Thinking Aloud: Alternative medicine and complementary therapy

The last in this season of Thinking Aloud evenings is on Friday 18th June, 7.30-9.30pm at the Vineyard Centre, continuing our mini-series on faith and ethics in healthcare. Click below to let us know you are coming, so we get enough snacks and seats! Strawberries are the special snacks this month, a special treat for those who are escaping the football on TV.

As usual, there will be an opportunity to share what you have been thinking about recently, which usually opens a multitude of interesting discussions

As always, there is an open space to share "what you have been thinking about recently"
GP registrar Matt Button takes a look at complementary therapy
Paediatrician Sally Pollard considers alternative medicine and what we, as Christians, should be endorsing if people don't respond to conventional medical management

It promises to be a really interesting evening, with lots of interaction and discussion. We finish at 9.30pm prompt to allow some to resume their roles as taxis for the young people at Friday Night Project downstairs. So you might just catch the end of the football.

As always with Thinking Aloud, this is less formal and shorter than a lecture format, and the aim is to stimulate each other to get on with that bit of thinking we really needed to do anyway.

Guests and friends are very welcome.

Thinking Aloud is an opportunity to explore topics of contemporary discussion and research with a Christian faith perspective. We aim to support one another in tackling the challenges to faith in the media, education, business, caring professions and academia.

questionmarks

We meet on the sofas at the Vineyard Centre in Sheepscar, with hot drinks and light snacks as "brain food". The current series is timed to coincide with the Friday Night Project youth club downstairs for the convenience of people with teenage children.

Anyone is welcome, whether you have a Christian faith or not, and including students, young people studying at school and their parents
Up to three people offer in advance to prepare a brief presentation on a topic they have been thinking about, discussing with friends, reading about and/or researching. Often the topics are related to each other in a theme.
- Typical topics look at the various perspectives of faith, theology, scripture and apologetics with science, philosophy, ethics, social sciences, the educational curriculum and so on.
- Most individuals have found that the stimulus of preparing for a discussion is helpful in consolidating and moving forward their thinking
Each presenter gets a maximum of 20 mins or 5 slides on one topic. It doesn't have to be the last word on a subject - thinking in progress and outstanding questions are fine.
- It is OK to re-examine even the core foundations of faith, or Christian practice (hence the pun on "Thinking Allowed"). See the talk on Honest Questions.
- We value input from ordinary people in the community, practitioners and academics, but ask for jargon and acronymns to be busted wherever possible. We don't tend to invite external specialist speakers (other groups in Leeds like WYSOCS and cafe scientifique do that very well)
During or following these introductory presentations, a facilitated discussion allows the group to explore the topic further. This is the other half of the "Thinking Aloud" pun.
- We explore different perspectives to understand whether and how they can be reconciled. It is a respectful discussion, not an aggressive debate between opposing viewpoints.
- We encourage self-disclosure and open self-reflection on the thinking process - however incomplete.
We invite the Holy Spirit to illuminate and guide our thinking and discussion, believing that with his help we get a clearer picture of reality.

In previous sessions (and we can revisit these topics if there is demand) we shared and reviewed some of our formative spiritual experiences, thought about how and why God gets personally involved with us humans, and checked to make sure it is not just a "trick of the mind" as Derren Brown would have it. We have frequently looked at the interplay between science and faith - take a look at some past material on Science and Faith. We've looked at prayer for healing - is it real? What is best practice in praying for healing? During 2009-10 we looked at climate change and a range of issues relating to Faith and Ethics in healthcare, including withdrawal of care, the ethics of contraception, resurrection from a pathologist's perspective, and alternative medicine.

If you'd like to come to the next one (no obligation to come to any more!), please fill in the form below and press Send so we get some idea of whether we'll need extra chairs to supplement the sofas!

Forthcoming Events

Thinking Aloud

7:30pm Friday 17 September, The Vineyard Centre

Thinking Aloud

7:30pm Friday 8 October, The Vineyard Centre

Thinking Aloud

7:30pm Friday 12 November, The Vineyard Centre

Thinking Aloud

7:30pm Friday 28 January, The Vineyard Centre

Thinking Aloud

7:30pm Friday 4 March, The Vineyard Centre

Thinking Aloud