Durham Conference September 2025 (update: registration open, draft timetable published)

Ecclesiology and Ethnography Conference Durham 2025

This is the annual conference for the network bringing together scholars working on ethnographic approaches to theology and the study of religion. It is is a wide ranging conference, and part of the joy is discovering a diversity of specialisms and learning. Past papers have included approaches rooted in and drawing on practical theology, ethnography, systematic theology, ethics, ecclesiology, and social science. Attendees range from senior scholars to local ministers and this is an excellent place to present as a postgraduate or early career researcher, or as a pastor/scholar in ministry. Learning is generously shared and critiques are supportive. We encourage single and multi-authored papers.

We are delighted to announce that registration for the Ecclesiology and Ethnography conference 2025 in Durham is now open! See also the conference timetable below.

Conference Timetable Conference Registration Form

The Conference is run in association with The Department of Theology and Religion and St John’s College, Durham University and is based in St John’s College, in the centre of historic Durham. Our meals and accommodation will also be within the college. A limited number of en-suite rooms are available, allocated on a first come, first served basis. St John’s College is about a fifteen minute walk from Durham Rail Station. From Newcastle airport you can ride the Metro to Newcastle Central Station, where you can find frequent trains to Durham. Otherwise, you can book a car with Airport Express to take you from the airport directly to St John’s College.

The Durham Conference is particularly friendly which is helped by the conversations in the college bar, and folk music night on the Wednesday. Bring your instruments and join in!

Draft Timetable of the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Conference Durham (9-11 September 2025, St John’s College, Durham)

(latest update: 2 July 2025, may be subject to change)

Tuesday 9 September

11.30am    Arrivals, Tea and Coffee                                   

1.00pm      Lunch (Dining Room)

2.00pm      Plenary Session (Learning Resource Centre (LRC))

Welcome and Chair: Pete Ward

• Rebecca Todd Peters, Kate Ott and Karen Ross—Balancing ethics and advocacy in The Abortion & Religion Study: Exploring our identities as interviewers
• Sarah Dunlop, Tone Stangeland Kaufman and Susanna Snyder—Why do theology with photographs?

4.00pm      Tea (Dining Room)

4.30pm      Track Session (45 Minute Papers)

Room 1: Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

• Peter Archer—A Sacred Zone of Faith Accompaniment
• Miryam Clough—How loving our neighbours shaped Christian pandemic responses

Room 2: All Churches Room (LRC)

• Jayabalan Murthy—Re-Reading the Mission History in Ethnological perspective: special reference to Leipzig Mission Society in India until the Great War

Room 3: Leech Hall (The College)

• Helen Cameron—Asking bigger questions: What does Ecclesiology and Ethnography have to say to Congregational Studies?
• Hans Schaeffer and Karen Zwijze-Koning—From Vulnerability to Vitality: Practices of Hope and Faith in Contemporary Church Renewal

Room 4: Tristram Room

• Jack Gabig—Open to Jesus but I Hate the Church
• Ilonka Terlouw—Prayer, Christ, and the Future of the Church: Theological Reflections from an Action Research Study

6.00pm      Evening Meal (Dining Room)

7.00pm      Seminar Session (30 Minute Papers)

Room 1: Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

• Leah Kadwell—Affirmation of Imago Dei Dignity through Embracing Indigeneity: The Good Shepherd Church of India as an Ecclesiastical Prototype for Majority World Christians
• Aina Rasendrasen—Divine intervention and human agency: reading the understanding of ex-patients and shepherds at tobys in Madagascar of causes and recovery from substance use disorder
• Johannes Fröh—Is it faith or is it social? An empirical meta-study on the motivation of Christian volunteers

Room 2: All Churches Room (LRC)

• Joshua Taylor—Moralistic and Misused: Sin-talk in Aotearoa New Zealand
• Leona Boey—Faith and the Formation of the Authentic Self: An Exploration of Christian Singaporean Generation Z Emerging Adults (CSGZEA) in Dialogue with Søren Kierkegaard
• Paula Duncan—Who Do You Think You Are? Dungeons and Dragons as an Autoethnographic Method for Theological Reflection

Room 3: Leech Hall (The College)

• Rachel Spencer—From ‘invite your neighbour’ to ‘being good neighbours’: Gaps between formal and lived theologies of mission in French evangelical churches
• Alex Booer—‘Belonging with Footnotes’: Conditional Belonging in the Hillsong Movement

Room 4: Tristram Room

• Brenna Quinton-Cheung—You Are Not Going to Hell: Trauma and Misunderstanding Blended Beliefs
• Abigail Cawte—‘Woe betide I offer to do the sound’: Experiences of Women Musicians in UK Churches
• Tabea Fischer—Four ways of doing church: Reconstrucitve cluster evaluation as an approach to lived ecclesiology

8.30pm      College Bar Open

Wednesday 10 September

8.00am      Breakfast (Dining Room)

9.00am      Track Session (45 Minute Papers)

Room 1: Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

• Laura Moessle—Religion and Power in Virtual and Physical Realities: The Role of Christian Influencers in Youth Faith Formation
• Andrew Whitman—Seeing the Jesus People Movement through the lens of “polycentric mission”

Room 2: All Churches Room (LRC)

• Gale Richards—Congregations navigating the ‘colour bar’
• Hanna Kauhaus—Church volunteers’ Experiences of Empowerment and Disempowerment

Room 3: Leech Hall (The College)

• Elina Hankela—Re-imagining liberation (theologies) in South African ecclesial spaces
• Federico Settler—Fieldwork Practice for a postcolonial diaconia in South Africa

Room 4: Tristram Room

• Sabrina Müller—First insights into: Mapping Digital Youth Faith Formation (DYFI): A Participatory Citizen Science Approach in a Post-Digital Context
• Ruth Perrin—No longer #adulting; Millennial faith in established adulthood

10.30am    Coffee (Dining Room)

11.00am    Track Session (45 Minute Papers)

Room 1: Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

• Lynne Taylor—Ideal selves and god representations: matching motivations, seeing similarities, discerning differences
• Laurie Lyter Bright—Consequences of Belief: A Theological Exploration of the Faith Journeys of Conscientious Objectors to War

Room 2:  All Churches Room (LRC)

• Ian Terry—An auto ethnographic exploration of how a Church School is well placed to focus local community common good building around the commons of spirituality, voice, agency, reputation, forgiveness and mutual wellbeing
• Emma Percy—The Changing Face of Church in Aberdeen

Room 3:  Leech Hall (The College)

• Monica McArdle—Praying with the Body: Somatic Awareness and the Embodied Practice of Lectio Divina
• Steve Taylor—Listen up: Action research into the social impacts of spiritual practices

12.30pm    Lunch (Dining Room)

1.30pm      Plenary Session (Learning Resource Centre (LRC))

Chair: Susanna Snyder

• Henna Cundhill—How does ADHD impact Christian Discipleship?
• John Swinton—Memory and Personhood Accross Cultures: A theological ethnographic study of dementia care in the  African caribbean community in the UK and the Guna community in Panama

3.30pm      Tea /Break (Dining Room)

4.00pm      Seminar Session (30 Minute Papers)

Room 1: Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

• Zoe Strong—‘Dwelling in the Problem’: Authentic Flourishing and the Harm of Rushing to Solutions
• Mike MacKenzie—Power and the Possibilities of Practical Theology

Room 2: All Churches Room (LRC)

• Tobias Adam—Believing Beyond the Human: Ecospiritual Practice and Postdigital Community in the Ecological Polycrisis
• Aline Knapp—App-Based Meditation as Spiritual Practice: A Case Study on “Evermore”

Room 3 Leech Hall (The College)

• Bart de Zwaan—Resonant designs – exploring practical theological design research in the context of communal hermeneutic practices
• Elly van den Berg-Thomassen—Stories of faith CHE teachers live by

Room 4: Tristram Room

• Hannah Kerr Buckley—Theology emerging from the vibrations: Resonance, dissonance and autoethnography
• Lizzy Peach—Autistic faith – is it real, does it count, and who decides?

5.00pm      Short Break

5.15pm      Seminar Session (30 Minute Papers)

Room 1: Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

• Christian Huebner—Christians, Cows and Cranmer
• Andreas Bernberg—From theology to practice theory and back
• Kristin Drum—The Grammar of Transformation for the Church-as-Workplace

Room 2: All Churches Room (LRC)

• Nina Haglund—Who belongs to the Body of Christ? Operational employees as a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
• Carolyn Poteet—Pandemic Pruning: Stories of Pain and Promise among Mid-Sized Churches in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church since the Covid Outbreak
• Maik-Andres Schwärz–Rethinking Pastoral Assistance

Room 3: Leech Hall (The College)

• Stephanie Milton—“God Didn’t Tell Me That!:” African American Faith when Making Critical Medical Decisions
• Jane Day—Anyone for table tennis? Women ministers experience helpful accompaniment spaces yet find themselves in a different ecclesial space. Are women ministers unhelpfully batted from one space to another without dealing with systemic injustice?
• Kelsey Regan Nienna—The Sacrament of Self-Harm: A Pastoral Care Approach to the Addiction, Trauma, and Recovery of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

Room 4: Tristram Room

• Layne Hansen—The Rule of St. Benedict and Catechesis in the Church Today
• Annabel Barber—Symbolism and the sacramental, the ‘magic bits’: the village church and churchyard as a sacramental place and a site of place attachment, enhanced by kindling of the spiritual

6.45pm      Evening Meal

8pm          Bluegrass Jam; College Bar Open

Thursday 11 September

8.00am      Breakfast

9.00am      Track Session (45 Minute Papers)

Room 1: Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

• Nina Kurlberg—Safeguarding the Household of God: institutional logics within the Church of England’s response to abuse
• Jonathan Abernethy-Barkley—Web of Meaning and Chain of Memory: The Significance of Liturgy and the Symbolism of Sacrament for Perpetrators of Clerical Childhood Sexual Abuse

Room 2: All Churches Room (LRC)

• Allison Waterhouse—Findings from my Investigation into the Transformative Potential of Spirituality in the Lived Experience of Christian (Ex) Prisoners
• Léon van Ommen—A Grounded Theory of Autistic Spirituality

Room 3: Leech Hall (The College)

• James Butler—Affect, ecclesiology and ethnography; a theological exploration of the whole person as researcher in theological action research projects
• Clare Watkins—Participative research, conversational learning, and ecclesial culture change: an example of project design and its theological implications

10.30am    Coffee (Dining Room)

11.00am    Plenary Session (Learning Resource Centre (LRC))

Chair: John Swinton

• Eileen Campbell Reed, Christian Scharen, Jonas Ideström and Tone Kaufman—Pastoral Imagination and Pastoral Assembling
• Chigemezi Nnadozie Wogu—Vulnerability and Sensemaking: A Nigerian Pastor’s Ecclesial Experience in an Adventist German Congregation

1.00pm      Lunch (Dining Room)

NOTES

• Book Stall – SCM will be running a book stall during the conference.
• Paper Presenters – please ensure you submit your paper via THIS LINK before 1 September.
• This is a draft programme: there may be some minor changes necessary, so please do check back on this webpage at the end of August to check your time slot.

Please sign up for our newsletter to stay updated on this conference.

Conference Organising Group

Prof Pete Ward, Durham University; Dr Knut Tveitereid, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo; Prof John Swinton, University of Aberdeen; Dr Susanna Snyder, University of Oxford; Dr Jasper Bosman, Theological University Utrecht.

Conference Advisory Group

Prof Paul Fiddes, Oxford University; Rev Dr Christian Scharen, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; Prof Tone Stangeland Kaufman, MF Norwegian School of Theology