The current webinar series has a focus on Diversity and Inclusion. They 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.
Information on upcoming webinars can be found on our Upcoming Events page.
Recordings of previous webinars can be accessed below:
Other videos recorded for the partnership as part of our focus on questions of diversity, inclusion, and belonging include the following:
More information is available on the Common Awards Hub.
A conversation with Dr Lisa Adjoin and Dr Anupama Ranawana
Dr Selina Stone was joined by Dr Lisa Adjei and Dr Anupana Ranawana from Christian Aid to explore how global mission might be reimagined beyond colonial frameworks which promote western dominance. Special focus was given to the climate crisis which disproportionately impacts the historically colonised nations and peoples of the 'global south'.
A conversation with Dr Delroy Hall and Dr Katie Cross.
Dr Hall is a counsellor with over 30 years’ experience in a range of settings including churches, the NHS and universities. His PhD focussed on black pastoral care in Britain and his recent book A Redemption Song (SCM press, 2021) addresses the themes of racial trauma, pastoral care and theology.
Dr Katie Cross is Lecturer in Theology at the University of Aberdeen where one of her major research and teaching areas is feminist trauma theology. She has co-edited two books in this area including Bearing Witness: Intersectional Perspectives on Trauma Theology (SCM Press, 2022) and Feminist Trauma Theologies: Body, Scripture and Church in Critical Perspective (SCM Press, 2020).
Fr Luke Larner & Fr Rajiv Sidhu join Dr Selina Stone for the first Common Awards webinar of the year, to discuss power and church leadership.
Fr Luke Larner and Fr Rajiv Sidhu are friends, priests and PhD researchers at Roehampton University. In both their ministries in local communities and in their academic work, they are concerned with liberation, class and racial justice. Their recent work, which will be the topic of this conversation, deals with the role of the Church and Christian ministry, and the significance of theology at times of crisis and despair.
This webinar was hosted by Anupama Ranawana, and provided an opportunity to engage with Dr Karen O'Donnell and Prof Susannah Cornwall. Dr Karen O'Donnell discussed key themes in her latest book entitled: The Dark Womb: Re-Conceiving Theology through Reproductive Loss (SCM Press, 2022). The book explores the complexity of the miscarrying body and its potential for theological revelation. She offers a re-conception of theologies of providence, prayer, hope, and the body as she reimagines theology out of these messy origins. Prof. Cornwall has done a great deal of work in contextual theologies, particularly those relating to sex, gender and sexuality. Her publications include Un/familiar Theology: Reconceiving Sex, Reproduction and Generativity, (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017), Theology and Sexuality (SCM Press, 2013), Controversies in Queer Theology (SCM Press, 2011), Sex and Uncertainty in the Body of Christ (Routledge, 2010).
Anupama Ranawana is a theologian and political economist with several years of experience working in academia and international development. Her research and teaching expertise and interests are focussed on gender and justice, decolonial thought, diversifying research methodological practice, religious thought in the Global South, faith and international development and the intersections between racial and climate justice.
This webinar was hosted by Rev. Ray Gaston, and provided an opportunity to engage with Dr Robert Myles, Dr Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon and Dr Chris Shannahan. Some of the questions that were explored included:
The recording of this webinar is also available on the Common Awards Hub.
Dr Aruna Gnanadason provides an eco-feminist theological perspective that looks to the context of India and engages with narratives of those directly impacted by climate change. Dr Jione Havea contemplates the ways in which the Bible has influenced our relationship with creation, taking into consideration the impact of climate injustice in the Pacific, and the theologies of the Pasifika. The webinar is hosted by Prof Robert Song, Professor of Theological Ethics in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, who has written extensively on Christian ethics and doctrine.
What are the experiences of black, gay, men in the Church of England today? How can we speak of God’s grace in the midst of LGBTQ+ oppression and marginalisation?What does Queer theology have to say about the Incarnation of Christ? What is the role of the Church today in the lives of black and queer bodies?
These are just some of the questions that are explored in this webinar, where the journalist, Rosie Dawson, was joined by the Revd Jarel Robinson-Brown to discuss his latest book, Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer: Church and the Famine of Grace.
Hear Ruth Harley and Al Barrett in conversation with Sanjee Perera (recently appointed as the Archbishops' Adviser on Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns) about their book of the same title.
Here's the publisher's description of Being Interrupted:
"Beginning with a ‘Street Nativity Play’ that didn’t end as planned, and finishing with an open-ended conversation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Being Interrupted locates an institutionally-anxious Church of England within the wider contexts of divisions of race and class in ‘the ruins of empire’, alongside ongoing gender inequalities, the marginalization of children, and catastrophic ecological breakdown.
"In the midst of this bleak picture, Al Barrett and Ruth Harley open a door to a creative disruption of the status quo, ‘from the outside, in’: the in-breaking of the wild reality of the ‘Kin-dom’ of God. Through careful and unsettling readings in Mark’s gospel, alongside stories from a multicultural outer estate in east Birmingham, they paint a vivid picture of an ‘alternative economy’ for the Church’s life and mission, which begins with transformative encounters with neighbours and strangers at the edges of our churches, our neighbourhoods and our imaginations, and offers new possibilities for repentance and resurrection.”
Though rooted in a Church of England context, this is a book which has a challenging message for many other church contexts as well.
The recording of this webinar is also available on the Common Awards Hub
This webinar provides an exciting opportunity to listen, learn and engage with renowned anti-apartheid leader, activist, theologian, author, and minister, Prof Allan Boesak. Prof Boesak has spent his life committed to the cause of freedom, reconciliation and justice. In 1983, he called for the formation of the United Democratic Front, which would grow into the largest, nonviolent, non-racial anti-apartheid formation in the history of the struggle. He worked with Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu, Rev. Frank Chikane and other world leaders and justice activists to end apartheid.
Prof Boesak is the recipient of thirteen honorary Doctor's degrees and several awards among those, the Robert Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award. Recently he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. International Board of Preachers at Morehouse College. He is also the author of 22 books and has been teaching across the world. Prof Boesak continues his teaching and preaching while remaining active in global struggles for human rights.
This webinar explored the power of preaching hope and resistance in times of struggle from the perspective of someone who has worked tirelessly to challenge systems of oppression and cultures of impunity.
Hear Prof Allan Boesak in conversation with Dr Dulcie Dixon McKenzie, Director for the Centre for Black Theology at The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education. Dr Dixon McKenzie is an outstanding theologian and theological educator who has delivered ground-breaking research and teaching in the areas of Black Theology and Black Pentecostalism in Britain.
This webinar explored postcolonial, contextual, and global church perspectives on mission and evangelism. Some of the questions addressed included:
Dr Cathy Ross, leading missiologist, contextual theologian and head of Pioneer Mission Leadership Training, Church Mission Society, was in conversation with Rev Dr Anderson Jeremiah, outstanding theologian and lecturer in World Christianity, Lancaster University. The Webinar was hosted by Chine McDonald, writer, broadcaster, and Head of Community Fundraising and Public Engagement at Christian Aid.
How does the Bible address issues of racism, prejudice and oppression? What are the implications of our social location on how we understand the Bible? How can the Bible help us in our formation to become racial justice advocates in our theology and ministry?
These are just some of the questions that were addressed within the webinar. Prof Robert Beckford, professor of Black Theology at The Queens Foundation, was in conversation with Prof Grant Macaskill, Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen. The Webinar was hosted by Augustine Tanner-Ihm, winner of the 2020 Theology Slam.
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