'Church and State: prophecy and dialogue – an ecumenical discussion'
https://cte.org.uk/sfes-church-and-state/
A webinar from The Society for Ecumenical Studies on how the contemporary church and the world of politics speak to each other.
Tuesday 16 June at 7.30pm
Speakers:
Rev Dr Paul Avis School Of Divinity, New College, University of Edinburgh
Rev Dr Ruth Gouldbourne Bristol Baptist College
The Very Rev Dr John A. Jillions The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies - Cambridge
The Society for Ecumenical Studies (SfES) is delighted to host the webinar Church and State: prophecy and dialogue – an ecumenical discussion on Tuesday 16 June at 7.30pm.
Three speakers from different Christian traditions will share their insights.
Rev Dr Paul Avis served as the General Secretary of the Church of England’s Council for Christian Unity 1998-2011, following 23 years of full-time parish ministry. He is currently an honorary assistant priest in the Diocese of Exeter, an Honorary Professor in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ecclesiology. He is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology (2018) and the author of many titles on the history, theology, mission, unity and ministry of the Christian Church. His recent publications include Revelation and the Word of God (2024) and Shaping a Church of Ethical Integrity: Groundwork for a Church Rebuilt (2026).
Rev Dr Ruth Gouldbourne, was ordained to Baptist ministry in 1988. She is a historian and former tutor at Bristol Baptist College. She was a minister at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in the centre of London, and after 12 years there, moved to her current position of minister at Grove Lane Baptist Church in Cheadle Hulme. Her doctoral research was in the area of the radical reformation, and her teaching focus has been general church history, and Baptist history and principles. She chaired the Central London Churches Together, and served on the Board of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland for some years.
The Very Rev Dr John A. Jillions was founding Principal of The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge and continues to serve as a Visiting Professor and chairman of the Board of Directors. He currently lives in the USA and is president of the Orthodox Theological Society in America and past Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America. As an Orthodox priest for over forty years, he has served parishes in Australia, Greece, England, Canada and the US, and throughout this time has been actively involved in ecumenism. He is the author of Tradition and Change (forthcoming, 2026), Divine Guidance: Lessons for Today from the World of Early Christianity (Oxford 2020), and a children’s book, The Christmas Story: Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem (Xist 2020).
Tickets cost £5. Free to Society for Ecumenical Studies (SfES) members.
SfES is a Charity and Network in Association with Churches Together in England.