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 the hell 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
The William Temple Foundation is delighted to announce the appointment of two new Fellows for 2024. Our Fellowship is designed to reflect and enhance the innovative and interdisciplinary scholarship and practice that we offer through our work across the UK. With this in mind it is our pleasure to welcome Dr Saiyyidah Zaidi and Natalie Law.
Dr Saiyyidah Zaidi joins us as a Senior Research Fellow. She enhances the Foundation through her pioneering approach to Practical Theology as the first Muslim in Britain to complete a PhD in the subject. The title of Saiyyidah’s thesis was “This is the sound of my soul: seeking belonging and inclusion in practical theology“. Her other professional interests draw on her background as an architect and her current practice coaching leadership with senior professionals. You can read more about Saiyyidah here.
Natalie Law joins us as a Research Fellow. Natalie is based at the University of London where she lecturers in Social Studies at Goldsmiths College and is completing her PhD at Southbank. Natialie’s work ensures the voices of marginalized and excluded community groups are heard. This work covers themes from, the faith based coping mechanisms of the Windrush generation, to Black female students exploring and negotiating intersectional and marginalised spiritual, religious and cultural identities within higher education and Community and Youth Work. You can read more about Natalie here.
William Temple Foundation Director, Prof. Chris Baker said, “I am delighted and privileged to be able to welcome Saiyyidah and Natalie to the Foundation. Both will enrich our output and presence through their innovative writing, extensive networking and progressive research agendas. It’s an excellent way to start 2024.“
We are delighted to announce the release of Issue 65 of the Journal of Church and State on William Temple and the Rebuilding of the Public Square in Post-Pandemic Britain. This special issue, explores the contributions of William Temple to the formation of a post-war Britain as exemplified by his seminal text Christianity and Social Order, and sets out a progressive and hopeful agenda for 2024 and beyond. The journal, co-edited by Rev Dr Yazid Said of Liverpool Hope University and a Trustee of William Temple Foundation, offers articles from Christian, Jewish and Muslim perspectives, critiquing the historical influence of Archbishop William Temple, and issuing a call to action to engage politically with the local and national concerns shaping our public squares in Britain today.
The journal comprises a diversity of contributions from different worldviews and interdisciplinary perspectives including many scholars associated with the William Temple Foundation namely, Prof Chris Baker, Dr Ekaterina Braginskaia, Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell, Dr David Shaw and Dr Yazid Said. The journal also includes contributions from Nathan Eddy and Steve Williams from the Council of Christians and Jews, as well as esteemed Islamic scholar and practitioner Prof Mohamed M Keshavjee. We are also deeply grateful to Rowan Williams and Tim Winter for offering engaged and expert responses to the diverse range of contributions, which authenticate and champion the agenda we are setting out.
Regarding this publication, Prof Chris Baker Director of the William Temple Foundation said, We are deeply grateful to Dr Yazid Said for his vision and determination in bringing this conference and publication about, which recognises in fresh and contemporary ways the historical relevance of Temple’s thought to both the NorthWest of England and those from the Abrahamic traditions
The Serendipity of Hope ed. Simon Lee and Ian Markham. Pickwick Publications. USA. English. 292 pages. ISBN 1666737062
“Serendipity of Hope offers a compelling vision of what our colleges and universities might look like if they rediscover, and honour in action, the founding values and legacies” (Gareth Jones, Theological Education Advisor to the Archbishop of Hong Kong).
This quote from Jones from the back cover of the book, speaks to the value that can be found in this volume. With this review, I will seek to honour the spirit of story and peripheral experience at the heart of the book, to open up the opportunity that it presents for institutions today.
I first came across this edited volume in its very early stages of development in 2020. I had just moved to Liverpool, and I had just heard of Liverpool Hope University. The William Temple Foundation had just taken on a new research fellow, Dr Sanjee Perera, and it was via a tweet from Dr Perera that I became aware of this new project on “hope”. Hope is a theme in my work, and so I went digging and I managed to wangle an invite to a learning day, hosted by Professor Lee the former Rector at Hope, which was the basis for this book. I was allowed to listen in from the periphery, to a series of papers reflecting on “hope” at Hope over the previous 25 years. I was encouraged by the experience, and having recently submitted my PhD, I was left with the question, what about the next 25 years? Since attending this gathering, I’ve become an Honorary Fellow at Hope, where I have engaged in postdoctoral research both within the University and in the city of Liverpool. I have explored the question of whether we are Hope by name and “hope” by nature? There is a definite synergy between this volume; The Serendipity of Hope, and my work. I will publish on this synergy elsewhere. However with this in mind, I was lucky to attend the launch of the book at Lambeth Palace on 3rd November 2023. This gathering brought together authors from the book, and people with a fresh association with Liverpool Hope including myself, a recently minted PhD exploring faith-based universities in Ethiopia where Higher Education is otherwise secular in nature, and the new Vice Chancellor at Hope Professor Claire Ozanne. It was fitting that the volume was formulated and then launched in gatherings such as these, as it speaks to the sense of nurture, and journey which are at the centre of the book.
In chapter 1, Professor Lee characterises this using the language of “alma mater” where mater translates as mother, but taken together, the translation has a broader sense of nurture. Lee argues that this sense is not just for the period of being on campus, or being within the institution, but something which can set people up for the future. There are clear examples throughout. In chapter 11, this theme was picked up in a chapter on motherhood. Dr Vicky Baker explores twin threads of present experience as a ‘home engineer’ (p169) where she cares for her son, and her experience of teaching at Hope. Baker recollects that she was attracted to Hope by the staff team (her PhD was supervised by Professor Ian Markham) and the ecumenical foundation the University has. However she was contending with being homesick. The chapter sets out the nurturing role that Markham and Lee offered Baker, which exemplified the nurture Lee speaks of, and enabled Baker to continue her professional life, whilst also overcoming her homesickness. Baker concludes with reference to her own role with her son today, to bring the account full circle and to symbolise the affect of nurture as part of motherhood.
Articulating “hope” through lived experience is a key thread throughout. In chapter 6 Dr Perera highlights this in the contexts of crisis. A key example is from the Toxteth riots in the 1980s and the responses of Bishop David Shepherd and Archbishop Derek Worlock, who bought their friendship and vocation together to seek the common good in the city of Liverpool. Perera points to many other examples of what she terms as ‘pro-social responses’ from the social sciences, but highlights that the pursuit of hope, the inherent risk therein and the potential it offers, are often missing from these. We are directed instead to what she characterised as ‘pedagogies of hope’ which transcend secular constructions of social life within institutions and offer something more. This sense of something more flows through the volume and is found once again in chapter 9, via emphasis on journey, characterised as the Camino of Hope by Sean Gallagher. This chapter is the first publication for the now retired Director of Finance from Hope from Lee’s era in the early 2000s. An anecdote, which was shared at the launch, regarded Gallagher’s volunteering at the Liverpool Hope Internet café at the Albert Dock on the waterfront in Liverpool. As the Director of Finance, Sean spent his Sunday afternoon helping people at the cafe, which came to the attention of what turned out to be Dr Perera’s father. Sean’s volunteering and commitment at the periphery of the University stood out and was the basis for Sanjee being sent to study at Hope, her PhD at Hope, and nurturing relationships set out in the text that span over 25 years, and many more instances besides. There are many other chapters of great interest, which speak to the diversity, and pioneering nature of an institution, which is premised on bringing together and overcoming differences from the past to shape the present and offer hope for the future.
Chapter 19, the final chapter, is offered by the co-editor of the volume Ian Markham and Joe Thompson. As a former Head of Theology at Liverpool Hope, and current Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), Markham is well placed to honour the distinctiveness of how a University’s past relates to the way things are done in the present, and what they might bring to the future. He concludes the opening section with a quote from the writer of the book of James in the Bible, “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only”, and characterises it as the ethos of Hope (p.268). In this way, this final chapter on reparations, highlights the way in which Hope inspired Markham and hints at how this flows through into the work he leads at VTS today. Whilst VTS is characterised in the chapter as “the strongest seminary or theological college, in the Anglican Communion” (p.268), it has also been complicit in the slave trade. The story of VTS can help understand reparations as not just a case of moving some statues and putting up some signs containing context of who and what continues to be honoured on campus, but rather as something much more embodied, pointing to how institutions should and could work. Markham offers a powerful and welcome challenge for faith based institutions and others contributing to public life, and one which gives my question regards the next 25 years, fresh emphasis and traction!
How do we pick up the question of “hope” and sense of nurture, which prepare us for the crises that we experience along life’s journey? How do we do this in a way, which is realistic about what has gone before whilst putting things right which have gone wrong, and offering space for a new generation to pick up the baton? With these questions in mind, in the context of deep set institutional changes in the United Kingdom today and around the world, this volume has much to offer.
Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell is an Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow at Liverpool Hope University, Research Fellow at the William Temple Foundation and Founder of Spaces of Hope.
It is with great pleasure that the Foundation can announce the appointment of Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell as its new Communications Officer. Matthew has a long association and knowledge of the work of the Foundation having been the first of our William Temple Scholars to achieve their doctorate back in 2021, and now currently one of our Research Fellows. Matthew is currently based in Liverpool with his wife Phoebe and his son Benjamin. Matthew has a varied portfolio of work which is focussed on developing local leadership that responds to global crises and explores approaches to building resilience. This portfolio includes Ecological Transformation with Diocese of Manchester including the launch of Eco Stepping Stones, postdoctoral research at Liverpool Hope University considering the role of faith in higher education, and consultancy work for example a recent piece with Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services, co-creating a vision and strategy for eradicating poverty in the city.
Dr Barber-Rowell says, ‘I am delighted to be taking on this new role with the William Temple Foundation. I recognise the distinctive role the Foundation plays in shaping interdisciplinary engagement, dialogue, leadership and policy regards faith in public life in the UK. I relish the prospect of contributing to this by amplifying the great work of the Foundation, its fellows and partners, in my time here’.
Professor Chris Baker, Director of Research for the Foundation responds, ‘It is great to welcome Matthew into this role. Matthew will bring not only the technical aspects of this role, but also a deep understanding of public theology and policy based on his pioneering research and consultancy as the founder of Spaces of Hope. We are very privileged to have someone of his skills and experience undertaking this role’.
