SCIENCE FOR
SEMINARIES

Cathedral Isle of Man is developing a series of 19 gardens around the Cathedral, half of which were opened in the summer which tell a variety of stories from a number of perspectives: Social and religious history of the Isle of Man, display contemporary art, explore health, allow for play and deal with the interface of Christianity and Science.

The areas of sciencific exploration are particularly geology, plants and animals.  The Maughold garden gives an indication of how these stories appear in a single garden.  The garden tells of the arrival of Christianity on the Isle of Man from Ireland in the 5^th century.  The garden is a recreated beach showcasing the geology of the Island with rock outcrops indicating the main geological features.  The planting scheme has flora associated with the coast.  The legend of Maughold (which includes the banishing of snakes from the Island), is the opportunity for telling the story of the uniqueness of the fauna on the Island, for example, animals not present like the squirrel and the presence of other animals unique to the Island such as the tailless cat.

Material is being developed for each of these trails for the use of all ages including Key stage 1 and 2 for school groups.

Messy Church Science

Our family focus means we can inspire scientists of the future. We can teach them some basic scientific skills and influence their attitudes and expectations towards science and faith. We can help train a generation to see no dichotomy between science and faith, but rather how the two can fruitfully exist side by side.

BRF’s Messy Church has been embraced wholeheartedly by many local churches and through it we have the opportunity, as well as the creative imagination and energy, to bring science into the way we ‘do church’. We can help the subject become an accepted and expected part of worship and learning; and a means by which we can meet God and learn to love the natural world.

Our family focus means we can inspire scientists of the future. We can teach them some basic scientific skills and influence their attitudes and expectations towards science and faith.

Messy churches provide creative sessions for children and families to learn about the Christian faith. The grant will be used to develop materials to help Messy Church leaders use science to explore aspects of the Christian faith and demonstrate that faith and science are complementary. The project aims to provide Messy Churches with 100 safe and simple scientific activities to try in church and to demonstrate that anyone can get involved in science. Videos will be made to promote the work.

http://www.messychurch.org.uk/messy-church-does-science-0

We want to empower students by showing them how scientific ideas are developed through imagination, creativity, discourse and observation within the created order; how a person’s scientific ideas form a more or less compatible subset of their overall belief-system; and therefore that a scientist’s proposals are somehow connected, for better or worse, to their most fundamental beliefs (which may be called ‘religious’).  If our Christian faith is true, then, it could actually help us do better science.

This project wants to empower students by showing them how scientific ideas are developed through imagination, creativity, discourse and observation within the created order; how a person’s scientific ideas form a more or less compatible subset of their overall belief-system; and therefore that a scientist’s proposals are somehow connected, for better or worse, to their most fundamental beliefs (which may be called ‘religious’).

Discussion style evenings based in Baptist churches in Leeds and open to all in which science students and science professionals give talks before taking part in a question and answer sessions. Preparatory training workshops will be held for students and science professionals from congregations across Leeds. The project will be open to participants from across Leeds and beyond.

Four videos from the project are publicly available from the project home page and on the project’s YouTube channel, one other is awaiting approval, and videos of all workshop sessions have been made available to the participants. Additionally, an expansive Prezi presentation has been created (available at http://churchscientific.org.uk/scientists-workshops/) to summarise the overall curriculum from the workshops.

Seven posters were created from a common template by participants, outlining their educational and ecclesiastical journeys and how their Christian faith interacted with their scientific work. The posters were printed at A1 size and made available for their creators to take away after the conference.  They may be viewed at http://churchscientific.org.uk/posters .

Many Christians operate with a dualistic mind-set, drawing a sharp distinction between the “sacred” and the “secular”, or the “spiritual” and the “natural”. This mind-set is often especially prevalent among Christians working in the sciences. Many find it difficult to make the connections between living Christ-centred lives and working within a scientific paradigm. Other Christians drift into the sciences unthinkingly: it’s not that they find it difficult to make these connections; it’s just that they’ve never really tried.

At Grace Church Truro we have enjoyed hearing from members of the congregation about how their Christian faith interfaces with their experience of working in the sciences. We have hired a skilled videographer who has worked with four members of the church in both their homes and places of work. Videos have been completed for a senior church leader and theologian who has a background in the biological sciences, the Head of Biology at a leading independent school in the Southwest and a third year Biology undergraduate studying in Falmouth with Exeter University. A fourth video with a trainee doctor at Cornwall’s largest hospital is nearing completion.

Phase two of the project is now underway as we develop our church website to include a dedicated feature that communicates how faith in Christ connects with every area of life. While progress on this aspect of the project has been slower than expected, we have begun working with a local web designer who has particular expertise in working with churches.

Website: http://gracetruro.org/

Through our science club we hope to make clear that the popular assumption that the Bible is at odds with scientific reason presents a false dichotomy: in fact, in many ways they complement or, even ‘illuminate’ one another.

The benefice of Harwell and Chilton is committed to growing God’s church wider, deeper and closer. Within our benefice lies the Harwell Campus, housing the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, the nuclear licensed site, now being managed and decommissioned by Magnox (formerly ‘Harwell’), Diamond Light Source, the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC UK) and the UK and European Space Agencies along with nearly 200 science orientated companies. Close by is the Milton Science Park, Culham Science Centre, and Oxford University. In the last year in the benefice has seen established a University Technical College (a school for 14-19 year olds that teaches students technical and scientific subjects). Consequently, many in our congregation and wider community have a significant knowledge and background in science.

There were three activities in the Crossing the Gap project:

1) A termly Keynote Speaker Evening

2) A monthly Family Science Club

3) A fortnightly Science Discussion Group

The Keynote Speaker Evenings were landmark events in the life of our church. Our first event took place in November, when Professor John Lennox joined us to give his lecture ‘Cosmic Chemistry: Do Science and God Mix?’. This event was extremely popular, filling the 190 seat capacity of the venue, with a short waiting list. John gave an excellent and amusing overview of the issues that often given rise to conflict between science and faith. The lecture was recorded and has been made accessible online. To date the recording has nearly 4500 views online. See below.

Cosmic Chemistry: Do Science and God mix? – Professor John Lennox

John Lennox came to The Pickavance Lecture Theatre at Rutherford Appleton Lab, Harwell Campus to speak about Science & Faith.

Christianity is – or should be – a confident, outward looking enterprise, underpinned by divine grace, that also views the scientific enterprise positively and creatively, as part of humanity’s calling by God our Creator.

Our initial activities were intra-mural to give scientists within the congregation a voice and to enable non-scientists to appreciate their work and to encourage all to appreciate the significance of Biblical theology for science. Meet the Scientists was an introductory mid-week event with six 15-minute presentations + Q/A. We then held a geological field trip to a deep cavern in the Peak District, learning about gradual processes and the age of the earth. The controversial topic of Creation/Evolution was tacked in a debate format, with the goal of understanding that these terms are not mutually exclusive. This was followed by an in depth session on the hermeneutics of Genesis. During 2017, on consecutive weeks, the teenage youth group was addressed by 12 of our scientists speaking about their research and the impact of their faith. One 6^th-former undertook work shadowing in a University laboratory and a group visited Waters Corporation R&D laboratories – to learn about their global leadership in Mass Spectrometry. A substantial group visit to a radio-astronomy centre will take place on 16/9/17.

Our approach to science and scientific discoveries has a real impact on the mission of the church in contemporary culture.

One of the aims of the first, Ely Cathedral Science Festival was to become a ‘Cathedral for Science’.  The Festival aimed to celebrate Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine through arts, music, lectures, live experiments and worship. Ely Cathedral Science Festival was an ‘intentionally’ missional project, aiming very specifically, to reach out to new and diverse audiences, particularly families, children, and working age people. It also aimed to respond robustly to those who perceive the church to hold negative views about science and technology and connect with people who wish to explore faith in contemporary culture. There were displays and talks by the Cambridge Science Centre, an ethical discussion and panel debate about DNA technology, and a series of lectures by leading scientists exploring medicine, genetics, astronomy, engineering and climate change with a keynote lecture by Lord Robert Winston.

A major exhibition aimed to highlight key moments in the history of science and included an original copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica as well as dinosaurs, fossils and other items of scientific significance. Over the course of the festival we welcomed over 30 schools, 1700 local School Children, thousands of families, and 14,000 visitors to the cathedral. During our Night at the Cathedral events over 1500 people experienced hands on science with interactive displays and exhibits, and over 50 families enjoyed hunting for mini-beasts in the cathedral grounds and learning to appreciate nature. Our Education department have developed a Science Trail, exploring the wonders of the cathedral, and various other workshops which we will integrate into our regular schools provision. The people who built the Cathedral, itself a marvel of medieval engineering, were questioning and seeking answers about existence and our place in the world.  The very design of the Cathedral was meant to represent life here on earth as well as in the world beyond and has helped people through the years ask the questions: where do we come from? Of what are we made? And Where are we going? Ely Cathedral today continues to be a place which inspires wonder, challenges people and confronts them with new foundations for belief.

http://www.elycathedral.org/ely-cathedral-science-festival

Given the current atmosphere of scientific glasnost, it is timely to consider novel and effective ways of engaging church congregations and church leaders in vibrant and stimulating discussion on issues of science and faith using scientifically trained members of those congregations.

Scientists make hypotheses – when this happens, then that will result – and then test these hypotheses by practical experimentation. In the summer of 2016, we in the Diocese of St Albans came up with a hypothesis. We proposed that if we ran a programme called Take Your Vicar to the Lab then we would be able to link up clergy with laboratories. Vicars would be able to visit labs and would come back inspired by the link between science and faith. Likewise, scientists would visit local churches to help the congregation think through the same issues.

We have now spent twelve months running the scheme and testing our hypothesis. So were we correct? What conclusions have can we draw?

First, we observed that clergy are indeed interested in visiting laboratories. Around two dozen clergy have taken part in six visits and have looked at topics as diverse as genetic engineering, particle physics and the manufacture of everyday pharmaceuticals. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Everyone who has taken part has come back more inspired and better equipped to make connections between science and faith.

Second, members of local congregations have been keen to think through these questions. The two conferences that we have run have attracted, between them, around 70 participants. In addition, two discussion evenings at the Cathedral Study Centre have proved very popular. We are exploring the possibility of producing a mailing list for those who want to keep in touch with future events.

Third, we have garnered considerable publicity having been featured four times on local and national radio, as well as having a report on the project published in the journal Crucible.

While these elements have all been a success, our fourth conclusion is that scientists are far less enthusiastic to talk to vicars than vicars are to talk to scientists. Gaining access to laboratories has been much more difficult than we anticipated – sometimes for reasons of commercial confidentiality – and no scientists have been willing to make reciprocal visits to local churches. It would be interesting to pursue why this might be the case.

Finally, there has been an unexpected positive benefit. The Revd Prof Nick Goulding, who has been co-leading the Take Your Vicar to the Lab project, has been appointed by the Bishop of St Albans as the honorary diocesan adviser in science and faith.

In conclusion, our hypothesis has proved partially correct. Even though scientists don’t always perceive the need to talk to people of faith, practising Christians are positive and enthusiastic about exploring how science and faith relate. For this reason, we shall be continuing the Take Your Vicar to the Lab project for at least another year, and hopefully longer.

Water of Life is focused on the River Holme that runs into the River Colne near Huddersfield. The focus on the river provides many opportunities for people of faith to consider interaction with God’s creation, the world. Recognising that Our Lord is as much a part of the earth as of heaven, it is incumbent on us to ensure that it is looked after. With a changing climate and ever increasing demands for human use, natural water systems are under pressure and in turn can be seen as a threat to human welfare. Shortages of water, flooding and pollution are all potential hazards that we need to be aware of and at the same time plan to manage. Water of Life has taken a twin-track approach to equipping Christians in local congregations with a clearer understanding of the River Holme and how the River may behave in the future and at the same time bringing an understanding of what the Bible tells us about water and life. By bringing these tracks together, starting with a conference at the University of Huddersfield in March 2017, local congregations have begun to see how their place as people of faith within the world is supported by God’s love and that we can be optimistic about the future despite what appear to be threats and challenges ahead. Water of Life has so far explored what the congregations feel and understand about these issues and defined what they need to be stronger in faith and advocates for God’s word in the world. Materials from the various activities are available on the St Mary’s and St George’s website [http://hwbparish.org.uk/], including a sermon series on water and the Bible; a Water of Life hymn and minutes of the various meetings. Prayers and details of a riverside prayer walk will also be available shortly.

The aim of this project is to create a book of songs on the theme of science and faith. There are now nearly 40 songs written. Nine of these have been written in Church of England primary schools in Ely Diocese.

Cathedral Performances of  New Songs

The songs written in schools were performed in Ely Cathedral in May 2017 at the Science Festival ‘From Dinosaurs to DNA’ (also a ‘Scientists in Congregations’ project).  320 children took part. The Ely Diocese Deputy Director of Education and two musicians who are regularly involved with children’s music events at the Cathedral helped to ensure this was a day enjoyed by all participants. The children’s songs were professionally videoed.

Creation of a New Video Channel

The videos of the nine songs have been the first uploads to a newly created “You-Tube’ Channel called ‘Sing of God and Science’. Within the first two months of its existence it accrued more than 2500 views.

For more information on the project please see the video below:

Sing of God and Science’s YouTube channel can be found by clicking here (this has the full range of videos available).

The project was initially inspired by the late Dr Colin Tingle of the Lewes & Ouse Valley Economics Group, a community group formed under the umbrella of Transition Town Lewes. The group considers the benefits that the local community and the local economy gets from the local environment. One of the group’s main achievements was to develop Ecosystem Service Walks to highlight the benefits we all receive from the landscape. Following on from this Colin was keen to explore whether science and theology can align within congregations to taking small steps in helping reverse the degradation that human societies are bringing to our natural environment/God’s Creation. His thought was that a series of simple eco-system services walks/walking churches may be able to provide a starting point to inspire congregations to work within their communities on how we value nature, God’s Creation and human society’s only life support system.

Website: https://www.trinitylewes.org/ 

Re:Think Worcester aims to communicate the complimentary nature of science and faith to young people at 6^th form and undergraduate level, equipping them to make their own decisions about what they believe about science and faith, and how they relate to one another.  So far three presentations have been made in city centre locations.  These have dealt with the Science/God debate (“Has science killed God?”), Artificial Intelligence (“Rise of the Intelligent Machines, Future Battleground?”)  and the Predictions of Science Fiction (“Humanity becoming gods?: the dreams and fears of science fiction”).

Website: www.rethinkworcester.co.uk

Facebook: Re:ThinkWorcester

Twitter: @ReThinkWorcs

Ten events have taken place across three streams of activity (Sunday Science Evensongs, Faith in Science Lectures, Science in the Cathedral tours). The Sunday events took the format of a traditional sung Evensong, with scientist-Christians taking the sermon slot to introduce the themes of the project. Invited speakers discussed the themes of the project – including genetics, AI, the big bang and physics – in depth in a lecture-theatre environment. The second lecture was moved from the University to the Cathedral in an attempt to move the audience between venues; this proved successful. Two walking tours led by Derby historians helped to illuminate Derby’s heritage of Christian scientific discovery by telling the story of a number of Enlightenment thinkers including John Whitehurst, John Flamsteed and George Sorocold.

This Poole-based project has provided opportunities to draw upon the experience of healthcare professionals in order to explore contemporary medicine in the context of Christian faith. A behind the scenes tour of Poole Hospital has been a particular highlight and involved over fifty people visiting the pharmacy, neurophysiology, medical physics and radiotherapy departments and to learn about some of the technology involved, not least the LINAC (Linear Accelerator). A ‘Medial Panel’ evening provided further opportunities to engage with the area through quizzing General Practitioners, an IT professional, a Clinical Scientist, an ‘A and E’ nurse, and a hospital chaplain on their work and faith.

Another highlight of the work to date has involved a ‘film clip’ evening exploring dreams and nightmares regarding the future in relation to science, medicine and technology as envisaged in the movies. Future events include an exploration of ‘Human Enhancement’ and the vision of using medicine and technology not simply to heal the sick but to ‘enhance’ humanity. This project is led by Josh Naylor and Justin Tomkins, both of St Mary’s Church, Longfleet, and further details, as well as links to social media, are available through the project website (https://www.sciencefaithandyou.co.uk/ ).

Faith in the Questions is made up of several elements brought together to consider the relationship between faith and science. The event opens with a performance of Counting the Clouds, a newly commissioned one-act play by Nigel Forde. The play Imagines Job as a respected scientist whose work is wrestling with the unpredictable structure of the universe. Is God really in control? When Job’s personal world is shaken to the core, how can he reassemble the pieces of the puzzle, both professionally and spiritually? In conversation with God, Job is invited to look harder

in the natural world, to question further and think more deeply… in effect to take up the position of science.

During a break for coffee, audience members are invited to submit written questions to a moderator who then chairs around 50 minutes of discussion with a penal of four scientists on the subjects raised by the questions. Questions raised on the three nights in June 2017, varied tremendously from evening to evening covering subjects from artificial intelligence to genetic engineering via stem cell research and matters of biblical interpretation. Discussion was lively, relevant and honest about what cannot be known yet and the consequent challenges. Science, faith and art under one roof proved both thought provoking and stimulating. We trust that many went away both hopeful and encouraged.

The first Saddleworth Science Faith Festival will take place in the week beginning Sunday 15^th September. The project will deliver Science Faith Communicators into lessons and Assemblies across Primary Schools and hopefully at least one Secondary School. There will also be a Family Science Faith Night. In addition, we hope to deliver science faith liturgies across the nine congregation congregations in the Saddleworth Anglican team churches. We will encourage a Messy Science Church session and find and encourage the Scientists in our congregations to talk about the interaction between science and faith.

We are hoping one thousand children and some of their parents will be impacted by Science Faith Communicators, and that through the Parent Assemblies there will be impact on children’s, parent’s and adult’s perceptions of a typical scientist. We are planning (and hoping) for an impact on children’s attitudes to asking questions that bridge science and faith and their personal accounts of how science and religion relate on Origins and Evolution.

Science is a gift, blessing and resource for the Church. CSI: Canterbury seeks to widen and deepen the engagement of science and technology within the church by running a series of talks that give an overview of contemporary science in relation to Christian faith. CSI will facilitate congregations’ engagement with contemporary science and enhance their discipleship and worship of God by understanding His creation more clearly and acting as good stewards toward it. It seeks to enable Christians of all ages, to see STEM related occupations as a positive vocation and calling.

CSI: Canterbury is organised by Perry Enever (who tutors in general science and biology as an Associate Lecturer with the Open University) and Rev Andrew Fitzgerald, the pastor of Canterbury Baptist Church).

Our parish includes Granta Park, one of the leading life-science parks in the Cambridge cluster.  We are planning a series of lunchtime talks by high profile scientists on big science-faith related questions. Our hope is that will attract interest from those who work at Granta –  some major companies on the campus employ over 3,000 employees.

Our plan is for the talks – to be held at the prestigious Granta Centre- to stimulate discussion and debate about the role, relevance and inter-relationship of the Christian faith with the scientific world.  We aim to challenge the myth that science and faith are incompatible.

For the first talk, Dr Denis Alexander will respond to this big question: ‘Has science buried God?’  Denis Alexander is Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge and Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. Future speakers include Professor Russell Cowburn FRS and Professor Keith Fox. Residents of the parish will also be invited.

We hope too that this project will be of significance to the Ely diocese as a model for ministry to the many science parks that are in the diocese.

Lichfield Cathedral will mark the 50^th anniversary of the moon landing by transforming the Cathedral’s vast nave floor into a huge visual reproduction of the moon’s surface. ‘One Small Step’ will examine the human instinct to travel, explore and discover, enabling us to reflect on one of the most significant journeys that humanity has ever undertaken. The installation – which will run from July to September– invites visitors to examine the intersection of science and faith in the context of space exploration.

Visitors and worshippers will effectively ‘walk on the moon’ when they come into the Cathedral. This extraordinary visual effect will be available free to the Cathedral’s daily visitors during the school holidays, and while the installation is in place the Cathedral’s services will take place ‘on the moon’ enabling exploration of faith and science through liturgy. The installation will also provide the setting for a series of lectures, events and activities aiming to engage congregation, schools, families and the public with questions around faith and the science of space travel and exploration.

https://www.lichfield-cathedral.org/

Revd Andrew Thomas writes: “In my opinion a deeper engagement between science and faith serves to strengthen the life and mission of Christians and their local congregations. It should serve to deepen their personal and corporate faith in several ways; instilling a sense of confidence in the credibility of their faith…This doesn’t mean they have all the answers and go and tell everyone, but rather that they are more knowledgeable on the subject and therefore better prepared for dialogue with people who are not believers. This knowledge combined with humility and courage could be an excellent springboard for revitalised churches and communities.

We plan to create a series of short videos on subjects exploring different elements of the relationship between science and the Christian faith in order to educate, provoke discussion, and inspire further engagement with the topic. The target audience is primarily Christians and guests who attend our Sunday Café Church. We are planning a series compiled of 4 videos, accompanied with discussion materials so that the videos can be watched on the big screen and then discussed in small groups.”

https://www.cafechurch.org.uk/?fbclid=IwAR1FEwsx3x8ZNI6VkuGuNUSrTUA8-vSPiBRyWgR2Z6gf-jttqYfD9Swcm7E

Following a successful series of lectures on ‘Science and Faith’ in 2018, we are now planning an event at the Cathedral which will make use of liturgy and choral music to shed fresh light on the Book of Genesis and a scientific view of creation.

Michael Reiss, FRS, prominent bioethicist, educator, journalist and Anglican priest will speak on ‘Science and Religion’. He is Professor of Science Education at the Institute of Education, University College, London.   Philip Moore has been commissioned to compose music to form a setting for the words of “Genesis for the 21^stcentury”. This was written by renowned scientist-theologian, Revd Canon Dr Arthur Peacocke, winner of the Templeton Prize in 2001.

We will ask for feedback from those who attend and specifically find out how it affected their understanding of Creation, Science and Religion.

MES-AI Church aims to stimulate a dialogue on increasingly important areas of robotics and artificial intelligence in the life of local churches and their communities.  Developing from a previous “Scientists in Congregations” project – The Bible Readings Fellowship “Messy Church Does Science” – it will enable children and adults to explore the creativity of science and technology, alongside exploring what robotics and artificial intelligence might say about humanities relationship with God.

MES-AI Church is a pilot project run at Croxley Green Baptist Church led by Messy Churches Does Science’s, “Dr Dave” and members of the church involved in the IT industry.  Based around Lego MINDSTORM, a programmable form of the popular Lego Technic often used school STEM activities, in afternoon workshops shaped by Messy Church’s ethos of hospitality, creativity and celebration, families with children aged 10-13 with an interest in AI will build robots that can respond to a series of challenges. Alongside developing skills in programming and experience of the principles and potential of AI, the project will engage with theological and ethical questions that AI raises and provide a vehicle for people of all ages to explore their own faith, spirituality and engagement with God.  Material for the workshops will be published on the Bible Reading Fellowship in early 2020.

https://www.croxleybaptist.co.uk/

Messy Church is part of The Bible Reading Fellowship (BRF). We offer families, many of whom have never set foot in a church before, an experience of church that is suited to their needs and embraces Christ-centeredness, hospitality, creativity celebration and all-age. There are around 3,500 Messy Churches worldwide and they reach a staggering half a million people each month.

In 2017 Scientists in Congregations very kindly funded Messy Church Does Science, a project aiming to demonstrate that science and faith are complementary. It’s been a huge success with Messy Churches everywhere, so now we want to bring the concept to new audiences.

This year we’re developing Messy Church Does Science in Schools, an afterschool club for the whole family. Through it we hope to expand peoples’ horizons, encourage more families to explore science, and help build faith and scientific understanding. We’ll be working with five different schools and churches across the country, so we may be coming to an area near you soon!

https://www.messychurch.org.uk/messy-church-does-science

What do our attitudes to these human-made technologies teach us about God, ourselves and relationship? Dr Scott Midson will be presenting findings from his work on love and robots in Manchester Cathedral in November and will introduce a series of films that explore what robots are, and what love is, in order to think about whether the two go together.

As rapid advances in robotics and artificial intelligence take shape, people are starting to ask about the attachments that can develop between human beings and these machines. This idea has attracted a lot of media attention particularly in recent years, for example with reports in Japan of people even marrying their virtual assistant.  From robotic assistants to robotic animals – robotic seals, for instance, are already in use in nursing homes around the world – how are we to evaluate these developments? We need to think carefully and critically about both what robots are and what love is in order to develop accurate critiques, which is the focus of this event that connects religious and philosophical ideas with technological and scientific applications.

Daniel Pereira, one of the project leaders, writes: “Our Scientists in Congregations project has both a challenge and a stimulus: we are going to present science to a congregation, assuming the only knowledge they have about it is the GCSE content – or less. Also, we serve a multicultural congregation with loads of Portuguese speakers. So, we are preparing content which will show God in science and nature. Both in the English language and Portuguese.

Our aim is to help Christians to view the Creator as a Creator indeed, by answering questions that our modern society presents and hopefully empower them to have a solid Christian view in a scientific society.”

Connect Methodist Church website http://cntchurch.co.uk/

The four town centre churches in Sidmouth will host open lectures on “Caring for the Ocean”, “Caring for the Atmosphere”, “Caring for the Land” and “Caring for the World” on the four Sunday evenings of October 2019. Each will be followed up in weekday discussion groups in the churches. The aim is to raise awareness of the scientific evidence of how we are changing our world, in relation to our moral choices as individuals and as church communities.

The lectures form part of the Sidmouth Science Festival, which takes place from October 5th – 13th. Further details are advertised at https://www.sidvalley.org.uk/events.html and https://www.sidmouthsciencefestival.org/festival.”

 Science and the language of prayer is a programme of five seminars hosted at Bramhall Methodist Church in the autumn of 2019. Our aim is to explore how a modern understanding of science might influence how we think about God and, more particularly, the language we use to express our prayers. We’ve got an exciting programme of key-note speakers each prominent in a different are of science and each talking about a different aspect of prayer. After each talk we will hold workshops developing materials with which to populate our website. We hope through doing this that we will provide resources for individuals or small groups who may want to explore the themes that we have been looking at. For further details please visit our web-site at:  https://bramhallmethodists.org.uk/scienceandprayer/.

With the national and international range of the Met Office based in Exeter, we are in a unique position as a church to create a new and beneficial relationship with that scientific community.  Our challenge at St Thomas’s – a traditional Anglican parish – is how to relate the world and thinking of the parish (theological, liturgical, cultural) with that of the scientific community around it.  How can we cultivate a richer and deeper engagement between science and faith?

One way forward is to explore the relationship between science and sacrament.  Can we can develop some congruence between scientific thinking and the parish’s own philosophy/theology? What are points of tension and challenge between these two concepts?  Here we will build on connections provided by a parish lay leader who works at the Met Office.

This is stage one. We will use this process as a springboard for work with two other scientific locations in the university and health service.

On Friday 29^th September 2017, a bilingual event, Duw a’r Glec Fawr – God and the Big Bang, was delivered at a Welsh-language medium school in South Wales, Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg, Llangynwyd. Through a series of presentations and workshops this event helped senior school students explore the relationship between faith and science.

During the event we recorded video interviews with participating scientists, addressing some of the key questions which regularly arise about science and faith. These videos will be used later at a science and faith evening at Salem Baptist Church, Tonteg which will be open to people from other local churches.

Over subsequent weeks the videos will be discussed by members of a local church youth group and uploaded in weekly instalments onto a smartphone app designed for church-based young people in the Pontypridd area.

For more information contact: Revd Dr Peter Stevenson pks@swbc.org.uk

Faith in the Questions brings art and science together to grapple with the challenges surrounding belief and scientific enquiry. For many people today this has become a mistrustful and sharply adversarial conversation. Which side is God on? Or is this the wrong question to ask?

Counting The Clouds, a new one-act play by Nigel Forde, casts the biblical figure of Job as a modern day scientist. Job wrestles with the unpredictable structure of the universe, asking if God could possibly be in control?  When Job’s personal world is shaken to the core, how can he reassemble the pieces of the puzzle, both professionally and personally? 

Counting The Clouds is the opening gambit in Faith in the Questions, raising contemporary questions both personal and scientific to inform an evening of lively debate and discussion. Following the play, audience members address their own questions to a panel of leading scientists drawn from a wide spectrum of scientific expertise.

Paul Burbridge, Artistic Director of Riding Lights Theatre Company, said: ‘This is an excellent way to get everyone talking and thinking – high-quality theatre provoking wide-ranging conversation with eminent scientists about questions of christian faith and scientific enquiry.  The theatre gives a lively human context to the debate and you don’t have to be either a student of science or someone of faith to enjoy engaging with these crucial issues.’

Faith in the Questions will tour university towns including London, Manchester and Sheffield from January.

This youth-led project led by young people from St Andrew’s Church Bishopthorpe in York, helped by staff from the Archbishop of York Youth Trust, put on a day conference called ‘OMG Science! Unlocking the wonder of our world…’ for students from secondary schools across York back in March 2017. We were lucky enough to have some leading Physicists and Biologists with us for the day, as well as a team of young postgrads and lecturers from York and Leeds and Sheffield Universities. These experts really gave the young people confidence to engage in issues touching on both faith and science. The event lived up to its name, giving students the opportunity to explore a wide range of issues. Seminar titles included: ‘the nanoworld – small is different’, ‘evolution – is there really a clash of science and faith?’ ‘natural disasters or evil?’ and ‘life, the sea, and other mysteries.’ We had use of a giant cosmodome for the day, which opened up questions about the origins, the vastness, and the meaning of the universe.

Due to the generosity of those who gave their time to speak at or take part in this event, we have funds left for a second conference, which we intend to run along similar lines next year, probably in nearby Leeds. There is also material to prepare to develop a scientific module for the Archbishop of York Young Leaders Award – a key part of our programme.

During May–July five talks have been given by leading scientists from Newcastle and Cambridge Universities in different locations in the Tyne valley, providing Christian viewpoints on topics including climate change, evolution, and the credibility of miracles; the events have been hosted by various local churches in church, school and public hall venues and have attracted audiences of 50–100 from a range of backgrounds and experience.  The talks have been followed by lively discussion.

Four further talks have been arranged for September–November 2017 with speakers from across the country addressing topics including natural disasters and artificial intelligence.  We expect the project will lead to a continuing engagement of local churches with the science-faith relationship, in which there is clearly much interest.

The aims of the ‘On Common Ground’ project by Exeter Cathedral:

1. Can there be a mutually enhancing relationship between science and faith?
2. Do the findings of science challenge our faith in any way?
3. Can God feature in scientific discourse?
4. Is faith relevant in our contemporary ‘scientific world’?
5. Are scientists playing God? Can we use Christian ethics to evaluate the applications of science?

Project activities

The main activities were four events, described as a brief Lent Course, with the first timed to coincide with the start of National Science Week.

The first event was a talk entitled ‘The Continuing Dance between Theology and Science’ by Professor Tom McLeish in Exeter Cathedral, followed, after a break for refreshments, by questions and discussion. This was chaired by Prof John Bryant

The second was a panel debate on ‘Are Scientists Playing God? – Science and Christian Ethics’, in the style of Question Time, held at the University of Exeter. The discussion was chaired by Dame Suzi Leather who had prepared ‘starter questions’ on several topics which in turn stimulated questions from the audience

The third was a conversation on the topic of ‘Beauty, Awe and Wonder in Science – but what about God?’ between a Christian biologist, Dr Ruth Bancewicz and an atheist Earth Scientist/Climate Change Expert, Professor Tim Lenton. The conversation was facilitated by Professor John Bryant and followed with questions from the audience.

The final event was a panel discussion, entitled ‘My Science, My Faith’, with five scientist-Christians, representing a range of disciplines. The chair for the discussion was Dr Cherryl Hunt who holds PhDs in both Cell Biology and Theology. Questions before the refreshment break had been complied by Professor Bryant and Dr Hunt and included questions that had been submitted on-line.  After the break, questions came from the audience.

www.oncommonground.net

Twitter: @ocgconversation

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ocgconversation/

The aim of our project is to give local church leader and RE and science teachers added confidence in addressing issues in the relationship between science and the Christian faith and to provide access to helpful resources, including speakers, literature and other media. We plan to achieve this aim by running two one-day events.

The first event, scheduled for 23rd November 2017, will consist of separate afternoon sessions, for church leaders and then for teachers, to demonstrate the resources available and provide some training for delegates in their use. We are also pleased to have Professor Sir Colin Humpherys as a contributor to these sessions. Sir Colin is Professor and Director of Research, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge. In the evening, Sir Colin will give a public lecture entitled ‘Can a scientist believe in miracles?’

The second event, scheduled for 24th February 2018, will be a full day public conference on the relationship between science and the Christian faith, with prestigious speakers discussing the issues from a variety of scientific disciplines. It will be hosted by St. Andrew’s Church, Plymouth and is designed as an example of a church-led event on the topic. The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion will be assisting in the organisation of this event.

Project website: www.cissouthwest.co.uk