UPDATE: Conference now online only. Email office@modernchurch.org.uk for link to join
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UPDATE: Conference now online only. Email office@modernchurch.org.uk for link to join 〰️
Modern Church, the main advocate for liberal theology in the British churches, is one of the organisations with which we are proud to work in partnership.
This year, at their annual conference, OTN Coordinator Kieran Bohan, is sharing a workshop on the Open Table story and the experiences of our members, alongside some excellent speakers.
The conference theme, Living in Faith, Hope, and Love partially mirrors the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith (LLF) project on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.
The conference will provide constructive theological approaches to the themes of LLF, and make good some of its omissions (e.g. gender, history, ‘abusive theology’).
The presenters are well known experts in their fields of study. There will be seven presentations over two days, and each presenter will also provide a follow-up seminar. While LLF is an Anglican project, the topics will be of interest well beyond the Church of England.
Chair: Prof. Adrian Thatcher
Chaplain: Revd Jarel Robinson-Brown
FAQs:
The conference is open to all – not just Modern Church members.
The Conference takes place at High Leigh Conference Centre, in Hertfordshire.
High Leigh has upgraded accommodation - en suite rooms are now standard.
Details of the online elements of the conference will be released soon.
Timings:
Start time – 18 July
1.00 Lunch – This is optional, please note on your booking form if you would like to join us
2.00 Access to rooms
2.30 Welcome and introductions
Departure time – 20 July
3.45 Tea and onward departure
Speakers:
Revd Dr Christina (Tina) Beardsley SMMS, a visiting scholar, Sarum College, has co-authored three books about transgender Christians.
‘Far from the madding crowd: a theological critique of current intellectual objections to trans people’.
Susannah Cornwall, Associate Professor in Constructive Theologies at the University of Exeter, researches theologies of sex, gender, and sexuality.
‘Transformative Creatures: Living into Freedom as Sexed, Gendered and Sexual Persons’.
Helen King, Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at The Open University, is an authorised preacher in Oxford Diocese, and was part of the Shared Conversations and LLF processes.
‘Being flesh: bodies, history and LLF’
The Revd Jarel Robinson-Brown, Assistant Curate at St Botolph without Aldgate, is the author of ‘The Church and the Famine of Grace’.
‘The Church and the Famine of Grace’
Rachel Starr is Director of Studies at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham.
‘What good is marriage? Reimagining covenantal and sacramental models for today’.
Johanna Stiebert (she/her) is a German-New Zealander, agnostic, and Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Leeds.
‘Abusive Theology and LLF: Spaces of Silence’
Adrian Thatcher is Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter and Editor of Modern Church’s theology journal Modern Believing:
‘A Theological Critique of (Sexual) Culture’