Tagged: gender awareness

A One Day Workshop for Theological Educators on Classroom Strategies around Gender and Sexuality

BIAPT (the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology) and CSCS (the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality), invite you to attend this workshop on classroom strategies around gender and sexuality in either Manchester or London. 

The workshop will prepare theological educators, Diocesan Directors of Ordinands, and other theological teachers and trainers to handle hot-button issues around sexuality and gender. Further information as well as registration form and location details is available at the event website.

The Challenge

As theological educators, we help to form and to inform a wide range of professional and informal faith leaders: parish ministers, chaplains, teachers, parents, and a great many other adult faith practitioners. In a society often troubled or confused around issues of sex, gender, sexuality, and embodiment, how do we help our students to deal with these questions? How do we prepare them to deal with the people who will turn to them for insight, understanding, and support?
Issues and emotions around sexuality and gender are becoming more prominent in theological education. These issues can come up in our work with theology students, with ministers-in-training, and with ministers in the field. They can come up in classroom discussions around ethics, ministry, Scripture, and systematic theology; in discussions about Christian history and about contemporary life. They can come up in academic, ecclesial, and secular settings.
Some of the students in our classes may be wrestling with the doctrine and discipline of their different denominations. Some may be wrestling with challenging new perspectives on sex and embodiment. Some may be wrestling with their own experience of gender and sexuality; with sexism or other forms of discrimination; or with sexual trauma (whether their own, or the trauma of others).


The Workshops

Tackling questions about sexuality and gender calls for engaged, interactive, and experiential pedagogies. Our one-day workshops provide resources and practical training to help teachers tackle these challenging issues. Together, we will explore how to address sex and gender across social and cultural contexts; across differences in personal history; and across different denominational backgrounds. We will provide space and time to think through the challenges of raising these issues within our institutional cultures and settings. Process will be a key part of our content, as we seek to equip and resource each other in this challenging work.

The day will include:

  • Creating a safe, critical, and prayerful space for shared learning
  • Shared reflection on our current teaching practices
  • Finding a shared language around sexualities and gender
  • Practicing specific classroom strategies, including:
    • Creative Questioning
    • Embodied Theological Reflection
    • Topic Fishbowling
    • Comparative Models of Theological Reflection
  • Shared lunch and breaktimes
  • Educational resources and handouts

The details shown are for the event in Manchester on 20th June 2016. There will be a repeat event in London (Oasis College, 1 Kennington Road, SE1 7QP) on 24th June 2016. For full details please refer to the event website.

Norwich Diocese: Diocesan Day Conference on Gender, Inclusion and Transgender People

How ‘Gender Aware’ is your church? This Diocesan Day aims to help us consider issues of inclusion, the place of transgender people in the Church and the broader issue of gender and its implications for Christian communities. This day is with the Rev’d Canon Rosie Harper and the Rev’d Dr Christina Beardsley.

The Rev’d Canon Rosie Harper is a member of General Synod, vicar of Great Missenden, chaplain to the Bishop of Buckingham. She writes for The Guardian and is a co-author of a forthcoming volume.

The Rev’d Dr Christina Beardsley is Head of Multi-faith Chaplaincy at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London. Tina is a member of Sibyls – A Christian Spirituality Group for Transgender People. She wrote The Transsexual Person Is My Neighbour: Pastoral Guidelines for Christian Clergy, Pastors And Congregations, published by the Gender Trust, is the author of Unutterable Love (Lutterworth, 2009) and is currently co-editing a book about transgender people’s theology, This Is My Body: Hearing the Theology of Transgender Christians.

Read more and for booking details on the Diocese of Norwich’s website here