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John Saxbee
Bishop of Lincoln and MCU President
Jane Sinclair
Archdeacon of Stow and Lindsey
Rosemary Field
Music Development
Officer for the Diocese of Lincoln
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Liberal Faith Today and Tomorrow
Tuesday 14 to Friday 17 July 2009
at High Leigh Conference Centre
Chair: Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee
Secretary: Pat Boyd
Chaplain: Ven Jane Sinclair assisted by Rosemary Field
The conference will consider liberal faith from several perspectives:
- How is it related to liberty, to liberality?
- Is religious freedom an oxymoron?
- What of the authority of Scripture?
- How liberal can a theology be?
- Does the church need liberating for tomorrow?
Conference photos: Joan Dorrell
Papers from the conference were published in the Jan 2010 edition of Modern Believing.
Speakers
with audio recordings
Tuesday
Geoffrey Rowell
For what we have received...
Rt Revd Geoffrey Rowell is Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe. He is the author of several books including Hell and the Victorians and a biography of John Keble. From a traditionalist perspective Bishop Rowell will challenge the conference on key issues.
Wednesday
Keith Ward
Liberalism in Science and Religion
Keith Ward is a philosopher and theologian, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University Emeritus, and an ordained priest in the Church of England.
Brian Smith
Liberating the Church for Today and Tomorrow
Rt Revd Brian Smith is the Bishop of Edinburgh. He studied theology in Cambridge, focusing on the philosophy of religion, and held a number of posts in the Diocese of Oxford, including that of Senior Tutor at Ripon College Cuddesdon.
Helen-Ann Hartley
Liberating Scripture: holding on to fundamentals without being fundamentalist
Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is New Testament Tutor at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. She also acts as a consultant to BBC television in development of programme ideas in Religion and Ethics.
Thursday
Gary Dorrien
The Crisis and Necessity of Liberal Theology
Gary Dorrien is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, Professor of Religion at Columbia University, and an Episcopal priest. His trilogy The Making of American Liberal Theology has been described as the definitive work in the field.
Lucy Winkett
Liberalism: Theological and Economic
Lucy Winkett is Precentor and Canon of St Paul's Cathedral with responsibility for music and liturgy at the Cathedral. She is a founder adviser to Theos, a think tank launched in 2006.
Friday
Jonathan Clatworthy
Liberal Theology - to bring peace or a sword?
Jonathan Clatworthy is General Secretary of the Modern Churchpeople's Union. He has worked as a parish priest, university chaplain and lecturer in Ethics. His latest book is Liberal Faith in a Divided Church.