Buy Bye Childhood
Has the commercialisation of childhood won? To advertisers children are anything from small, absorbent consumer capitalists, to fulcrums of parent pester-power, and receptacles of prematurely adult...
The bluffer’s guide to Israel and Palestine
Nigel Varndell first went to the Occupied Palestinian Territories ten years ago and has been going back every year since. He has talked with politicians, soldiers, gunmen, religious leaders, NGO...
It’s a Mad World
How Thatch- and then Blatcherism turned us into a nation of It Could Be You, Shop Till You Drop, credit-fuelled consumer junkies. Oliver James explains how a sane world can and will come...
How do you spell hell?
Dante's Vision of Hell has more mainstages than Greenbelt, and yet, at the pit of it all, there is an image of Luficer frozen in a lake of his own tears. This talk will use poetry, story and...
Internation Development: Does Theology Matter
A conversation about the theology that underpins the work of a Christian development organisation. Paula presents an approach based on relational theology and will include live comment from one of...
Middle Eastenders: The Bible As Soap Opera
Some Bible stories are perplexing if they are spiritualised in a sermon but make complete sense if you treat them like a TV soap. This sideways look at Bible stories digs through sex, betrayal and...
Speaker(s): Peter GraystoneThe Secret Life Of Human Beings
As human beings we soon realise that we are not one, but many. How do we live with the different parts within us: the judgement, lust, rage, and depression as well as the joy, passion and empathy?...
Speaker(s): Mark YaconelliThe Philosopher Jesus
Might Jesus have been a kind of philosopher – one in the Cynic tradition, even? After all, Jesus didn't write anything bar a few doodles in the sand, a fact he shares with Socrates, another...
Speaker(s): Mark VernonOn Not Teaching Your Grandparents To Suck Eggs
Today's religiously and socially plural society is in some respects very similar to that of the early Church. Being Christian was not “normal”, nor popular, and there were plenty of gods and...
drones, democracy & depleted uranium
Robots, battlefield nuclear weapons and cluster bombs are changing the face of war. These weapons kill and injure civilians and combatants indiscriminately. Christians – just warriors and pacifists...
Speaker(s): Michael NorthcottSeeking the Risen Christ
The image of a female Christ figure – the Christa – is a motif in feminist theology, and a surprisingly popular image in contemporary art. Yet most of these images depict a suffering figure,...
Speaker(s): Nicola SleeHealing Liturgy
Our sound is our wound
We live in a noisy world. Where is the sound of Scripture or the voice of God? If we are listening for God's voice, how do we know if we have heard it? How can we live a different rhythm in the...
Speaker(s): Lucy WinkettWriting On The Wall
Our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even our justice system are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. This session...
The 3 desires. Christianity as a spiritual path
There are three yearnings that burn within every human heart: to know a larger source of love, to hold love for ourselves, and to share love with others. Mark explores the unique way in which...