Government, Church and the Future of Welfare
This new major study draws on hundreds of interviews and survey questionnaires, describes the modern setting in which the government's welfare and related voluntary sector policies often are experienced as “discriminatory”, inadequately rooted in evidence and at risk of failing the faith communities.
produced by the von Hugel Centre for the Study of Faith in Society
Jonathan Glancey on the the regenerated St Martin in the Fields
"Contrasts, contradictions and even conundrums are, though, parts and parcels of this extraordinary London foundation. "
27th April -18th Festival in the Fields including Sacred spaces- an exploration with Eric Parry, Philip Sheldrake and Maragaret Barker. "What constitutes a ‘sacred space’? And how do our buildings – ancient and contemporary – help us to express the concept? Reflecting on our renewed church building, and the new complex of underground spaces, three renowned speakers help us explore the fascinating subject of ‘sacred space’ from a variety of angles – theological, architectural, cultural and sociological."
Even an atheist can marvel at this exquisite refuge for the urban poor. "St Martin's is emphatically a church, and its revival is a salutary tale of our times. It has raised its own money to beautify the city as well as to assist the homeless. We may choose to leave the faith out of it, but we can yet marvel at the mission." Simon Jenkins 2nd May
6th Biennial National Consultation on Urban Ministry JULY 2008
The Biennial Consultation on Urban Ministry, hosted in Pretoria, South Africa, by the Institute for Urban Ministry, has become an important meeting place for people who are deeply committed to their cities. Download ium_consulation_flyer.pdf
The Consultation is preceded by the meeting of the Society for Urban Theology Download SUT2008.doc
A series of nationwide events has been announced to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the
William Temple Foundation.
13th May The demise of Prophecy or Reinventing Governance? – Faith and the Welfare State Dr Francis Davis at University of Manchester, Lecture Theatre A7 16.00
Download ronald_preston_lecture.pdf
25th June Economics in a postscarcity age – the contribution of faith and economics
Dr John Atherton at Church House, London, Room 3 – 16.00
5th November From Welfare State to Welfare Society – the contribution of faiths to happiness and wellbeing in a pluralised civil society Rt Revd & Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams at St James Church, Piccadilly, London 17.00
The colloborative partnership of Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat has produced some of the most creative writing on the New Testament and its relevance in our neo-imperial situation. They are authors of Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire
They will be in the UK during June. Details below:
The latest newsletter from the Ecologies of Urban Learning program at NYTS.
Gentrification, depression, Harlem and more.
Download eol_newsletter_volume_2_issue_2_hot_off_the_press.htm
Advancing God's Reign in Our Cities CONFERENCE BROCHURE 15-18 April 2008 Chicago
The Congress on Urban Ministry, organised by SCUPE - the Seminary Consortium on Urban Pastoral Education , is a biennial event of Christians engaged in and passionate about urban ministry. This year the Congress will be focusing on Creating Redemptive Communities, Releasing Prophetic Imagination through Story, and Engaging in Justice, Reconciliation and Restoration.
What's after Culture? Assessing the Legacy
The Core Cities Theology Network 2008 Conference will be held in Liverpool, Thursday 11th September to Saturday 13th September 2008.
The Core Cities Theology Network aims to create an environment of solidarity and support for those engaged in urban mission and public policy so that more effective ways of being the church in the core cities context might be enabled. Booking form.
Report of the 2006 conference Cities of Culture: whose Vision, which Agenda?
Public Theology and the City: Urban Theology as Public Theology
A special issue of the International Journal for Public Theology - articles by Elaine Graham, Peter Scott, Tim Gorringe, Andrew Davey, Tanja Winkler and Sigurd Bergman.
Available through Online edition or Subscription
What makes a good city? has been a widely debated question following the Faithful Cities report. Bishop Martin Wallace takes the question into a wider setting with partnership, inclusion, location all examined as part of this study course for local churches, available as a pdf download.
John M. Hagedorn: World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture
Looking closely at gang formation in three world cities-Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown-he discovers that some gangs have institutionalized as a strategy to confront a hopeless cycle of poverty, racism, and oppression.
Thomas J. Campanella: The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World
The Concrete Dragon provides both a timely and critical overview of China's present as well as a comparison to previous periods of rapid urbanization elsewhere in the world especially that of the U.S., a nation that once itself set global records for the speed and scale of its urban ambitions.
Edgar Pieterse: City Futures: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development (Global Issues)
This book is a powerful indictment of the current consensus on how to deal with urban challenges. Pieterse argues that the current 'shelter for all' and 'urban good governance' policies treat only the symptoms, not the causes of the problem.
Adrian Favell: Eurostars and Eurocities: Free Movement and Mobility in an Integrating Europe
What does it mean to move to, in and between Europe's changing cities?
Paul Talling: Derelict London
Documenting unregenerate and unregenerated spaces.
: Urbanatomy: Shanghai 2008
More than a guidebook - a riot of pictures, comment and insight.
Catherine E. Wilson: The Politics of Latino Faith: Religion, Identity, and Urban Community
A systematic look at the spiritual, social, and cultural influence Latino faith-based organizations have provided in American life.
Ronald E. Peters: Urban Ministry: An Introduction
Introduction to the particular challenges and opportunities of congregational ministry in urban settings.
Loïc Wacquant: Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality
Urban Outcasts takes the reader inside the black ghetto of Chicago and the deindustrializing banlieue of Paris to discover that urban marginality is not everywhere the same.
Price & Benton-Short: Migrants to the Metropolis: The Rise of Immigrant Gateway Cities
The book focuses not only on cities with long-established diverse populations, such as New York, Toronto, and Sydney, but also on lesser known established gateway cities such as Birmingham (UK) and Amsterdam, and the emerging gateways of Johannesburg, Washington, D.C., Singapore, and Dublin.
Prakash: Spaces of the Modern City Imaginaries, Politics and Everyday Life: Imaginaries, Politics, and Everyday Life
This interdisciplinary collection examines how the city develops in the interactions of space and imagination. The essays focus on issues such as street design in Vienna, the motion picture industry in Los Angeles, architecture in Marseilles and Algiers, and the kaleidoscopic paradox of post-apartheid Johannesburg.
Thierstein & Forster (eds.): The Image and the Region: Making Mega-City Regions Visible!
A great deal is written about the mega-city region yet it is still below the radar for politicians, activists and citizens. What potential is there in making the MCR a normative concept and space for collective action?
Daviel Groody: A Promised Land, a Perilous Journey: Theological Perspectives on Migration
The crossing of geographical borders confronts us with choices: between national security and human insecurity; between sovereign national rights and human rights; between citizenship and discipleship.
Ricky Burdett, Deyan Sudjic: The Endless City
Across the globe there is an unstoppable march to the cities, powered by new economic realities.
Gerald West: Reading Other-wise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with Their Local Communities (Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies)
Global perspectives on reading in community. Includes Kari Latvus on the Bible in Bristish urban theology.
Roger Gastman: Street World: Urban Culture from Five Continents (Street Graphics / Street Art)
From juggernauts like hip-hop and punk to much smaller but equally inspiring subcultures endemic to the streets of the Brazilian mega-cities, South African townships and the crowds of Mumbai, "Street World" is the only book to document it all.
Phil Wood: The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage
The Intercultural City analyses the relationship of urban policy to policies on cultural diversity, principally in the UK, but also drawing upon original research in North America, Europe and Australasia.
Loretta Lees: Gentrification
The gentrification of urban areas has accelerated across the globe to become a central engine of urban development...
Tom Wright: The Cross and the Colliery
Based on sermons originally delivered by Bishop Tom Wright during Easter 2007, this is a book for Lent that uses the story of a coal-mining town in northern England as a modern parable for loss and rebirth.
Anne Power: City Survivors: Bringing Up Children in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods
Seen through the eyes of parents, mainly mothers, "City Survivors" tells the eye-opening story of what it is like to bring up children in troubled city neighbourhoods.
Mike Davis & Daneil Monk: Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism
Davis and Monk take on thye real and imagined sopaces of the the neoliberal city.
J & K Hammett: The Suburbanization of New York: Is the World's Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town?
The suburbanized frabric of New`York is beginning to fray the once tightly woven and highly diverse urban fabric of the city.
NP Marwell: Bargaining for Brooklyn Community Organizations in the Entrepreneurial City
"Bargaining for Brooklyn" widens the lens, examining the community organizations whose actions and decisions collectively drive urban life.
Jeremy Seabrook: Cities (Small Guides to Big Issues)
Every year tens of millions of people abandon rural areas of the South for life in the city. With education, health care and even safe water in short supply, cities risk becoming sites of violent conflict for future generations. And yet world governments are doing little to address these demographic shifts.
Petrella & Althus-Reid: Another Possible World (Reclaiming Liberation Theology)
"Another Possible World" is the book resulting from the first World Forum on liberation theology that took place in 2005 in Brazil.
Gavin Stamp: Britain's Lost Cities
Reproduced in this haunting volume are hundreds of top-quality photographs of cities from Plymouth to Dundee, all of streets and buildings that are gone for ever. Alternately fascinating, enraging and heartbreaking, this is an extraordinary evocation of Britain's architectural past, and a much-needed reminder of the importance of preserving our heritage.
Paul H. Ballard & Lesley Husselbee : Community and Ministry: An Introduction to Community Work in a Christian Context
a thorough and professional introduction to the subject, and includes: what is community?; community work and mission; models of community work; ethnic, cultural and religious diversity; the local authority and voluntary agencies; working with volunteers; and spirituality in community participation.
Anthony Reddie & Michael N. Jagessar: Black Theology in Britain: A Reader (Cross Cultural Theologies)
This text seeks to outline the development of Black theology in Britain from 18th century through to our contemporary era. By means of re-investigating popular texts and previously unpublished groundbreaking material, the editors offer a comprehensive and challenging interpretation of the development of an eclectic and distinctive voice that is Black theology in Britain.
