August - November: The Courage to Change

 Tue 12 September 12:15pm - 1pm

Paul Gibson, recent Disability Rights Commissioner

Paul Gibson was the Disability Rights Commissioner for the Human Rights Commission from 2011-2017. He is a former president of the Disabled People's Assembly and was involved in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD).

Paul is partially blind and uses Braille and assistive technology. He has 20 years of experience in the health and disability sector including working for Capital Coast District Health Board as a senior disability advisor.

Tue 10 October 12:30-1:30 - Martin large,

Shock Capitalism or Common Wealth?

Free, Equal, Earthcaring and Mutual : Rebalancing Society

Precis: There is no wealth but life,” said John Ruskin, offering hope. However, shock capitalism and shock politics are attacking our planet, businesses, government, schools, health and human security. Shocks like Trump or Brexit are opportunities for the corporatocracy to profit from global warming, insecurity, deregulation, taking away human rights, tax cuts and wealth transfer from poor to rich, public to private. Society is out of balance.

Martin Large will argue that saying ‘No’ is not enough, though it's a vital first step. In fact, the social future is breaking out everywhere in social business, communities and government, but it’s not evenly distributed. A ‘common wealth’ society is emerging. Pushing back the toxic mix of shock capitalism and politics means rebalancing society as a three legged stool, of public (state), private (business) and plural (civil society, community, culture) with each sector contributing its strengths.

Solutions? Cultural renewal enables every human to develop and maintain their potential in freedom-and contribute. How can the common wealth of land, capital and natural resources be captured for the community and protected from the market through trusteeship? What does it mean to be a citizen? How do innovations like community supported agriculture help develop a circular, mutual, regenerative economy that respects the earth?

Bio: Martin Large is on a learning and lecture tour inquiring into ‘common wealth’ community initiatives, civic projects and social businesses. Father of four children, Quaker, student of Rudolf Steiner’s education and social thinking, former academic, publisher with Hawthorn Press, he is a director of Stroud (UK) Common Wealth Ltd which enables co-op, cultural and social businesses e.g. community land trusts. Author of Social Ecology (1981); Set Free Childhood (2002); Futures that Work (2003), Common Wealth (2010)

‘What society do we want and how do we get there?’ are burning questions
we all face, if we are to leave a more equal, free, prosperous and earthcaring world for our grandchildren. Its up to all of us, as there is no wealth but life. I look forward to sharing burning questions, people’s ‘leadings’ from the social future they see emerging. ‘ ML

 Link to a review of Martin's recent book Common Wealth: Free, Equal, Mutual and Sustainable Society (2010)

More can be read on his blog

November 3 & 4 Spring Seminar on Courage to Change

Friday 3 November 5:30pm - Courage in speaking out

Excerpts form the Geering Heresy trial - The Last Western Heretic

Brief address by Prof Sir Lloyd Geering and Prof Hal Taussig followed by a Question and Answer session.

Professor Sir Lloyd Geering was born in Canterbury in 1918 and educated in Otago. He holds Honours degrees in Mathematics and Old Testament Language and Literature. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister, he served in Kurow, Dunedin and Wellington. He held Chairs of Old Testament Studies at theological colleges in Brisbane and Dunedin before being appointed as the foundation Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. From this he retired in 1984. The University of Otago awarded him an Honorary D.D. in 1976 and he received a C.B.E. in the 1987 New Year Honours, PCNZM in 2001 and ONZ in 2007. His major publications include “God in the New World” (1968), “Resurrection - a Symbol of Hope” (1971), “Faith’s New Age” (1980), “In the World Today” (1988), “Tomorrow’s God” (1994), “The World to Come” (1999), ‘Christianity without God’ (2002), ‘Wrestling with God’ (2006), ‘Coming back to Earth’ (2009), ‘Such is Life!’ (2010), 'From the Big Bang to God' (2013), 'Reimagining God: The Faith Journey of a Modern Heretic’, (2014), ‘On Me Bike: Cycling round New Zealand 80 years ago (2015), ‘Portholes to the Past: Reflections on the early 20th century (2016).

Professor Hal Taussig is a post-modern theologian and pastor. He celebrates the vitality of pluralistic Catholic and Protestant communities in North America, and works energetically to expand their spiritual and intellectual reaches. His professorial career has featured experimental and humor-filled masters and Ph.D. level instruction in New Testament and early Christianity for 17 years at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City and more than a decade in Roman Catholic colleges and universities as Professor of Bible.
Of his 14 books, the most recent are A New New Testament: A 21st Century Bible Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts; Re-Reading the Gospel of Mark Amidst Loss and Trauma; A New Spiritual Home: Progressive Christianity at the Grass Roots; and In the Beginning Was the Meal: Social Experimentation and Early Christian Identity. While a professor, he co-pastored two long-term churches that rose from the ashes and displayed young congregation members full of social moxy, multi-cultural hilarity, and art-filled innovative worship. He is currently the co-chair of Westar Institute’s Christianity Seminar that is re-writing history of early Christianity, a member of Westar’s Board of Directors, Board Chair of the Tanho Center (on the study of extra-canonical texts), and on the steering committee of the national Society of Biblical Literature’s Seminar on Meals in the Greco-Roman World. Ordained a United Methodist, he currently has an episcopal appointment as a consultant for churches in decline.

Saturday 9:30 am - 3:00pm - Courage to Act

Prof Hal Taussig will give a lecture followed by Q & A, workshops etc.  Program still under development

November 6 - 8 Sea of Faith Conference

Reformation 2.0 :Luther lit a fuse, what happens next?

It is 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg. This provides a starting point for a consideration of how events unfolded since then, and more especially, how religion and spirituality are evolving in our time. What are the reforming initiatives today? What new spiritual/religious developments are needed in our time as we face a cultural situation and ethical issues that were simply not there in previous centuries?
What needs to be discarded, challenged, or radically renewed?
This year our topic is more related to the development of Christianity than our usual generic approach to religion, largely because western society’s history, development and ethics have evolved largely from that wellspring, as has our own, since the arrival of the pakeha. It is not to exclude other influences, but simply to acknowledge the Christian heritage as the mainstream of our cultural development.

Conference venue: Silverstream retreat

see sof.org.nz for the program and details

Other events on in Wellington that you may be interested in

ENCOUNTERING AUGUSTINE
A public lecture series by Professor Gillian E Clark.
In this lecture series, Professor Clark examines Augustine’s central, most influential and contested ideas, exploring their context and origins and assessing their enduring significance. Each lecture will take place in the Council Chamber, Hunter building , Gate 2 Kelburn Parade.
Tuesday 15 August , 5.30 - 6.45pm - Peace and Empire

Wednesday, 16 August, 5.30 - 6.45pm- Where does evil come from?

Thursday 17 August , 5.30 - 7pm - What happens in a life?

Professor Clark is also the speaker at the Presbytery Gathering at St Johns in The City 18 - 20 August.

ADVANCE, ADVANCE NOTICE - REFORMATION MONTH
October will be Reformation Month at St Andrew’s, Sunday October 1 to Sunday October 29 (Reformation Sunday).
October 1 Why? What theological changes led to the Protestant Reformation?
October 8 Where? Reformation in the context of Europe and Scotland
October 15 Who? Reformers of the Reformer’ Wall, Geneva
October 22 How? Printing and the Reformation
October 29 What? Differences Reformation has made to the world and the church.
This may make you plan to be at church during October – or plan to stay away! I hope it will be the former! Susan