Karina Kreminski is co-founder of Neighbourhood Matters and the author of Urban Spirituality (2018). She is a minister and she teaches at Morling College. Kreminski writes, “The Covid-19 pandemic has ushered in a season of ‘micro-living’. In many ways our lives have become smaller, concrete, more ordinary and local. Instead of expensive overseas travel to exotic, faraway places, we consider a walk to the local shops as extravagant. Rather than going out to enjoy the ‘foodie’ scene by tracking down the trendiest restaurant, we are cooking at home, spending money locally and focusing on enjoying time with family or neighbours. Rather than spending our leisure time in other parts of the country, we are walking the streets of our neighbourhoods.  Drawing on The Abundant Community: Awakening the power of families and Neighborhoods, by John McKnight and Peter Block and other authors, Karina Kreminski’s insights show the power of thinking and acting locally. http://www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/Engage-Mail/a-bounded-life-embracing-the-local

2021 LATT Conference – Assessment in Theological Education
Fifth SCD Learning and Teaching Theology Conference
23 April – 24 April 2021
Time: 09:00 am – 04:00 pm
Sydney College of Divinity
Unit 6B, 5 Talavera Road
Macquarie Park NSW

Keynote Speaker/s

Prof Royce Sadler
Honorary Professor, Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, The University of Queensland,
Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, Griffith University

Rev Dr Andrew Shead
Head of the Department of Old Testament and Hebrew, Moore College

The international association of practical theology, IAPT 2021 conference, Leuven, Belgium

Coping with crisis: hospitality, security, and the search for faithful connections

is planned for Thursday 8 (16:00u) – Monday 12 July (22:00u) 2021 This conference considers the multidimensional phenomenon of ‘crisis’ in both its sense of threat and opportunity. How are people coping with experiences of crisis? In what way does the rhetoric of fear and crisis mobilize people for social action? https://www.pastoralezorg.be/page/coping-with-crisis/

The British & Irish Association for Practical Theology Annual Conference, on Practical Theology as Ecotheology has been rescheduled for 13-15 July 2021. It is being planned as a combined virtual and face-to-face event, giving delegates the option of different forms of participation.

The keynote speakers include Dr Seforosa Carroll, is speaking on Climate Change, Faith and Theology in the Pacific (Oceania)
and Dr Hilary Marlow speaking on Creation, Humanity and Hubris in the Old Testament

2021 Annual Conference – Practical Theology as Ecotheology

The ‘Culture, Chaos & Christ’ Conference hosted by the Centre for Asian Christianity & Sydney Chinese Christian Churches Association, will focus on Culture, Authority & Church: ‘Why don’t they listen to me?’Guest speakers include, Rev Ying Yee, Dr Devin Yu, Grace Lung, Rev Herbert Chan, Ps Adam Ch’ng & Rev Dr Andrew Prince. Online September 12 https://bst.qld.edu.au/event/cac-conference2020/

There are only a few days left to sign up for the intensive classes Interpreting & Applying the Psalms with Dr David Cohen through .  26-28 Aug + 28-29 Sept, 2020  David is an internationally renowned author, theologian and pastor who specialises in the Hebrew Bible. He is also the Head of Department of Biblical Studies; Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and Language at Vose Seminary. PhD (Murdoch University). will be taking place on Zoom.

If you would like to register to Audit the unit and thus gain access to the Zoom lecture days, please register using this online form: https://form.jotform.co/93087951178873

The cost involved will be $200.

For the Love of God: How the Church is Better and Worse Than You Ever Imagined, published by the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX), is the 2020 Australian Christian Book of the Year. The judges chose For the Love of God from a short list of ten books. “This bold yet balanced appraisal of the impact of Christianity examines both the best and worst of what Christians have done over two millennia. Natasha Moore and her collaborators confront the failure of those who claimed to follow Christ but were responsible for the Crusades, the Inquisition and the abuse of children. The ease with which Christians through the ages have ignored both the teaching of Jesus and the dissenting voices of contemporary prophets is a caution. The authors also show how—when they obey Jesus—Christians have contributed to what is beautiful and beneficial in culture and society. In a time of social media echo chambers, fact-free opinion bubbles and divisive culture wars, this sort of fair and generous commentary is invaluable.” http://sparklit.org/acboy/

“Rumors of the church’s demise abound. Yet, if we open our eyes, we see that churches are being born and renewed at an astonishing rate, in almost every culture on the planet. Many of these churches are transforming neighborhoods while proclaiming the person and the gospel of Jesus Christ. This book will inspire you to see the church afresh—Christ’s vessel for healing the world.”
Graham Joseph Hill (Principal, Stirling Theological College) writes in a review of the recent book, Beyond Four Walls: Explorations in Being the Church.
Michael D. O’Neil, Peter Elliott and the Australian College of Theology’s book reveals many of the ways the contemporary Church remains an integral part of God’s redemptive purposes being worked out in the world, and that God’s call to the church is now what it has always been: to be the faithful people of God, bearing joy-filled witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ in word, worship, and work, in its corporate life, and in the lives of each of its members.

Blackboard and the Teaching and Learning Conference Asia Pacific (TLC APAC) are holding an free, and interesting conference combined conference for Asia, Australia and New Zealand to help  navigate today’s toughest educational challenges. https://bbtlcapac.com/agenda/

A PhD Higher Degree by Research scholarship at UQ closes 18 September 2020. This anthropological project (to be undertaken by an Indigenous researcher) will take three to four case studies of major evangelisation activity across multiple generations in Queensland, and trace the significance of particular Christian traditions in relation to conversion experiences, inter-generational patterns of religious activity, and the significance of church membership as an aspect of Aboriginal identity. https://scholarships.uq.edu.au/scholarship/aboriginal-christianity-queensland-comparative-perspective-phd-scholarship