Please see below for upcoming events aimed at Common Awards staff working at our partner TEIs.
Please contact the Common Awards team (common.awards@durham.ac.uk) if you have any queries relating to these events.
Please note that some events are available to staff only and some to both staff and students; this will be made clear in the event description. Please see the student events page for events aimed at Common Awards students.
Upcoming Staff Events
Please click on each event below to find out further information, including how to register:
Dr Martin Hodson, co-author of A Christian Guide to Environmental Issues
God on the Move: Gypsy Traveller Theology and Ministry
Theological Educators' Conference 2024: Theological Education and Mental Health
In the coming weeks, the Common Awards team in Durham is hosting a series of webinars on The Environment, Theology, and Action. They are open to Common Awards staff and students. Please see below for speakers and timings
1. Prof. Norma Wirzba author of This Sacred Life on 22 January at 1:30-3:00. This event has finished, but we hope to make the recording available shortly.
2. Dr Martin Hodson, co-author of A Christian Guide to Environmental Issues on 28 February 12:00-1:30. Click here to register.
Dr Martin J Hodson is a plant scientist and environmental biologist, and a former Principal Lecturer, and now Visiting Researcher at Oxford Brookes University. He is also Associate Member of the Institute of Human Sciences at the University of Oxford. Martin is Principal Tutor of Christian Rural and Environmental Studies (CRES).
Martin will cover eight of the key current environmental problems to develop understanding when many
headlines only sow fear, despair, or denial. He also will touch on the biblical basis and theological justifications for looking after the environment and helping to integrate environmental understanding into one's own faith.
The seminar will consist of a roughly 60 minute talk from Dr Hodson followed by time for questions and answers
3. Dr Ruth Valerio, author of Saying Yes to Life 15 March 13:30-15:00. Click here to register. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A CHANGE IN TIME; IT WAS PREVIOUSLY ADVERTISED FOR 15 MARCH AT 11:30 BUT NOW IS 15 MARCH AT 1:30.
Dr Ruth Valerio has written extensively on justice, environment and lifestyle issues, particularly from a Christian perspective. She is currently the I am Global Advocacy and Influencing Director for Tearfund and was previously the Churches and Theology Director of A Rocha UK, a Christian charity that works for the protection and restoration of the natural world, and she spearheaded Eco Church, which helps churches do just that. She studied theology at Cambridge and Kinds College London (PhD), and is Canon Theologian at Rochester Cathedral.
The seminar will consist of a roughly 60 minute talk from Dr Ruth Valerio by time for questions and answers.
The background of this webinar series began at the 2023 Common Awards Annual Conference. There we explored the roles that theological education can play in enabling churches and wider society to face the multiple overlapping crises, including the climate crisis, that form the environmental crisis. This included:
and
As the conference was face-to-face, we committed to providing future webinars for students and staff and we are delighted to present this webinar series. In some cases the material will be recorded and available for subsequent viewing.
For further information about these webinars please contact Dr Emily Kempson: emily.s.kempson@durham.ac.uk
This webinar series has a focus on Diversity and Inclusion. Webinars are aimed at Common Awards students and staff but open to others with an interest in the subject areas addressed. Each webinar features leading scholars and/or faith practitioners who offer diverse insights into a range of topics that directly relate to the core modules taken by Common Awards students.
Recordings of past webinars can be found here
07 March 2024 1:00 - 2:30pm
Join your host Dr Selina Stone (Durham, Common Awards) for a conversation with Dr Steven Horne, about Gypsy Traveller life and faith in Britain. Dr Horne has for the first time, articulated in writing, theologies which emerge from the life, faith and ministry of Gypsy Roma communities, an often overlooked group. Gypsies and Jesus: A Traveller Theology, was published in 2022.
Steven Horne is the first Romany Gypsy from the UK to be awarded a PhD in Theology (November 2020). He is an Ordinand in the Church of England, and is scheduled to be ordained in June 2024. Previous to this, he worked as a Licensed Lay Minister, leading a 'fresh expressions' outreach mission in a major town. He also delivers lectures and training in Universities, Theological Seminaries, Churches and more, to Clergy, Students, Teachers, Healthcare professionals and government - both local and national. Also, he is an Archbishop's Council Member for CMEAC - again, the first Romany Gypsy to do so. Closer to home, his mother is a gorger (non-Gypsy), and his late-father is Romany Gypsy.
Dr Selina Stone is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Theological Education at Durham University with the Common Awards team. She is the author of the upcoming book The Spirit and the Body: Towards a Womanist Pentecostal Social Justice Ethic (Brill/Schöningh: 2023).
07 May 2024 1:30 - 3:00pm
Dr Selina Stone (Durham/Common Awards) is joined by Rev Dr Carlton Turner and Dr Eve Parker to discuss theologies from India and the Bahamas
Dr Eve Parker is Lecturer in Modern Christian Theology at the University of Manchester. She also researches abuse in religious contexts as part of an AHRC-funded project through the University of Kent. Her recent publications include: Trust in Theological Education: Deconstructing ‘Trustworthiness’ for a Pedagogy of Liberation (London: SCM, 2022) and Theologising with the Sacred ‘Prostitutes’ of South India: Towards an Indecent Dalit Theology (Brill: 2021)
Rev Dr Carlton Turner is a Caribbean Contextual and Practical Theologian working at the Queen's Foundation, Birmingham. He is the author of the upcoming book Introduction to Caribbean Contextual Theology (SCM, January 2024) and Overcoming `Self-negation: The Church and Junkanoo in Contemporary Bahamian Society (2020).
10th – 12th July 2024Durham University
Conference theme
The theme of the conference is ‘Theological Education and Mental Health.’
This three-day two-night conference is FREE to all Common Awards staff. In theological education and the ministry settings, issues of mental health are unavoidable. Each year, 1 in 4 people in the UK experience a mental health problem of some kind. This conference covers a variety of topics to support theological educators in their teaching and formational responsibilities, including:
Speakers will include:
Rev’d Prof. John Swinton, Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies (Aberdeen), RMN (registered Mental Nurse), and ordained in the Church of Scotland
Rev’d Prof. Chris Cook, former Director of the Centre for Spirituality, Theology & Health (retired in 2022), qualified doctor, former Professor of Psychology, and ordained in the Church of England.
Rev’d Dr Joanna Collicutt, fellow at Harris Manchester College of Oxford University, a chartered clinical psychologist, and ordained in the Church of England.
Dr Tasia Scrutton, Associate Professor in the School Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science at Leeds University and author of Christianity and Depression.
Rev’d Jarel Robinson, ordained in the Church of England, co-chair of One Body One Faith, formerly a Methodist minister, and author of Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer.
Dr Eve Parker, lecturer in Modern Christian Theology at the University of Manchester and author of Trust in Theological Education.
Rev’d Luke Larner, ordained in the Church of England and editor of Confounding the Mighty: Stories of Church, Social Class and Solidarity.
With worship led by Rev Prof Maggi Dawn, Professor of Theology at Durham University, advisor to the Royal School of Church Music, and former Dean of Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School.
Please visit our conference page for more information on the conference including the timetable and booking information.
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