As I have already noted, the first week or so in July is going to look pretty packed with conferences here in Melbourne and beyond.
First up will be the MCD Centenary Conference that I gave details of a while ago, this will run from 5-7 July.
This is immediately followed by this year's ANZATS Conference running from July 7-9. The flyer for the conference is available here, and the call for papers here. The theme for this is:
The Future of God: Eschatology and the global challenges of the future
That God ‘will be who God will be’ is not in question. But the future of God’s
people, of humanity, of the earth and the whole cosmos – these are very much
open questions. Christian faith places its trust in the One who raised Jesus from the
dead, the great sign of the prophets’ vision of a new creation in which all things
would be transformed. What does it mean to live in the light of this hope, that the
future is God’s? How shall we speak of the unknown – and the unknowable?
The 2010 ANZATS/ANZSTS Conference will explore these questions in depth,
drawing on the scriptures, Christian tradition, the natural and social science.
Breaking news is that Professor Paul Fiddes will be in Melbourne to speak at the MCD and ANZATS conferences - this is great news.
Hot on the heels of these two ecumenical events is a Conference running from the 9th-11th July, at the Centre for Theology and Ministry dedicated to exploring theological issues in the Uniting Church of Australia. More information can be found here. Again here is the conference summary and timetable:
Engaging the Basis
The conference will seek to:
- provide an opportunity for scholarly discussion, debate and exchange of ideas about the theological responsibilities of the UCA and the particular theological commitments of the Basis of Union
- establish a context whereby such a discussion would engage theological scholars, theological teachers, church leaders and other interested parties
- stimulate – through the conference itself and an anticipated volume of conference papers – serious reflection in the wider UCA on the role of theology in the church’s ministry of worship, witness and service.
It will meet these goals by focusing very deliberately and with scholarly discipline on a number of key theologically significant phrases of the Basis of Union. The conference will also include a public forum which will both explore the theological intentions of the Joint Commission on Church Union when it was writing the Basis and reflect on how the Basis has shaped the actual life of the UCA.
Further details of exact titles of the various papers will be posted closer to the time of the conference.
Ben Myers will be at the Engaging the Basis conference (and maybe the others), but with others will be scooting back to Sydney for the Colloquium with Sarah Coakley that he mentioned a while ago, this runs from 12-13 July, which I hope to attend even though July 13th is my birthday!
Roll on July!
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