in this section
Lent Course
Every year during the season of Lent, we invite external speakers to spend time with us as we focus on a particular aspect of our Lenten faith. In 2011, we explored "How imaginative Christians are breaking down taboos". Our speakers shared with us how they bring their faith to bear in, at times, challenging and difficult circumstances
How imaginative Christians are breaking down taboos - Midweek Lent 2011 Talks
Wednesday March 16 Befriending Our Age
Dr James Woodward has been a Canon of St George’s, Windsor since 2009 and as a pastoral theologian has a particular interest in the importance of age both in church and society. Over the past decade, he has been working, with others, to encourage individuals and inter-professional groups to look at the nature of age and begin to shift its paradigms and practices. In 2008 he published a major textbook on old age in the SPCK New Library of Pastoral Care (Valuing Age: Pastoral Ministry with Older People). In this presentation he will look at the way we picture and paint old age and ask us to consider how we might befriend age in the church community. Canon Woodward is a member of the Commission on Assisted Dying which is due to report at the end of this year. For further information about his work and interests please see his webpage
You can download a copy of James's presentation here.
Wednesday March 23 Light in the Darkness of Oppression – the privilege of making a difference.
Baroness Caroline Cox, founder of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), was appointed a Life Peer for services to education by Margaret Thatcher and subsequently served as Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. As a champion of human rights for the weak and defenceless, she argues that we are obliged to use our freedom on behalf of those suffering oppression and persecution. Her presentation will invite us to ‘visit’ in imagination those on the front line of faith, and to share the privilege of her experience of working with people in some of the darkest parts of the world. It promises to be a humbling and inspiring evening, with many true stories of courage, dignity, and miracles of grace. For further information about the work of Lady Cox and HART please visit their website here.
Wednesday March 30 Justice and Taboo – The Gay Issue in the Church
Since October 2010, Revd Clare Herbert has been Lecturer in Inclusive Theology at St Martin in the Fields. Previously she was the Programme Director of the charity Inclusive Church, the Rector of St Anne’s Church, Soho, the Project Manager of “Websters”, a spirituality project for women on Tottenham Court Road, and a child care and paediatric social worker in N Bristol. These experiences, coupled with her own as an openly lesbian priest in a happy civil partnership, promise to make her talk both personal and informative. Clare is studying for a professional doctorate in the pastoral care of gay and lesbian people and interested in the taboo which hangs over the serious discussion of LGBT issues in the Church of England.
Wednesday April 6 Faith in the Workplace.
Dr Eve Poole is one of the founder Directors of the Foundation for Workplace Spirituality, Deputy Chair of the Christian Association of Business Executives, and Deputy Director of the Ashridge Public Leadership Centre at Ashridge Business School in Hertfordshire. She started her career with the Church Commissioners, then worked as a management consultant for Deloitte Consulting, so she has first-hand experience of the dilemmas of working in organisations where faith is acknowledged and indeed required as well as those where faith is only implicit and often positively discouraged. She is particularly interested in how faith and spirituality can breathe new life into the world's economies and has written extensively on Capitalism and Theology. In this talk, she will talk about the way in which 'workplace spirituality' is being used to smuggle faith back into the world of work, and what this might mean for Christians trying to express their vocation at work. Eve keeps a blog here.
Wednesday April 13 The Barefoot Disciple
Of all the many Christian virtues, the author reminds us, 'humility is foremost among the distinctive virtues in the Church, in seeking the kingdom of God.' Yet it is surely the most difficult for the individual to be aware of in him or herself. We recognise it in others, but cannot judge or even observe our own, or set out to possess or increase it. As Rowan Williams says in his introduction, 'humility happens when we're not looking'. Stephen Cherry suggests methods and resources from which we may learn, with prayer and practice, how to be the 'barefoot disciple' of his title. 'Humility implies radical openness and costly vulnerability. It knows something about the kingdom of God and desires it deeply.' Extensive traveller Stephen Cherry, Residentiary Canon of Durham Cathedral, illustrates his text with reflections on visits to post-apartheid South Africa and the India of the 'Untouchables'. 'The journey of discipleship involves crossing the boundaries of our personal comfort zone again and again. This …. seems to be the way in which God organizes our apprenticeship in Christ.' (You may wish to consider buying this book to read before the session - it is currently on sale at Amazon at £6.78)
