Re-emergence » Contents

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Keynote Speakers

Phyllis Tickle was the founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly and is the author of over two dozen books dealing with religion and spirituality. Her most recent works include The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why and The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord. Tickle began her career as a college teacher and, for almost ten years, served as academic dean to the Memphis College of Art. In September 1996 she received the prestigious Mays Award for lifetime achievement in writing and publishing, while in 2007 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Christy Awards. In addition to this she has received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the Berkeley School of Divinity at Yale University and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from North Park University. Tickle is a founding member of The Canterbury Roundtable. She is also a lay Eucharistic minister and lector in the Episcopal Church.

Dave Tomlinson is the vicar of St. Luke’s Church, Holloway, in North London, and former leader of groundbreaking faith community Holy Joe’s. He is a popular writer and speaker and holds a masters degree in Biblical Interpretation. Tomlinson is author of the seminal work The Post Evangelical, a book that explores the disenchantment with simplistic approaches to faith experienced by many evangelicals. He has recently published the book Re-enchanting Christianity. In it he explores how Christianity, once deconstructed, can become credible again. Tomlinson’s work interrogates key components of the Christian faith (such as God, sin, the Bible, resurrection, the Church, mission and prayer), and draws out how they can be approached in deeper, more meaningful ways.

The Insurrection Tour

In addition to the keynote speakers this conference will host the opening night of the ‘Insurrection’ Tour. This is also the only chance to see the tour in the UK/Ireland. The tour promises to offer an evening of incendiary theology, haunting soundscapes and musical lament in its exploration of how belief in the Resurrection means nothing other than participation in an Insurrection. This event brings together the collective skills of Peter Rollins, Pádraig Ô Tuama and Jonny McEwen.

Peter Rollins is a writer and the founder of the experimental faith collective ikon. Peter is also a widely sought after speaker who specialises in various aspects of Continental philosophy and Emergent theology. He has earned degrees in philosophy and political theory, including a PhD in Post-Structural theory. Rollins is currently a research associate with Trinity College Dublin and is the author of the much talked about How (Not) to Speak of God and The Fidelity of Betrayal. His latest work is entitled The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales.

Pádraig Ô Tuama is a singer/songwriter from Ireland. Pádraig will be launching his first solo album Hymns To Swear By and has previously contributed to the ikon album Dubh. He has been the artist in residence for Corrymeela and is a published poet.

Jonny McEwen is an artist and DJ who specializes in developing immersive ambient soundscapes and creative audio montage. His latest album is entitled Fractured, broken and Beautiful. He is also an accomplished painter whose works can be found in many significant public and private collections.

Workshops

Samir Selmanovic is a founder and co-leader of Faith House Manhattan, an interfaith “community of communities” that brings together Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists and others who seek to learn from the teachings, practices, sufferings and joys of people from different belief systems. He is also the director of a Christian community called Citylights and serves on the Interfaith Relations Commission of the National Council of Churches. Selmanovic has been integral to the birth of emerging church movement, serving on the Coordinating Group for Emergent Village and cofounder of Re-church, a network of church leaders meeting for a yearly conference for theological exploration. He recently published the book Its Really all about God.

Beki Bateson has recently joined LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) as Executive Director having been Director of the Greenbelt Festival for nine years. Now in its 37th year the broad based, progressive non-commercial arts festival is an unusual, thoughtful, challenging and radical celebration of art, faith, justice and creativity. Over four days some 20,000 people enjoy a programme of music, theatre, literature, comedy, debate, talks, workshops and film at Cheltenham Racecourse. Beki is also Chair of the human rights charity Amos Trust which, among other work, is hosting the 2010 Streetchild World Cup in South Africa. She was a co-founder of Vaux, a collective of artists and city-lovers.

Ian Mitchell completed a Philosophy degree at Queens University Belfast before spending 5 years (1975 – 1980) as a youth worker. This eventually drew him into the Charismatic New Church scene where he eventually became pastor of a church in Banbridge. In 1996 a lethal combination of possessing the wrong skill set for church pastoring and experiencing a subterranean change in understanding of what it meant to be a christian convinced him (and it must be said, many others) of his unsuitability for the job and he spent several years studying theology whilst seeking to establish himself in the world of business. Nowadays he leads the Pensions Advisory practice within the Deloitte Irish Partnership, and is a writer and columnist. His first book, How to Safely Quit the Day Job, deals with managing career transition. His christian community currently consists of a small group of like minded long time friends and relatives who meet together for decent red wine and ribald spirituality. They are not currently planning to change the world.

In 1996 a lethal combination of possessing the wrong skill set for church pastoring and experiencing a subterranean change in understanding of what it meant to be a christian convinced him (and it must be said, many others) of his unsuitability for the job and he spent several years studying theology, again at Queens University, whilst seeking to establish himself in the world of business.

Nowadays he leads the Pensions Advisory practice within the Deloitte Irish Partnership, and is a writer and columnist living between Dublin & Belfast. His first book, ‘How to safely quit the day job’, was published in 2009 by Blackhall Publishing, Dublin and is all about managing career transition.

Ian has been married to Pamela for almost 35 years and they have three adult children, three grandchildren and one dog. Their christian community consists of a small group of like minded long time friends and relatives who meet together for decent red wine and ribald spirituality in Belfast on a Thursday evening. They are not currently planning to change the world.

Kerry Anthony is the Chief Executive of Depaul Ireland, an all Ireland organisation working with some of the most marginalised within the homeless communtiy. She holds a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Voluntary Sector Management. She has worked for 13 years in the field of homelessness in a variety of roles in London, Glasgow, Dublin and Belfast. She is particularly interested in how to use leadership roles to ensure that there is continued innovation in service provision to address and break the cycle of social exclusion. At 35, Kerry was recently made an MBE in the New Years Honours list and has been nominated for a Co3 award for leadership in vision and strategy.

Kester Brewin was a founder member of the widely acclaimed alternative worship collective Vaux, a group which brought together artists and city-lovers to explore the divine in the urban. Kester is also one of the coordinators behind Apple, a group dedicated to exploring the relationship between theology and technology. He is the author of Signs of Emergence, and the forthcoming book Other: Loving Self, God and Neighbor in a world of Fractures. He also teaches Mathematics in a London secondary school and writes on education for various publications.

Alistair Duncan often wonders whether, if we really have brought about the death of god, we spend too much time at the wake. Maybe, whilst still holding dear what we have lost, we should push on to frame a new language that is not theological. He is an intellectual nomad who for sometime has been deeply influenced by Scottish poet Kenneth White’s ‘geopoetics’ and Heidegger’s notion of ‘poetic dwelling’. Alistair is a co-ordinator of the garden, a Brighton-based arts group, that ‘explores that part of culture formally known as religion’, through events, reading groups and discussion. He has spent the last ten years closely involved with the Whitehawk Inn, a charity working to reduce social exclusion in one of the most deprived areas of Brighton. His day job is as a technical architect for IBM.

Chris Fry is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist working with individuals and groups in the NHS and private practice. He spent many years working in therapeutic communities for people with severe mental illness dreaming up ways of using psychoanalytic ideas to create and sustain lively and life-giving community. He is a member of the ikon cyndicate and interested in exploring the ways that psychoanalytic theory and practice might interact with faith communities and practice.

Martin Poole is a former actor, current TV marketing and branding strategist, non-stipendiary Anglican priest, Greenbelt contributor and founder of BEYOND. He has a passion for symbolic action and parable as ways of understanding God when words are not enough and has been a proponent of new and imaginative ways of ‘doing church’ long before and ever since he was ordained in 1987. He set up BEYOND in Brighton 2 years ago and the group has quickly become well known both in the city and across the UK with events such as the Advent Beach Hut Calendar, the ice sculpture at last years Greenbelt, and a collaboration with artist Chris Levine entitled Light.

Faith Collectives

Ikon is a faith collective inhabiting a space on the outer edges of religious life. Challenging the distinction between theist and atheist, liberal and conservative their gatherings employ a rich cocktail of live music, visual imagery, soundscapes, theatre, ritual and reflection to create what they call ‘transformance art’. Founded in 2001, ikon has become a unique and important voice in the contemporary conversation concerning the future of Christian community. Earning an international reputation for its experiments in reimagining faith collectives.

BEYOND launched in Brighton & Hove in 2008 and exists to create opportunities for people to explore spirituality through a variety of creative approaches. BEYOND seeks to help people to a deeper understanding of spirituality through the arts and other creative activities, to explore non-traditional ways of being Christian, and to be a resource for church people who wish to further explore their relationship with God. These aims are pursued through a regular monthly programme and occasional one-off specials such as the world’s first Advent Beach Hut Calendar.

Music

Vince Anderson, AKA “The Reverend”, is a musician who specialises in what he terms “Dirty Gospel”. A Blues influenced sound that blurs the line between sacred and secular. To date he has released four albums and conducts weekly late night services with his New York based band “The Love Choir”. In addition to this he is the assistant pastor for the underground faith collective Revolutions in New York.

DJ Brasilia has been spinning great tunes for the last decade in clubs and festivals in Ireland, Scotland and South Africa. His blend of afro latin funk soul goodness is sure to move your heart and your feet.

Last but not least the main musical act is being kept a closely guarded secret. A little St. Patrick night surprise. Someone not to miss…