The Common Awards team is pleased to launch a new Student Events Programme, which in 2023/24 will include day conferences for students, alongside our webinar series.
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 students only and some to both staff and students; this will be made clear in the event description. Please see the staff events page for events aimed at Common Awards staff.
Upcoming Student 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
Dr Ruth Valerio, author of Saying Yes to Life
Jesus, the Spirit, and the Hope of the World: A Day with N.T. Wright
Mental Health in Ministry: The Theology and Psychology of Depression and Hearing Voices
26 April 2024 at St Paul’s Cathedral, London
*Bookings now open! Book your place here: https://forms.office.com/e/2Ee59eJZ0k*
This FREE day conference will be a study-day at St Paul’s Cathedral with N.T. Wright, world-renowned New Testament scholar, best-selling author, and former Bishop of Durham. Over the course of multiple sessions, he will guide students and answer questions on a variety of related topics, including: views of salvation and the eschaton; God’s creation and the new creation; apocalyptic themes in the New Testament; and how these matters inform God’s calling on the Church, in light of the Gospel. Students will also have the opportunity to meet students from other TEIs.
Download the full timetable here: St Paul's Student Conference programme
The main conference events will be taking place between 10am and 3.20pm, with registration open from 9am. Please arrive at the NW Crypt door. There are other optional activities before and after the conference including prayer and opportunities to explore the Cathedral. Tickets to explore St Paul’s are usually £25, but conference attendees will be given free access with the wrist bands provided during check-in. Attending services is always free.
The Speaker:
Rt Rev’t Prof N.T. Wright is Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England (2003-2010), and was formerly Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews.
This conference will be open to students registered on a Common Awards programme at a partner TEI.
The booking form may close early if we receive the maximum number of bookings; in this event we will open a reserve list.
Before registering to attend the conference, please read our Privacy Notice (you will need to confirm that you have read this when completing the registration form).
9 July 2024 at Durham Cathedral, Durham
*Bookings now open! Book your place here: https://forms.office.com/e/0pj6seLRNM*
Students will come away from this FREE day-conference with a deeper understanding of how to wisely and faithfully engage with matters of mental health. This conference focuses on two areas that have a rich tradition of study both in psychology and in the long history of Christian practice: hearing voices and depression. Our speakers will address, in each case, contemporary clinical understandings of these two experiences, their various theological interpretations, and also speak to the benefits and short-comings of each. Students will also have the opportunity to see the cathedral, the grounds of Durham University, and to meet students from other TEIs.
Download the full timetable here: Mental Health in Ministry Student Conference Programme.
The main conference events will be taking place between 10:30am and 3:30pm, and there will be optional prayer sessions and Cathedral tours. You may sign up to a tour during the booking process. The optional cathedral tours are usually £7.50 but are included FREE as part of the conference.
Speakers will include:
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.
Dr Tasia Scrutton, Associate Professor in the School Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science at Leeds University and author of Christianity and Depression.
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).
This webinar is free and open to Common Awards staff and students.
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).
This webinar is free and open to Common Awards staff and students
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