PaCT Events Archive
The Edinburgh Conference on Public Theology
Edinburgh Conference Newsletter - Global Network for Public Theology
linking research institutions in theology and public issues around the world
E-NEWS No. 1, Autumn 2005 : Letter from William Storrar, the Network Convener
Dear Colleagues:
It is a great pleasure to be writing to you after our very successful consultation in Edinburgh in September. Thank you for contributing to that event and for your commitment to participating in our new 'Global Network for Public Theology', founded at our meeting on September 8, 2005.
In this first network electronic newsletter, unimaginatively called 'E-News' for now, you will find as attached documents a photograph of this happy gathering (with apologies to Elna Mouton, Stellenbosch, and Kiran Sebastian, Bangalore, who were out of the room when the picture was taken); along with a list and contact details of the founding members of the network present in Edinburgh.
In this first e-newsletter, I am reporting on what was agreed at our Edinburgh meeting and setting out the next steps in developing our network. A third attached document is a survey form I would ask you to download, complete and return to our new Global Network 'E-Secretary', Heather Kaemingk (see below for more information on the survey), as soon as possible.
Heather is a staff member at my own Center of Theological Inquiry who will work with Kathi Morley, the CTI Administrator whom you all met in Edinburgh, and me to administer the network in its first three years (see below). Heather will be the primary email contact person for administering the exchange of information in the network, through this regular e-newsletter and occasional e-bulletins. She should be contacted at: hkaemingk@ctinquiry.org
Any business or policy matter concerning the work of the network should be sent to me, as the network convener, at: wstorrar@ctinquiry.org
We plan to send out the next edition of E-News, the network newsletter, in the New Year. Depending on your prompt response to the survey form , it will contain: short profiles of the founding centres in the network; news of your current and forthcoming activities; information on setting up Network web-pages and links; and dates for the network's major consultation on public theology to be held in Princeton in the Spring of 2007.
I look forward to working with you all to develop this exciting initiative in global research collaboration. There are a number of practical matters still to be addressed. We agreed at the Edinburgh Consultation that those institutional representatives present at the founding meeting would act as the network's coordinating and planning group until the Princeton Consultation, when a longer-term coordinating group would be appointed. Already, founding members are sending me information on potential new members of the network. We welcome these suggestions but, again, we need to have a discussion and agree on a mechanism for admitting new institutional members to the network. It may be, for example, that we stick with the founding institutional members for web publicity and links, while welcoming network 'associates' for the sharing of e-information, until our Princeton Consultation, when more formal arrangements can be made. Your thoughts on this suggestion would be welcome.
Thank you again for taking part in the Edinburgh gathering. Please send your completed survey form to our network e-secretary, Heather Kaemingk at CTI, and any information you wish to be circulated in the next E-News.
Good wishes for all your endeavors in bringing theology and public issues into a deeper and more fruitful conversation.
Yours sincerely,
Will
Dr William F Storrar
Director
Center of Theological Inquiry
Princeton , NJ
Convenor, Global Network for Public Theology
The Edinburgh Consultation
1. Purpose of the Network
In Edinburgh we agreed that the time was right for establishing a research network, drawing together the academic centres for theology and public issues that have sprung up in universities, colleges and seminaries around the world in the last twenty years or so. This global network would be an institutional research partnership, rather than a guild for individual researchers, linking two types of academic research centres in the field of theology and public issues:
- First, and primarily, named research institutions in public theology, with a focus on inter-disciplinary action research on public issues; typically bringing together Christian theologians, researchers in other disciplines and from other faiths, policymakers, practitioners, faith communities and civil society bodies, and the diverse publics affected by the issues in question, as research partners and participants in their work.
- Second, academic institutions with a teaching and research interest in public theology; including those institutions planning to develop a named research Centre for theology and public issues.
For this reason, I propose that the name and descriptive tag of our research partnership be the 'Global Network for Public Theology: linking research institutions in theology and public issues around the world.' The relationship of individual researchers, without such an institutional base, to this network is a matter for future discussion and agreement among members.
The core purposes of this research network are three-fold:
Publicity:
First, the network will present a common face on the Web to the wider academic, church and public communities as a web-linked set of research institutions conducting action research on theology and public issues.
Communication:
Second, the network will share information among the institutional members of the network about the work that each centre is doing, including, for example: current research projects, publications, conferences, and postgraduate courses and research thesis topics being taught and supervised by staff.
Collaboration:
Third, the network will encourage research collaboration and staff/student exchanges between and among its institutional members through this sharing of information; the initiative and responsibility for these collaborative research projects and exchanges will lie with the participant institutional members and not with the network as such.
2. Administration of the Network
It was agreed in Edinburgh that the Center of Theological Inquiry would act as the web hub and provide administrative support for the Network in its first three years, from 2005-2008; on the understanding that the Network would establish its own leadership and administrative infrastructure at the Princeton Consultation, to take over these functions from CTI by September 2008 at the latest.
William Storrar, Director of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, agreed to serve as convener of the network in this period, working with and accountable to the founding institutional members of the network. He offered to carry out the following:
- Establish web-pages for the network on the CTI web-site, with web-links to the founding institutional members by the Spring of 2006.
- Send out a regular e-newsletter for the network, to institutional members and network associates, from the Autumn of 2005.
- To plan and convene, with the group of founding members, a major consultation on research in the field of theology and public issues in Princeton in the Spring of 2007: to which a wider circle of interested parties would be invited by the founding group; and at which the network would establish its own leadership and prepare to run its own web-based administrative infrastructure, from September 2008 at the latest.
This offer was accepted by the founding members of the network.
Next Steps
1. For Immediate Action
To help the CTI staff to plan the Spring 2007 Princeton Consultation, you are asked to complete the attached survey form, stating your preferences for the dates of this three-day gathering. You are also asked to complete the sections of the survey asking for the following information for the next newsletter, New Year 2006 (timing depends on your response):
• From the directors of the established research centres, a 500 word profile of your research institution and its work, with contact details, including web and email addresses.
• News of current and forthcoming research projects, conferences and publications, etc., from your Centre or institution, with contact details for further information.
• While the Network e-newsletter is not a journal in the making (Sebastian Kim raised that possibility at our Edinburgh Consultation, for future discussion, and is himself exploring this development), with a book review section, you may wish to bring to the attention of the network key publications in public theology other than those from your own centre (see (b) above). Brief 100 word information plugs for such books, etc., would be welcome.
PLEASE SEND THIS INFORMATION DIRECTLY TO OUR NETWORK E-SECRETARY, HEATHER KAEMINGK, AT: hkaemingk@ctinquiry.org
2. For Further Thought and Future Action
A future newsletter will also focus on sharing information with postgraduate teaching courses and research theses topics in public theology that you wish to share with the network. You may need the permission of your institution and students to share this information in an e-newsletter (it will not go on the network website). Please give thought to this matter and begin to prepare such information for sharing with the network in a future e-newsletter, 2006.
In planning the Princeton Consultation, your thoughts on the content of that meeting and suggestions for those who might be invited would be welcome. They should be sent to the Network convener, William Storrar, at: wstorrar@ctinquiry.org
Attendees photograph (from top to bottom):
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Back Row L to R: Murray Rae, Kees Klop, Ross Chambers, Clive Pearson , John Francis, Rudolf Von Sinner
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Top Middle Row L to R: Douglas Lendrum, Dirkie Smit, David Tombs, Mario Aguilar, Elaine Graham, Kang Phee Seng
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Bottom Middle Row L to R: Cecilia Clegg, Gregory Baum, Will Storrar, Alison Elliott, Brian Howe, James Haire
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Front Row L to R: Nico Koopman, Sebastian Kim.
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