845 102 Avenue NW
Worship, conversation, and Q&A with Peter Rollins

For information:
Beyond.Belief.in.Edmonton@gmail.com (e-mail)
Telephone: Jim Robertson 780.437.0062 evenings

“How Not to Speak of God” was Peter’s first major work.

Andrew Jones (tallskinnykiwi) has a few posts on Pete Rollins‘ work and thought: 

Pete Rollins, who was with me last week in Switzerland, has released his first book – the most challenging emerging church book I have read for a long time. “How (Not) To Speak of God” is a thoughtful and original book, delivering some heavy-duty thinking from Marion and Derrida in a manner that is accessible and profound, and offering a fresh perspective on the Scriptures that moves the emerging conversation out of binary oppositions and into the love of God.

You can also check out what Jonny Baker had to say in his review:

“we need our theology (speech about god) but all the while recognising that this very speech will fail to define god. it is our speech after all… god is the god beyond god. humility or to use pete’s term a powerless discourse should characterise our way of being. here’s a piece that suggests how christians should be in the world…”

In this way the emerging conversation is demonstrating an ability to stand up and engage in a powerless, space creating discourse that opens up thinking and offers hints rather than orders. In short the emerging community must endeavour to be a question rather than an answer and an aroma rather than food. It must seek to offer an approach that enables the people of God to become the parable, aroma and salt of God in the world, helping to forma space where God can give of God. For too long the church has been seen as an oasis in the desert – offering water to the thirsty. In contrast, the emerging community appears more as a desert in the oasis of life offering silence, space and desolation amidst the sickly noursihment of western capitalism. It is here in this desert as we wander together as nomads, that God is to be found. For it is here that we are nourished by our hunger.

5th Feb Thursday evening – free public lecture at Taylor

6th Feb Friday evening  – Theolojazz – alternating sets of jazz (Elphida Trio) and Pete – probably at Dewey’s (on the U of A campus), there may be a small cover or maybe free
7th Feb Sat. am – (probably) a session at Taylor
7th Feb. Sat – evening – Interface Worship alt. worship event with Pete at St. Paul’s Anglican
8th Feb. Sunday am:  Sunday morning worship service with Pete at Urban Bridge Church.

There may be a Thursday daytime event added.

So who is Pete Rollins?  You can see his blog here, find out a bit more about him here, or take a quick look at some of his books here.

We will keep you informed of upcoming events, venues and the occasional side discussion.