Happy Christmas from everyone at Sarum College.
Over Christmas and New Year Sarum College will be closed from 5pm on Friday 22 December 2017 and will reopen at 9am on Tuesday 2 January 2018.
All messages and emails will be responded to in the new year.
We know everyone says it’s been a busy year, but there really has been a lot going on at Sarum College in the past year, and here’s a hint of it:
January saw the opening of the Paint Me This way exhibition by Susan Carr who painted portraits of terminally ill. We held the year’s first Centre for Formation in Ministry study day held during our ministry training weekends, and open to all. Try the forthcoming Christian Doctrine and History or Bible in Context sessions.
We also welcomed Mark Oakley of St. Paul’s Cathedral to launch his book A Splash of Words.
In February, we held the first Relocating Religion: Cultural and Spiritual Realignments module created in partnership by the Centre for Theology, Imagination and Culture and the Centre for Implicit Religion. It was a huge success and will run again in February 2019.
In March we welcomed Gillian Ahlgren from Xavier University in Ohio, who led an evening on spirituality and social justice. Gillian is back for the Summer School in August, a joint venture of the Centre for Contemporary Spirituality and Centre for Human Flourishing. We also had a talk on Mary and Nicholas Grey’s book Thirsting for Water, 30 years of Wells for India, a charity they founded to bring sustainable supplies of drinking water to 1.5 million people.
In April, Holy Week was led by Clare and Alan Amos who have had distinguished ministries in the Middle East. Ann Philp (read her delightful blog here) takes the mantle in March 2018 Holy Week. April also saw the first of four Sarum Lectures and a seminar by Dr Jane Shaw on the lives and faith of four 20th century Anglicans who revived spirituality at a time when people were questioning institutional religion.
In May, John Harper gave a talk on Ritual, Music and Architecture at Salisbury’s first Cathedral, as part of the Centre for Liturgy and Worship’s Music and Worship module which is running again in May 2019.
In June The Centre for Leadership Learning held its Understanding Organisations module. Don’t miss the April 2018 Christian Leadership in the Public Square module – it has a great line-up of contributors.
In July, Theology Quest and Questions concluded with a discussion of God and Christian Identity. David Catchpole is back on 9 January for the spring term.
During August we launched photographer Sam Ivin’s Lingering Ghosts exhibition of portraits of those seeking asylum in the UK.
The following week we held a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Victoria Cross award to Padre Addison who trained at Salisbury Theological College. Pictured above is Padre Addison’s grandson, Tim Addison, along with James Woodward. The College’s display of the replica Victoria Cross will be unveiled at the Robbins Lecture on February 15th.
We also held the Centre for Formation in Ministry Summer School, marking the start of the academic year for the 21 new students training for ordination and four training to be Licensed Lay Ministers (LLMs).
In September we held the last of three 2017 Taster Days, for those interested in postgraduate study here, as well as the Niblett Memorial Lecture, How to Speak of God with Elaine Graham. Look out for next year’s special Niblett Lecture on September 22nd in Salisbury’s Guildhall with Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis charity.
In October the Sarum College Library had a wonderful exhibition on historic Bibles and hosted events as part of the national Secret Libraries week. We are excited about our new Rural Pathway and ran our first rural ministry study day: Rural Churches: The Story of Community with Janneke Blokland. The month concluded with events from the inaugural Salisbury Literary Festival.
Books were flying off Sarum College Bookshop tables and on the Writers’ Day, the Cavell Room was packed with soaking up top tips from the professionals.
The November Song of Songs Biblical Study Break led by Philip Seddon had beautiful art, bowls of almonds and books on display to set the scene. Browse the Centre for Encountering the Bible’s 2018 courses here. We also had a wine tasting evening with our esteemed former Chair of Trustees Alec Knight who gave us a delicious tour of seven wines with food matches lovingly made by our catering manager, Richard Amey. We are planning a summer wine tasting evening so do let us know if you’re interested. In the meantime, if you’re planning a function or just want to come for a meal, view our menus and get in touch.
In December we hosted the MODEM conference, an annual gathering of those engaged in value-based approaches to leadership. Last week, Principal James Woodward was in conversation with Elizabeth Bartlett (both pictured), who has worked to support those with dementia for more than 40 years.
The two were recorded as part of the BBC’s Listening Project. James writes a blog and there’s a growing list of Dementia Resources for Christians on our website.
Those are just the highlights! For more information, and to see what’s coming up, visit our news page and the website events calendar.
With very best wishes for 2018 from all of us at Sarum College.
Leave a Reply