- A One Day Workshop for Theological Educators
On behalf of BIAPT (the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology) and CSCS (the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality), you are invited to attend the workshop, or to share this notice with any theological educators you know who might find it worthwhile.
The dates are:
Manchester, 20 June 2016
10:15am – 5:00 pm
Luther King House, Brighton Grove, M14 5JP
Please book by 1 June 2016
(and 24th June in London)
The workshop will prepare theological educators, Diocesan Directors of Ordinands, and other theological teachers and trainers to handle hot-button issues around sexuality and gender. If interested, please read on! Further information is also available at our website.
The Challenge
As theological educators, we help to form and to inform a wide range of professional and informal faith leaders: parish ministers, chaplains, teachers, parents, and a great many other adult faith practitioners. In a society often troubled or confused around issues of sex, gender, sexuality, and embodiment, how do we help our students to deal with these questions? How do we prepare them to deal with the people who will turn to them for insight, understanding, and support?
Issues and emotions around sexuality and gender are becoming more prominent in theological education. These issues can come up in our work with theology students, with ministers-in-training, and with ministers in the field. They can come up in classroom discussions around ethics, ministry, Scripture, and systematic theology; in discussions about Christian history and about contemporary life. They can come up in academic, ecclesial, and secular settings.
Some of the students in our classes may be wrestling with the doctrine and discipline of their different denominations. Some may be wrestling with challenging new perspectives on sex and embodiment. Some may be wrestling with their own experience of gender and sexuality; with sexism or other forms of discrimination; or with sexual trauma (whether their own, or the trauma of others).
The Workshops
Tackling questions about sexuality and gender calls for engaged, interactive, and experiential pedagogies. Our one-day workshops provide resources and practical training to help teachers tackle these challenging issues. Together, we will explore how to address sex and gender across social and cultural contexts; across differences in personal history; and across different denominational backgrounds. We will provide space and time to think through the challenges of raising these issues within our institutional cultures and settings. Process will be a key part of our content, as we seek to equip and resource each other in this challenging work.
The day will include:
- Creating a safe, critical, and prayerful space for shared learning
- Shared reflection on our current teaching practices
- Finding a shared language around sexualities and gender
- Practicing specific classroom strategies, including:
- Creative Questioning
- Embodied Theological Reflection
- Topic Fishbowling
- Comparative Models of Theological Reflection
- Shared lunch and breaktimes
- Educational resources and handouts