This was the message brought by Revd Dr Anne Phillips as she took attendees through her Sunday afternoon seminar, Desiring God, which she likened to a book with five chapters. Opening with creation and travelling through attraction, death and resurrection, fulfilment and finishing with conversation.

The seminar was organised by the Baptist Ministers' Fellowship and was targeted at ministers - challenging them to grow in their own faith and encourage their congregations to deepen their faith too.

The title is intentionally multi-layered, explained Dr Phillips: it means both people desiring God, and the God that desires.

All people naturally yearn for God, and God also yearns for people, she continued. It is right to use physical words such as 'yearn' when talking about God, because, although we can transcend out of our bodies when meeting with God, it is also in our physical bodies that we relate to God.

Dr Phillips contended that, 'God is only God in relationship.' As we move toward God, God moves towards us, she said, and likened this attraction to magnetism.

The seminar explored suffering, suggesting that it is often suffering that draws us to God. 'Despair can be transformed from within,' she said. 'It is not the last word.' Walking alongside people who are suffering is part of ministry, and Dr Phillips emphasised to attendees that the truth they should share is that God is with us through the darkness.

While ministers need to guide their congregation, they also need to leave space for each individual to find their own faith, she concluded. 'We grow in circles,' she said. 'We want people to get to a stage where they believe things for themselves.'

The seminar was left open, with a final chapter for conversation - leaving Assembly goers to reflect on desiring God, and the desiring God.