The William Temple Foundation is delighted to congratulate Foundation Trustee Revd Dr Paul Monk for this honour awarded to “Barnabas Thrive” in the Parish of St Barnabas in Clarksfield, Oldham. Revd Monk has been Vicar of the parish during the period that Barnabas Thrive has been developed. We are proud to be able to recognise this service to the community and to congratulate all involved on this honour.
Revd Monk has said,
“Please allow me to put on my record my huge thanks to everyone who has made it all possible“
Simon Lee, chair of the trustees of the William Temple Foundation, has said,
“This is a shining example of faith communities making a difference at grassroots level. It also shows how recognition can inspire others to take such initiatives. All this is in the spirit of our Foundation and we are in awe of Barnabas Thrive and the quiet encouragement, drive and support offered by Revd Paul Monk“.
The full press release regards this award can be read below
HM the King recognises the work of St Barnabas Church in Clarksfield, Oldham
“St Barnabas is St Barnabas Church in Clarksfield has been honoured with the prestigious King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) in recognition of its transformative community project, ‘Barnabas Thrive’. Often described as the MBE for organisations dedicated to volunteer-led community service, the KAVS award celebrates the efforts of those who work to improve the lives of local communities. Barnabas Thrive operates in the deprived Clarksfield area of Oldham, offering a range of initiatives designed to uplift and support the community. The project focuses on four key areas:
1. Food Thrive – This initiative runs a thriving community-led food pantry which serves up to 200 local residents each week, helping to tackle food poverty and the higher cost of living.
2. Holiday Thrive – Addressing the issue of ‘holiday hunger’. This programme provides essential meals and activities for children and their families during school breaks, offering a welcoming space for everyone who walks through the door.
3. Women Thrive – A supportive and safe space where local women—many of whom have faced hardship such as abusive relationships or health struggles—come together to connect, share experiences, and support one another. The group is peer-led, ensuring it is shaped by the needs of those who attend.
4. Teen Thrive – A small but impactful free gym for young people with mental health challenges, providing a healthy outlet and sense of community. This space is also open to the wider public, promoting physical and mental well-being for all.
In addition to these programmes, the church and its community halls also serve as hubs for a wide range of activities that create connection and mutual support. The Barnabas Thrive project is made possible thanks to strong partnerships with organisations such as the National Lottery, Diocese of Manchester, Fareshare, Action Together, Oldham Council, and various local community groups. This award is a testament to the incredible work being done by volunteers and partners, whose dedication makes Barnabas Thrive a vital resource for the Clarksfield community.
Today is Remembrance Day. Each year people gather at the cenotaph, wreathes are laid, silence falls, and the last post heralds as respects are paid to the dead and their memory. Poppies are used to symbolise the day. It is estimated that 50-56 million died in WWII with a further 19-28 million dying due to war related famine. This is an increase from WWI where an estimated 40 million people were either killed or wounded. As veterans of the Great War and WWII pass away, how we mark the sacrifice of others has been questioned and reframed. For example, this year the Royal British Legion are remembering specifically those who died in WWII and are paying tribute to those who served in the decisive battles of 1944, from the Normandy landings and the subsequent campaign, to Monte Cassino and Kohima and Imphal in the Asian theatre.
My contribution to Remembrance Day is to briefly engage with lessons we might learn from those who lived through and experienced WWII and point to how we might apply them today? In order to take this question on I will turn to Christianity and World Order, written by Bishop of Chichester George Bell and published by Penguin in 1940. This book was a precursor to Christianity and Social Order written by Archbishop William Temple and took a global perspective on the challenges of the day, which set the stage for Temple’s contribution in 1942 which made reference to global events but was focussed more on the social order in the UK and the contributions citizens might make.
For Remembrance Day I will focus on the observations Bishop Bell made about the period of war he was living through. It is important to be attentive to the details of what is going on around us and to maintain a critical eye on what is shaping our lives and our experiences. Of this, Bishop Bell painted a vivid picture. His account noted that after the first World War lessons had not been learned, wounds were not healed, silos were deepened, injustices and frustrations remained and even grew. Bishop George noted that as time went on, principles and traditions which held together a sense of common life ‘melted away’ (Bell, 1940, p11).
Freedoms were limited and inequalities grew. This experience was compounded and intensified by ‘the abolition of distance’ (a phrase credited to H G Wells) where global events are fed into people’s lives and people’s homes on a daily basis so that the narratives and propaganda of ‘the big men endlessly persuading the public’ as Bishop Bell put it, prevailed (Bell, 1940 p12). These narratives stymied the capacity and imagination of people to make the world they wanted to live in. Bishop Bell’s characterisation of this was that “The world was made for people and it was made wrong” (Bell, 1940, p13). In the second stanza of the opening section of the book entitled The Search there are two significant observations,
“The world in which the new generation have been growing up is a profoundly changed world …
… we have, in spite of all our differences, what is, for many purposes, a spatially united world” (Bell, 1940 p13)
The terminology used by Bishop Bell is illuminating. The search being set out was one of hope in response to the narratives and propaganda destabilising the world and the experiences of a generation in a changed world. Existential threats were immanent and affecting the very spaces that made up peoples day to day lives. This was 84 years ago.
It is all too easy to either ignore what has happened in the past, or indeed to rush to judgment on it. There are a great many details that are different between then and now of course. In 1940 spatial unity came in part via the invention of planes, ‘the cheap press’ radio and TV (Bell, 1940, p13), contrast with blogs, social media, podcasts and livestreams today. Notwithstanding this, I think Bishop George offers us some creative guidance to follow.
Today we have the spectre of war manifest in Ukraine and Israel, with skirmishes spreading across boarders into other countries. Last week we’ve heard about the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, who in spite of his unprecedented controversy, including the fact he is the first US President in history to have criminal convictions, secured an emphatic victory for the Republican Party. Trump appears to have appealed to a great many people who felt oppressed and disaffected under previous administrations. However, immediately following Trumps win pronouncements were being made by Trump about deportations of migrants at any price, and the need for wars to end through oppressed peoples accepting the loss of territory and freedoms in way that appeals to populist regimes around the world. In the UK, we were encouraged to look for the ‘Sunshine in Hope’ in the days following the election of a non-populist Labour party in July, but their victory only took the form of a contingent landslide. Which raises the question, how might we realise something of the hope that Bishop George was searching for, or indeed the hope that Sir Kier Starmer invoked in July? The answer I argue, might be found in a process of just decision making, which I set out on the blog two weeks ago. My hope is that this might encourage the spatially united world that we live to be a more hope filled one.
At the William Temple Foundation we are exploring this idea and process through what we are calling Radical Hope. In April 2024, we considered Radical Hope in a time of election, hosted by Liverpool Hope University. In July 2024 we began to work with Virginia Theological Seminary to explore this theme further on both sides of the Atlantic. This will take the form of the Radical Hope podcast released this autumn, hosted by Vice President for Communications at VTS Nicky Burridge, and myself as Communications Officer and Fellow of William Temple Foundation. In April 2025, in partnership with Virginia Theological Seminary, and Notre Dame Law Centre in London, we will develop this agenda further, by offering a conference at the Inner Temple which will explore how we share our stories, how we harness our spatial unity and emancipate the lived experiences of new generations in the way Bishop George sought to.
Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell FRSA completed his PhD while a Temple Scholar at Goldsmiths University of London, is a Research Fellow of the William Temple Foundation, an Honorary Research Fellow at Liverpool Hope University and is a Dean’s Scholar at Virginia Theological Seminary in the USA.
This week has been Trustees Week in the UK. At the William Temple Foundation we are greatly appreciative for the work of Trustees and in particular our trustees in support of the William Temple Foundation, the Temple Tradition of Public Theology and the pursuit of justice in the public square. This year we have developed a return to our roots as ‘Temple College’ and sought to champion the role of education, lay leadership and the role of all faiths and beliefs in response to the different issues and crises shaping the public square. Our dedicated team includes academics, activists, entrepreneurs, and community and faith leaders who possess a wealth of talents and expertise. Our team is also made up of diverse faith traditions, not just Christianity. This diversity honours the work that William Temple did to build bridges between those of different worldviews, and to hold open the pubic square for those who held different views to him. You can read more about our trustees here. Thank you to each of them: Simon, Paul, Helen, Deirdre, Ericcson, Edward, Yazid, Tariq, Peter, John, and Ian.
We include briefly here a piece written by Ian, in response to the election in USA. We are grateful to Ian for allowing us to share this via our channels following original publication on his own blog. The title of the piece is Some Ancient Wisdom for Modern Day Elections
By Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell, William Temple Research Fellow and Communications Officer, on behalf of all at the William Temple Foundation
This week the Labour government released their first budget. Chancellor Rachel Reeves cautioned us about the scale and seriousness of the decisions being faced and set out that taking action was the responsible thing to do. But how do we decide which action to take? The assisted dying bill introduced by Kim Leadbeater MP continues to highlight this question of how we make decisions? In the Times former Bishop of Liverpool James Jones wrote,
“those wishing Parliament to change the law on assisted dying out of compassion assume the actions of the states are always benign, but the widespread and devastating ways that professionals… have patronised and harmed ordinary citizens undermine such confidence. The infected blood episodes, Hillsborough, the Gosport war Memorial Hospital, the mid Staffs Hospital, Grenfell Tower, the pandemic, the maternity care services and the post office horizon scandal raised disturbing concerns about the treatment of ordinary people by servants of the state”
A word that cuts across these economic, social, political and ethical debates, from the new budget, to the assisted dying debate, to examples highlighted by Bishop James, to any other policy issue you would care to think of, is justice. We were reminded on the William Temple Foundation blog two weeks ago by Chair of our Board Professor Simon Lee that, whilst we share a public square shaped by many different faiths and beliefs, we cannot take for granted who holds which perspective on a given issue, and how those perspectives might influence public debate and government decision making.
This kind of consideration is very much at home within the Temple Tradition. A famous quote from Christianity and Social Order is
“the art of government, in fact is the art of so ordering life, that self interest prompts what justice demands“ (Temple, 1942, p65).
Influence in this spirit can be seen in Temple’s role at the creation of the post-war “welfare state” (a phrase he coined in 1928). But the question remains how is this done? Where might we find the art Temple is referring too? We are directed to dialogue, or conversation or talking as Temple explains,
“by talking we gradually form public opinions and public opinions, if it’s strong enough, gets things done” (Temple, 1976, 114).
Temple argued that we should each speak from our own position, be open to scrutiny and challenge and seek justice in a consultative way. For those who have followed the work of the Foundation post-pandemic, they will know that we are operating in this space, but we are not arguing for applying Temple’s specific contributions from the 1940s, to public policy debates in the 2020s. We have acknowledged that we must imagine a fresh approach to seeking justice in the public square, suitable for the 21st century. This approach must address the positionality of leadership – it is no long adequate to simply defer to Archbishops in the way people did with Temple as valuable as their leadership is. Leadership must also be encouraged and welcomed from everywhere and the contributions of those from the margins of the different spaces we occupy across society must be heard. For the Foundation, this began in 2022 with gatherings in different spaces that have shaped the thinking and the tradition of Temple: Canterbury, Balliol College and Blackburn Cathedral. You will find the dialogues from each of these spaces recorded in their own publications within respectively the journal of Theology, our Temple Books collection and the Journal of Church and State. Most recently, this call for fresh approaches was offered by Simon Lee. Referring to the work of Jonathan Lear he invoked the actions of Chief Plenty Coups who in an act of radical hope set down his headdress and his coups stick as a sign of relinquishing his role and a call to action for new generations to realise the dream of those who shared his tradition.
In April 2024, colleagues and partners gathered at Liverpool Hope University to consider questions of radical hope in a time of election. Like Bishop James, we considered not just one policy issue, but began to open up deeper questions of how we seek justice in response to different crises? These range from the economic injustices which exacerbate poverty and inequality, to the personal self interest and environmental neglect that has led to the climate emergency, to the bureaucracy and deficit in leadership and governance which has plagued our public institutions. Like Temple we see it as critical to participate in processes of just decision-making, by contributing to argument and debate in the public square. This is ongoing. Public opinion, as Temple rightly pointed out, is formed through talking and listening to one another about the different things that are important to us. Since 2016, I have been exploring how we open up spaces for dialogue and debate which honours our differences and seeks to unite diverse constituencies with a sense of shared hope, through my own work Curating Spaces of Hope. I have been applying these ideas to questions of leadership and faith-based organisation and have written them up as my contribution to the Temple canon. Curating Spaces of Hope: Transformational Leadership for Uncertain Times will be available from SCM Press early next year.
In April 2025, the William Temple Foundation in partnership with Virginia Theological Seminary, and the Notre Dame Law Centre in London, will develop this thinking around radical hope, and just decision-making in the public square, by offering a conference at the Inner Temple. We will explore questions pertinent to those of all faiths and beliefs, around how we communicate with one another about what is most important to us across physical and digital spaces alike, in a manner that fosters dialogue in the public square. We will consider the challenges and opportunities that are being faced, and open up questions of how we might all contribute to just decision-making for all. For more on this agenda and the conference itself, keep an eye out for the new series of the William Temple Foundation podcast out in November via all the regular podcast channels.
Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell FRSA completed his PhD with a Temple Scholar at Goldsmiths University of London, is a Research Fellow of the William Temple Foundation, an Honorary Research Fellow at Liverpool Hope University and is a Dean’s Scholar at Virginia Theological Seminary in the USA.
On Saturday morning, I was sat by the waterfront in Liverpool. My wife had just finished swimming in the docks, my child was asleep in the pram next to me, and I was recovering from my morning bike ride. We were joined by a friend, who, after a few minutes noted “there’s an EDL rally on the Strand later” (5 minute walk from where we were seated). This would normally be shocking, but following the brutal murder of children in Southport (a coastal town 25mins up the road) days before, and the emergence of insidious riots in cities and towns across the country in the days that followed, it was not surprising. I cycled home along the Strand as I normally do. I passed through space where only hours later a policeman would be assaulted and knocked off his bike by rioters.
So what is going on? How has day-to-day life suddenly become juxtaposed with such violence and disorder? Are we, as Elon Musk has suggested descending inevitably into civil war? I think he’s being utterly irresponsible saying this – if I owned a social media platform, I hope I would use it substantially differently – nonetheless, something serious is going on. First and foremost is the fact that children have been murdered. We cannot lose sight of that. Their yoga teacher and passers-by became human shields. I see astonishing heroism in the face of utter evil. The response in Southport as a town has been powerful too. Flowers line the streets and people are gathering to sing, as well as to reflect on the personal and collective loss. New MP Patrick Hurley has been on twitter calling community leaders together to listen to what needs to be done. Recovery will take a long time. Second, there are what appear to be organised and coordinated acts of violence against people and communities that have done nothing wrong! There have been multiple examples in Liverpool.
Walton is down the road from where I live. Over the weekend, it was attacked as part of the disorder. We could hear sirens from our house and saw a helicopter overhead, as rioters roamed the streets. They burned down the Spallow Hub, which only last year received seven figure council investment to support people in the community. They also looted a local newsagents – it could’ve been the one across the road from us run by Kala and Kumar – thankfully it wasn’t. This isn’t the worst violence that has taken place, but from what I can see it is an astonishing act of self harm. Walton is a community characterised by deep poverty. The life expectancy here is 12 years less than Woolton, which is another Liverpool Ward 3 miles away. Interviews I conducted with leaders across the city last year make clear these differences are signalled by the colours of peoples clothes – more impoverished communities wear dark colours. Respondents described the experience in the city as “grinding poverty” and “like a poor family within a poor family”. City leaders told me this has been compounded over generations within a city rooted in sectarian divisions and built on the backs of enslaved people. These are not the only issues in play, but all of this complexity needs to be acknowledged, as it does in every town and city that has experienced riots, before we can take on the the seemingly impossible task of finding hope for the future in these places.
On my cycle home from the waterfront on Saturday, I passed the oldest mosque in the United Kingdom – Abdullah Quilliam Mosque. There was no sign of the disorder that had taken place the night before triggered by discrimination. The emerging narrative gives an indication of why this might be. What had begun as violent disorder, took a turn to spaces of hope as tentative engagement and listening took place. The response to clear aggression and anger was based not on social media misinformation or political tactics or even the steer of the Westminster policy collectives. The response was rooted in moments of hope characterised by food, dialogue and recognition of the other. Wounds were not healed, bridges were not rebuilt. But in those moments, violence stopped, connections were made, and the [im]possibility of hope was overcome.
It will take a generation of time to turn the tide on the crises that have catalysed the violence and disorder taking place on our doorsteps. However, this work has already begun and as long as it continues, one conversation and one meal at a time, there is hope.
Dr Matthew Barber-RowellFRSA is a resident of Liverpool, an Honorary Fellow at Liverpool Hope University, a Research Fellow at the William Temple Foundation and Founder of Spaces of Hope.
Our Trustee Rev Dr Paul Monk has authored a new book “The Liturgy of the Eucharist: An Introductory Guide” with SLG Press.
The vast theology and enormous depth of the Eucharist explains why it has been central to Christian worship since the time of the apostles. This modern guide to the Liturgy explores the Church of England’s Common Worship form of service. It explains and demystifies everything about the words, actions, traditions and meaning within the Eucharist service, both implicit and explicit. Throughout, the explanations are printed facing the respective text of the service, allowing the reader to follow through ‘in real time’ as a service proceeds and thereby appreciate better the various parts and gain a fuller understanding of the liturgy. The approach here is conceived for adult candidates for confirmation or considering reception into the church. It is also an ideal introduction for anyone interested in learning more about the Anglican liturgy, as well as an excellent resource for teaching and discussing its meaning.
The third in the ‘Vestry Guides’ series. This edition uses the forms of text from Common Worship and the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Created by Paul Monk.
Available from SLG Press: https://www.slgpress.co.uk/product/eucharist-guide/
The William Temple Foundation is delighted to announce a Keynote Public Lecture by Professor James Walters where he will consider the role of faith in British society within the context of global trends towards religious nationalism and escalating conflict. This lecture represents the centre piece of the Virtual Festival of Public Theology which the Foundation is running over the weekend of 21st and 22nd of June 2024.
Prof Walters will address the dramatic expansion of religious diversity and plurality in the UK and the issues they raise in policy and cultural debates, not least as British communities navigate the effects of the conflict in the Middle East. Professor Walters will highlight some of the challenges but also opportunities that lie ahead for the future of relations between Faith and State and wider society as we rebuild the social and economic fabric of our nation. The political and theological implications of this vision will be discussed by a panel of William Temple Foundation Research Fellows and Trustees including Prof Simon Lee, Prof Chris Baker, Dr Saiyyidah Zaidi and Revd Dr Ericsson Mapfumo.
Prof Chris Baker, Director off the William Temple Foundation has said of the lecture,
‘We are delighted to welcome Jim’s lecture as the centrepiece for our Festival of Public Theology. Jim is one of the foremost voices reflecting on the role of faith and belief in the public square in the UK and beyond, and how its relationship with wider society may evolve in the context of unfolding uncertainty and challenge.’
This public lecture is part of the William Temple Festival of Public Theology which will take place on 21-22 June 2024. The Festival offers an innovative online programme of short courses about theology, plurality and activism in public life. Building on the earlier traditions of William Temple College, it draws on current research and expertise of scholars affiliated with theWilliam Temple Foundation. To learn more about the Festival of Public Theology and to register free for the lecture by Prof Walters, go to eventbrite, here.
On Friday 26th April 2024, the William Temple Foundation hosted a roundtable in partnership with Liverpool Hope University, exploring an emerging interdisciplinary agenda framed in terms of “Radical Hope”.
This gathering welcomed leaders from across civil society. Bishop John Arnold, Catholic Bishop of Salford, joined us. Bishop John leads the response to the climate crisis by the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) Ian Markham was present. We were deeply fortunate to have partners from the region including Diocese of Manchester and Manchester Cathedral represented by Rev Grace Thomas, Poverty Research and Advocacy Network represented by Dr Natalija Atas and Liverpool Hope University represented by Rev Julia Pratt, Prof Peter McGrail, Prof Stephen Shakespeare. The gathering was framed using two papers: one by William Temple Foundation Chair, Prof Simon Lee, and one by Foundation Research Fellow Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell, which combined to offer a basis from which to respond to the devastation being caused in the public square.
Prof Lee set out three framings of hope,
Running Streams of Hope: inspired by the quote by Cardinal Suenens ’To hope is not to dream but to turn dreams into reality’, which encouraged a more grounded and determined sense of hope within political, national and institutional life.
Ripples of Hope: inspired by the words of Robert F Kennedy, “Each time you stand up for an ideal, or act to improve the lot of others, or strike out against injustice, you send forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”
Deep-Freezing Hope: which took inspiration from Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow People in America, who set down his headdress and coup stick as a symbol of the end of an era in the life of his people, whilst holding on to the Dream they represent for future generations to take up. This account is given in Jonathan Lear’s Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation.
Following this, Dr Barber-Rowell offered three approaches to unearthing and building hope:
Curating Spaces of Hope: This is a pioneering new paradigm of faith based organisation which has emerged in north west England since 2016 and was the subject of Dr Barber-Rowell’s PhD thesis. Spaces of Hope utilises new materialism inspired by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to mapping our lived experiences, making sense of how to find hope and build resilience when things break down, and to integrate these into new dialogues, movements, networks and partnerships of hope across difference. This approach offers a 21st Century update to William Temple’s consultative methodology set out in Christianity and Social Order
A turn to Radical Hope: This turn is characterised in three ways. 1) Curating Spaces of Hope interdisciplinary approach and use of new materialism offers synergies with the Radical Theology* developed by Jeffrey Robbins and Clayton Crockett. 2) A new social movements methodology which locates it within the radical democratic tradition. This is characterised by Bert Klandermans as: a) different constituencies, b) a search for values, and c) different forms of action which are non-hierarchical and open to brokering relationship between communities and ‘institutions’. 3) developing understandings of leadership through dialogue with the work of Antonio Gramsci and his writings on traditional and organic intellectuals in his Prison Notebooks.
Emerging Hope: Four applications of Curating Spaces of Hope were offered from across the north west of England from 2022 – present. 1) Ecologies of Hope: development of technical mapping and lay leadership resources in the Diocese of Manchester which respond to the climate crisis and the challenge of reaching Net Zero by 2030. 2) From poverty to Hope in the city: cocreation of a vision and strategy for eradicating poverty in the city of Liverpool with Liverpool Chanty and Voluntary Services and its members. 3) Politics of Hope: responding to the challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers associated with the Dialogue Society by offering space with others from their community to share their story and to acknowledge their own ‘woundedness’ (Weller, 2022). 4) Hope in Higher Education: working from the margins of Liverpool Hope University using dialogue to map and respond to working culture, working practices and the role of faith in higher education and to issue calls for change to the Mission and Values Committee of the University.
The panels that followed developed on these framings and approaches through interdisciplinary papers responding to crises shaping the public square in the 21st Century namely ecological crises, poverty, politics crises and institutional crisis with focus on Higher Education. On hearing reports from the gathering, William Temple Foundation Director Prof Chris Baker later characterised the gathering as a ‘micro-Malvern’, which is a reference to the 1941 gathering chaired by Archbishop William Temple which sought to find solutions to the crises of the day, drawing on shared faith and speaking into public life in response to an unjust economic context. This is a welcome comparison, but with some necessary updates. The panel of delegates at Hope in April 2024 represents a much more demographically diverse gathering. Further, the agendas discussed were not centred around the economic struggles of the day. Panels on ecology, education, politics and poverty provided a rich and interdisciplinary seedbed from which roots and shoots of hope could form. Further, drawing on the ideas of Gramsci and the evidence from the Spaces of Hope movement, the emerging agenda is being formed by both organic and traditional leaders and positionalities. Our agenda was less about the nation and more about our local context defined by communities and institutions in the north west of England across the M62 corridor, although this was put in theoretical, national and international contexts by diverse participants.
This gathering sits alongside and develops upon others from 2022 which reflected on Christianity and Social Order, its place in history, and ways in which we might envision a similar agenda in the Temple Tradition for 21st Century Britain which puts pressure on government from below to produce morally robust engagement with the common good. This was developed most recently at Blackburn Cathedral in 2022 and covered in the 2023 Special Issue of Journal of Church and State edited by Dr Yazid Said.
With this in mind we thank Bishop John Arnold from the Catholic Diocese of Salford for his presence and contributions throughout. We were globally networked through the generous contributions from Ian Markham who flew in to join us from Virgina Theological Seminary, Dr Hirpo Kumbi representing pioneering faith based education and partnerships in Ethiopia, as well as Prof Edward Abbott-Halpin, a William Temple Foundation Trustee, who commuted for 11-hours from Orkney to be with us. We also thank Dr Yazid Said and Dr Barber-Rowell for organising the gathering and to Prof Guy Cuthbertson and Prof Peter McGrail for hosting us.
We will publish the papers from this gathering in a number of forms. These include, as a Podcast, and as a Temple Book. We will then also look ahead to how we might continue to grow a movement of Radical Hope.
We are delighted to share that the William Temple Foundation has appointed six new trustees. A call was issued in December 2023 for expressions of interest and following a process of discernment led by our existing board, 6 new trustees were invited to their first board meeting on 22nd March. Our new trustees are: Rev Dr Paul Monk, Rev Dr Deirdre Brower Latz, Ian Mayer DL, Rev Dr Ericsson Mapfumo, Tariq Mahmood, and Prof Edward Abbott-Halpin. As a public theology think tank, we have been encouraged by the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary experience that has been made available to us through our diverse Board. In the months to come there will be opportunity for you to get to know new trustees via our website and through public offerings as part of our developing programme of work. Responding to the appointments,
Chair of the Board Prof Simon Lee said, ‘More than one hundred years after he first became a bishop, William Temple is still a symbol of faith in the public square seeking justice and hope for all. This Foundation, taking forward the spirit of his life’s work, is blessed to welcome a new cohort of trustees as we widen and deepen our work in partnerships.’
Director of Research Prof Chris Baker said, “It’s truly humbling but also inspiring to welcome such a dynamic set of new Trustees to the board, who bring a wide variety of skills and experience in public and community life, and leadership. Building on expertise already available in the Trustee board, this represents a really optimistic moment in the next evolution of the Foundation’s mission.“
The William Temple Foundation is very pleased to partner with Faith and Belief Forum in a pioneering six month training program aimed at nurturing and developing future leaders from a variety of different faith and belief backgrounds. The course ambition is to up-skill young leaders in the art of campaigning for social change and to develop policies to reflect those ambitions. At the end of the program there will be a presentation in Parliament on a campaign of the participants choice in June 2024.
The Foundation via Professor Chris Baker and Dr Saiyyidah Zaidi is providing input into the history of faith based campaigning around issues such as formation of the welfare state and how identity impacts self-leadership and advocacy. This allows us to draw upon historical resources such as William Temple’s thinking and leadership as well as contemporary sources and experiences such as narrative development, leadership skills, and communication. Future sessions being delivered by the Foundation are: ‘faith, justice, and welfare;’ ‘creating momentum for change and measuring human capabilities;’ and ‘belief, belonging and motivation.’
This project represents for the Foundation a new and exciting opportunity to facilitate dialogue among and between young people, youth-focussed organisations, faith-based organisations and decision-makers across the political landscape to explore how to address cross-community tensions.
For more information please contact: Professor Chris Baker chris@williamtemplefoundation.org.uk and Dr Saiyyidah Zaidi sz@saiyyidah.com