In a complex and rapidly changing world,  what does responsible authority look like across science and technology — and what habits of leadership must the Church develop to engage with wisdom and credibility?

This gathering will bring together invited senior church leaders and theologians from Kenya, India, Singapore, Poland, and the UK, alongside policy advisers and scientists, for a lively peer-to-peer exploration of how the Church can speak with wisdom, credibility and hope at a time when both technological change and contested understandings of science are reshaping public trust.

The programme will feature panel discussions, including one bringing together senior scientists to explore current challenges facing the scientific and technological communities. There will also be structured time for group reflection.

Together, these elements will open up serious and searching theological engagement, enriched by learning from different contexts. We will seek to discern how the Church can exercise wise and credible public leadership in the years ahead and strengthen our shared witness.

Date: 21st September at 1pm – 22nd September at 5pm 

Location: St John’s College, Durham

 

Speakers and panellists

Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu DBE, FMedSci is President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and UCL’s Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience. She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a governor on the Wellcome board, a member of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Council, and Chief Scientific Officer of Nanomerics Ltd, a company she co-founded. 

Uchegbu’s work has been featured in BBC Radio 4 programmes such as Desert Island Discs and The Life Scientific as well as in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Uchegbu has presented to the UK House of Commons on the educational racial disparities that lead to a lack of ethnic minority representation in scientific research. She is UK Commissioner for the Georgetown-Lancet Commission on Faith, Trust, and Health.

Professor Jane Macnaughton was until recently Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Research Culture and Professor of Medical Humanities at Durham University.  As part of that role she led a Wellcome-funded project examining research culture through a governance and leadership lens. Before that she was Director of the University’s Institute for Medical Humanities (IMH), which she established in 2000. She was one of the inaugural staff of the new medical programme at Durham and was Dean of Undergraduate Medicine from 2014 until 2017, when the programme transferred to Newcastle University. Jane has taken a leadership role in her research field by setting up the Association for Medical Humanities and the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research. Jane is a qualified doctor and until recently did sessional work as an Honorary Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University Hospital of North Durham. She retired in April 2026 and holds an emeritus professorship at the University as well as a Professorial Fellowship at St Chad’s College.

Professor Boguslaw Obara is the Dean of Business Partnerships and Place at Newcastle University, where he provides strategic leadership for the University’s engagement with industry, government, and civic partners. He strengthens innovation, enterprise, and skills ecosystems; leads cross‑sector programmes; develops partnerships that deliver economic and societal impact; and oversees initiatives that enhance the University’s role in regional innovation infrastructure and place‑based development. He is also Professor of Image Informatics in the School of Computing and a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. His research focuses on advanced image analysis, computer vision, pattern recognition, and machine learning, applied across multiple domains. Before joining Newcastle, he held positions at the Polish Academy of Sciences, ETH Zurich, the University of California, and the University of Oxford, and later served as Assistant, Associate, and full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University.

 

Professor Maria Burke is a Bye Fellow (Senior Member) at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, and Emerita Professor of Management at the University of Winchester. Professor Burke co-founded the  ‘Fragility and Flourishing’ AI research group at the Von Hügel Institute, where her work explores the societal impact of digital technology with a particular focus on AI regulatory frameworks. She currently works with Birkbeck, University of London, and contributes to international and national policy discussions on AI regulation.

 

Programme

Day 1 will focus on the leadership questions facing both the scientific and the technological communities. We begin by listening to leading voices and examining the pressures now shaping responsible authority in a low-trust age.

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch on arrival

14:00 – 14:10 Welcome and introduction

14:10 – 15:25 Keynote and conversation with Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu

15:25 – 15:45 Coffee break

15:45 – 17:10 Panel: Science and Technology Leadership Today. Senior figures from science and technology exploring credibility, innovation, and institutional responsibility

17:10 – 17:20 Closing reflections

17:20 Evening prayer

18:00 Dinner

19:00 – 21:00 ECLAS global hubs: Interventions and learnings from India, Kenya, Poland, Singapore and the UK

Day 2 will turn to the Church’s own vocation, exploring how its leaders might exercise wise and credible public authority in response to opportunities and challenges.

07.30 Breakfast

08.30 Morning prayer at Durham Cathedral

09:20 – 09:30 Introduction

09:30 – 10:45 Research presentation and group reflection. Lessons from Church Leaders in Discourse with Science and Technology – Revd Dr Kathryn Pritchard, ECLAS Co-Director and Director of Public Engagement

10:45 – 11:15 Coffee and networking

11:15 – 12:45 Senior Church leaders panel: Towards a Credible Christian Public Voice

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 16:00 International perspectives and group reflection from ECLAS global hubs

16:00 – 16.30 Coffee and networking

16:30 – 17:00  Summary reflections

 

Attendance

Attendance at the conference is free to invited participants, and accommodation and all meals are provided.

If you have any questions about the event, please contact Judith Harbinson: eclas.conferences@durham.ac.uk