The

Modern Churchpeople's Union

Liberal theology in a changing world

Previous MCU Conferences

By Whose Authority?

MCU 90th Annual Conference: 16th - 19th July 2002 at High Leigh Conference Centre

A published report from this conference is still available here.

The Conference explored the concept of authority in Church and society at the beginning of a new century. Traditional areas of biblical authority were examined together with more recent issues such as gender and the relationship between the secular world and the Church.

This is an age of intense focus on presentation and obsessed with communication. It is also a time when we may realistically expect an imminent change of leaders within the churches as well as in the political world. This Conference was for anyone concerned with the future direction of the Church and its relationship with society.

Chair: Rt Revd David Conner, Dean of Windsor.

Conference Secretary: The Revd Canon Richard Truss

Conference Chaplain: The Revd Ruth Tuschling

Speakers:
The Revd Prof Paul Badham, University of Wales, Lampeter

The Revd Hugh Dawes:

Vicar of St Faith's North Dulwich, member of the Committee of the Centre for Progressive Christianity, former director of the Forum Christian Institute, Cambridge. Author of: Freeing the Faith

The Very Revd Dr David Edwards: Former Dean of Norwich and Provost of Southwark

The Very Revd Vivienne Faull, Dean of Leicester Cathedral

The Revd Canon Anthony Harvey:

Former lecturer in Theology at the University of Oxford and laterly Canon and Sub-Dean of Westminster. He is a Fellow of the George Bell Institute and author of many books

Simon Hughes, M.P. Member for Southwark & Bermondsey.

(Simon Hughes was unable to attend the conference and his place was taken by Lord Richard Newby)

Genista McIntosh

Former Executive Director of the Royal National Theatre & Principal-designate of Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She is a member of the House of Lords.

The Revd Dr Jane Shaw Dean of Divinity, Chaplain and Fellow of New College, Oxford

The Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson:

Senior Research Fellow and former Director at Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education. He is a Methodist Minister.

Globalising God - the new internationalism [Top]

MCU 91st Annual Conference: 15th - 18th July 2003 at High Leigh Conference Centre [Book list]

What is the Good News for a world in the throes of globalisation? Where is God in a world of poverty, terrorism and consumerism? In the twenty-first century have we finally become one world, or are the divisions and inequalities greater than ever?

There are many challenges facing our world, and this conference aimed to bring them into contact with resources from Christianity and other faiths as we seek to live in a world where greater unity seems to come only at the cost of greater division.

Chair: Canon John Atherton.

John Atherton is Canon Theologian of Manchester Cathedral and a distinguished author. His books include Christianity and the Market and Public Theology for Changing Times.

Conference Secretary: Dr. Simon Taylor

Conference Chaplain: The Revd Robin Dodge

Speakers:

Tom Wright

Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey. A New Testament scholar and prolific author of books including The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, and the … for Everyone series.

Duncan Forrester

Professor Emeritus of Theology and Public Issues at Edinburgh University and author of On Human Worth and Christian Justice and Human Policy.

Grace Davie

Reader in Sociology at Exeter University and author of Believing without Belonging and Europe : the Exceptional Case.

Andrew Davey

Board of Social Responsibility, author of Urban Christianity and Global Order.

Andrew Bradstock

United Reformed Church. Author of Radical Religion and the English Civil War, editor of Radical Christian Writings.

Andrew Shanks

Author of Civil Society, Civil Religion and God and Modernity.

Philip Goodchild: lecturer in Religious Studies at the Unversity of Nottingham

Wendy Tyndale: until recently the co-ordinator of the World Faiths Development Dialogue

Malcolm Brown: Principle of the East Anglican Ministerial Training Course.

The God Experience ... who has it and why? [Top]

MCU 92nd Annual Conference: 13th - 16th July 2004 at High Leigh Conference Centre

A Joint Annual Conference with the Alister Hardy Society

[Reflections on the conference by Richard Hall] [Book list]

Wishful thinking? Hallucinations? Real contact with a divine Other? Despite the claim of unbelievers that religion is on the way out, convincing religious experiences are reported by large numbers of people, who thinj they have a relationship with the divine

Are these stories credible? Do they fit the doctrines of the churches, or do they challenge them? This conference will explore what we can learn from the stories of religious experience today.

Chair: Professor Paul Badham

Paul Badham Paul Badham studied theology at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Birmingham. For five years he was a Curate in Birmingham before moving to University of Wales Lampeter in 1973. He is currently Director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre and a Vice President of the Modern Church People's Union. He authored the centenary volume: The Contemporary Challenge of Modernist Theology (1998).

Conference Secretary: The Rev John Goldsmith, Vicar of St Leonard's, Monyash

Speakers:

Sarah Boss

Dr.Sarah Jane Boss, Ph.D. (Bristol) is a Lecturer in Christian Theology at the University of Wales Lampeter, and Director of the Centre for Marian Studies. The CMS is an interdisciplinary education and resource centre for all matters relating to the Virgin Mary, and its teaching can include any relevant academic discipline, such as theology, the history of art, church history, literary studies, psychology and anthropology. Sarah Boss has degrees in Sociology and Theology. She is vice-president of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain, and has previously held pastoral as well as educational posts. She has had three books published on Marian topics: Empress and Handmaid (2000); Mary in the Continuum series "New Century Theology", (2004); and a children's book, Mary's Story (1999).

Marion Bowman

Dr. Marion Bowman is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, having moved there in 2000 from Bath Spa University College where she had been Programme Director for the MA in Contemporary Religion. She is currently President of The Folklore Society. Her research interests include vernacular religion, contemporary spirituality, Celtic spirituality, healing and pilgrimage, and she has conducted a long term ethnological study of Glastonbury. In 2000 she co-edited Beyond New Age: Exploring Alternative Spirituality (Edinburgh University Press) with Steve Sutcliffe.

June Boyce-Tillman

Professor June Boyce-Tillman, BA, PhD, LRAM read music at St.Hugh's College, Oxford and is now Professor of Applied Music at King Alfred's, Winchester and Visiting Professor at the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, USA. She is a composer and active in community music making, specialising in music and spirituality. She is Chair of the Hildegard Network and has spoken widely on Hildegard. Her most recent books are: Constructing Musical Healing - The Wounds that Sing (2000) and The Creative Spirit - Hildegard of Bingen (2000). She is Chair of the Alister Hardy Research Committee.

Wendy Dossett

Dr.Wendy Dossett BA, Ph D, PGCE, (Wales) is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wales Lampeter, where she directs the MA Pathways in the World's Religions for Teachers, and Religious Experience. She is Principal Examiner for the AS/A2 specifications in Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism for the Welsh joint Education Committee. She has a particular interest in Japanese Pure land Buddhism and is currently researching this subject at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley under Professor Richard K.Payne. Her publications include Buddhism for AS Students (2003), and "Speaking for the Buddha: phenomenological and confessional approaches in teaching Buddhism" Journal of Beliefs and Values (1996). She is a member of the Shap Working Party for World Religions in Education, and is an Associate Director of the Religious Experience Research Centre (University of Wales Lampeter) .

Mark Fox

Dr Mark Fox is a lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at the Joseph Chamberlain College in Birmingham. His major research interest is in the area of Religious Experience, the subject of his Doctoral Thesis. He is a member of the Research Committee of the Religious Experience Research Centre and his publications include Religion, Spirituality and the Near-Death Experience (2003) and his most recent work Lightforms , which draws extensively on the RERC archives and examines unusual experiences of light will be published shortly Professor

Leslie Francis

Leslie J Francis is Professor of Practical Theology at University of Wales, Bangor and Director of the Welsh National Centre for Religious Education. He is an Anglican priest and Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He holds doctorates from the University of Cambridge (PhD, ScD) and the University of Oxford (DD). His recent books include The Values Debate (2001), Psychological Perspectives on Prayer (2001), Exploring Luke's Gospel (2001), Exploring Mark's Gospel (2002), Children, Churches and Christian Learning (2002), Rural Mission (2002), His Spirit is With Us (2003), and The Naked Parish Priest (2003).

Xinzhong Yao

Xinzhong Yao is Professor of Chinese Religions at the University of Wales Lampeter. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the People's University Beijing and a Ph.D. in Theology from Wales. He was formerly Deputy Director of the Institute of Ethics in Beijing and is currently a Visiting professor at two Chinese Universities. Most recently together with Professor Badham he gained a grant of £335,000 from the John Templeton Foundation for a comparative study of religious experiencing in China and Britain. His publications include Christianity and Confucianism, a comparative study of Jen and Agape (1996) and a two volume Encyclopedia of Confucianism (2003) .

Cafer Yaran

Dr.Cafer S.Yaran is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Theology, Istanbul University. He was awarded his BA and MA by the University of Ataturk, Erzurum, Turkey and his Ph.D. by the University of Wales, Lampeter. His particular interest is in the philosophy of religion and has published in English Islamic Thought on the Existence of God: Contributions and Contrasts with Contemporary Western Philosophy of Religion (2003) and has written, contributed to and edited a number of other books in Turkish on the Philosophy of Religion.

Religion and Science: old enemies or new friends?

MCU 93rd Annual Conference: 12th - 15th July 2005 at High Leigh Conference Centre [Top]

[Report on the conference by Helen Holmes; and reflections by Richard Hall] [Book list]

The 19th Century controversies between religion and science, precipitated by Darwin's theories and other scientific developments, have left a visible scar on the religious world to this day. The rise of neo biblical fundamentalism in our own time and the sometimes startling developments in the scientific world associated with a range of disciplines seem to have halted the healing process.

But is this really the case? Theological thinking and Biblical criticism has come a long way since the time of the Victorians. Surely these old battles are to be consigned to history and the Church is now liberated to pursue the Gospel hand in hand with every modern tool available?

This Conference ranged widely in its investigation into present religious and scientific understandings. Apart from the speakers there were also workshops on issues of the day.

Chair: The Rt Revd Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford

Conference Chaplain: The Revd Dr Helen Orchard

Conference Secretary: The Revd Nicholas Henderson

Speakers:

• The Rt Revd Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford (in the Chair)

• Professor Keith Ward, Latterly Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford

• The Revd Dr John Polkinhorne, Author and Priest

• Dr Fleur Fisher, Former Chair BMA Ethics Committee

• Professor Aziz Sheikh, UMIST, Chair Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) Research and Documentation Committee and a medical professor at Edinburgh University

• Professor John Brooke, Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, Harris Manchester College, Oxford

• The Revd Professor Paul Badham, Lampeter University of Wales