VOICES FROM THE EDGE
The 2018 lectures named after the pioneering Hugh Price Hughes are now over - but you can still read about them here.
Speak to almost anyone about the future of the church, and they’ll say it needs to be transformed. The question is – who will lead this transformation? Those within? Or will it come from elsewhere?
Our attention is increasingly drawn to the voices and stories of those whose life experiences place them on the edge - of church, and of society. We can no longer afford to ignore these voices from the edge: they offer us significant insights into our understanding of God and of humanity. Unless and until these voices influence mainstream thinking and action, we will be deeply impoverished. This is the starting point for these lectures.
Speak to almost anyone about the future of the church, and they’ll say it needs to be transformed. The question is – who will lead this transformation? Those within? Or will it come from elsewhere?
Our attention is increasingly drawn to the voices and stories of those whose life experiences place them on the edge - of church, and of society. We can no longer afford to ignore these voices from the edge: they offer us significant insights into our understanding of God and of humanity. Unless and until these voices influence mainstream thinking and action, we will be deeply impoverished. This is the starting point for these lectures.
Feminism on the Frontline: Friend or Foe of the Christian Faith?
Professor Tina Beattie
As liberal democracy fragments and divisions deepen, some suggest that feminism is experiencing a revival. From the Women’s Marches of January 2017, when women around the world took to the streets wearing pink ‘pussy hats’, to the #metoo campaign sparked by women speaking out about sexual abuse and harassment, the battle of the sexes is raging. Meanwhile, the idea of sexual difference is being contested as gendered identities melt and multiply, and the nuclear family dissolves into more diverse configurations of loving and belonging. For some, these changes strike at the heart of faith. Across denominational boundaries, conservative Christians are forming highly politicised alliances, to defend marriage and the family against the onslaught of feminism, homosexuality and ‘gender ideology’. In this lecture, Tina Beattie explores some of the questions that feminism and gender theory pose to Christian theology and ethics, in an increasingly volatile and conflicted political culture.
Tina Beattie is Professor of Catholic Studies and Director of Catherine of Siena College at the University of Roehampton in London. She is the founder and organizer of Catholic Women Speak, a worldwide social media network of nearly a thousand Catholic women, a contributor to The Tablet and to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day. When Tina arrived in Bristol from Zimbabwe in 1988 with her husband and four children, she was a recently converted Roman Catholic, with a Presbyterian evangelical background. Having left school at 15, she studied Theology and Religious Studies, and went on to do a PhD on the Virgin Mary in the context of patristic theology and French feminist theory.
Tina Beattie is Professor of Catholic Studies and Director of Catherine of Siena College at the University of Roehampton in London. She is the founder and organizer of Catholic Women Speak, a worldwide social media network of nearly a thousand Catholic women, a contributor to The Tablet and to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day. When Tina arrived in Bristol from Zimbabwe in 1988 with her husband and four children, she was a recently converted Roman Catholic, with a Presbyterian evangelical background. Having left school at 15, she studied Theology and Religious Studies, and went on to do a PhD on the Virgin Mary in the context of patristic theology and French feminist theory.
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No Longer Victims but Liberators
Rev Dr Tony McClelland
Physical limitation, perhaps even divine calling, brings some of us to a marginalised place. It becomes a conversion experience. Donald Eadie writes, ‘We are learning that theology must not be left to the fit and strong. Theology must also be wrestled for through pain and disability; these are the raw materials of our encounters with a mysterious, silent, hidden and powerless God. We bring our experience of darkness as the context of hidden growing and transformation. We bring our calling to go into the fearful places without being imprisoned by fear. We bring our experience of restoration through touch, embrace and hold, and of an inner healing which is deeper than physical healing. We bring our experience of waiting, waiting into the unknown. We bring our experience of anger. We bring faith journeys which sometimes include the experience of dereliction, of God - forsakenness, of being apparently without faith in order to grow in faith. We bring these gifts and many others, not as victims but as liberators.’
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Fragility: the shocking new 'f-word' for the Church
REV Dr Martin Johnstone
Those who struggle against poverty are precious not weak. Drawing on a lifetime of commitment to discovering Jesus amongst those often dismissed as worthless, Martin will explore what a ‘theology of fragility’ could mean for the Church today.
Martin Johnstone is a Church of Scotland minister. Over the last 25 years, Martin has encouraged the Church of Scotland to bend its resources towards its poorest neighbourhoods; brought people of different faiths together to tackle poverty; and been passionate in his belief that poverty will only ever be successfully challenged when those who live with it on a daily basis are leading the movement to eradicate it. He leads the Church of Scotland’s work around political and social engagement and helps to coordinate a growing network of Poverty Truth Commissions across the UK. His doctoral studies were about how his own denomination could become a Church of the Poor, but knows that real wisdom comes when he sits and listens to those who know that life is tough, glorious and fragile. He reckons it’s time for the Church to lose its angst about survival and embrace what it means to be a fragile church in a fragile world loved by a God who embraces fragility.
Martin Johnstone is a Church of Scotland minister. Over the last 25 years, Martin has encouraged the Church of Scotland to bend its resources towards its poorest neighbourhoods; brought people of different faiths together to tackle poverty; and been passionate in his belief that poverty will only ever be successfully challenged when those who live with it on a daily basis are leading the movement to eradicate it. He leads the Church of Scotland’s work around political and social engagement and helps to coordinate a growing network of Poverty Truth Commissions across the UK. His doctoral studies were about how his own denomination could become a Church of the Poor, but knows that real wisdom comes when he sits and listens to those who know that life is tough, glorious and fragile. He reckons it’s time for the Church to lose its angst about survival and embrace what it means to be a fragile church in a fragile world loved by a God who embraces fragility.
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Christianity as Second Language:
Evangelism and Identity in a Post-Colonial World
REV Trey Hall
Up until very recently, the majority of the western world spoke Christianity as their first language. That’s not true or is on the brink of not being true anymore. In Britain, those who avow ‘no religion’ now outnumber those who are religiously affiliated -- a trend that is growing across the West. Rather than mourning the end of empire or denying it by continuing a colonial missional orientation that seeks to ‘Make Christianity Great Again,’ can the church learn a new way of being ‘evangelical’ that recovers vulnerability, radical inclusion, power-sharing, and expected failure as gift and fuel?
Trey Hall is a pioneer, inclusive evangelist, Methodist presbyter, American expat, marathon runner, and failed improv comedy student. He serves as the Mission Advisor of the Birmingham District of the Methodist Church, where he is also helping to plant a New Inclusive Church in Birmingham city centre. He lives in Birmingham with his husband, Jonathan (also a Methodist presbyter), and their rescue Weimaraner, Jake.
Trey Hall is a pioneer, inclusive evangelist, Methodist presbyter, American expat, marathon runner, and failed improv comedy student. He serves as the Mission Advisor of the Birmingham District of the Methodist Church, where he is also helping to plant a New Inclusive Church in Birmingham city centre. He lives in Birmingham with his husband, Jonathan (also a Methodist presbyter), and their rescue Weimaraner, Jake.
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From Edge to Centre? Being Transgender in the Church Today
REV Dr Canon Rachel Mann
As a result of the high-profile transitions of people like Caitlin Jenner, as well as debates over the future of gender in our society, trans people have rarely been so high profile. In this lecture, Rachel Mann - a priest in the Church of England and a trans woman - examines the status of trans people in church life today. She examines the challenges trans people still face and asks what insights trans people can bring to our understandings of faith and God in a rapidly changing and complicated world.
Dr Rachel Mann is an Anglican priest, poet and broadcaster. An honorary Canon of Manchester Cathedral, she is former poet-in-residence there. Her memoir of growing up trans, ‘Dazzling Darkness’ was a bestseller and her current book is ‘Fierce Imaginings: The Great War, Ritual, Memory and God.’
Dr Rachel Mann is an Anglican priest, poet and broadcaster. An honorary Canon of Manchester Cathedral, she is former poet-in-residence there. Her memoir of growing up trans, ‘Dazzling Darkness’ was a bestseller and her current book is ‘Fierce Imaginings: The Great War, Ritual, Memory and God.’
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