Thursday Lunchtime Talks at St Giles’
Trinity Term 2014
Journey to the Source: Exploring the Wisdom of the Mystics
Revd Professor June Boyce-Tillman read Music at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. She is a composer and has written widely in the areas of intercultural issues in music, particularly in composition and education, the spirituality of the musical experience and recently, in music and peace-making. She is a Professor of Applied Music at the University of Winchester and Convenor of the Centre for the Arts as Well-being; she has been a visiting Fellow and Scholar-in-Residence in Indiana and Cambridge, USA. She has written and spoken widely on Hildegard, and her most recent book is Unconventional Wisdom (Equinox, 2007). Her book In Tune with heaven or not: Women in Christian liturgical music will be published by Peter Lang this year. She is a non-stipendiary priest and in 2008 received the MBE for services to music and education. She is an honorary chaplain at Winchester Cathedral and an Extraordinary Professor at North Western University, South Africa.
Graeme Watson, a retired Anglican priest and spiritual director, author of Strike the Cloud: Understanding and practising the teaching of The Cloud of Unknowing, (SPCK, 2011), has trained men and women for ordained and lay ministries. He leads poetry workshops, quiet days and retreats and is an honorary assistant priest in London where he shares in the leadership of an ecumenical meditation group. He has also written on George Herbert’s mysticism for Theology, and on the apophatic tradition in the Anglican Church for The Way. (from Strike the Cloud, SPCK, 2011)
Emma Pennington is vicar of Garsington, Horspath and Cuddesdon. She has tutored and lectured extensively on Christian Spirituality, especially at Oxford University, where she is engaged in doctoral research on Julian of Norwich - a project she began when she was Chaplain of Worcester College. Emma has a passion for spirituality, has led retreats and Quiet Days both in the UK and abroad, and welcomes the opportunity to encourage others to explore the richness of medieval contemplative literature. Emma also organises, along with the Bible Reading Fellowship, the immensely popular Festival of Prayer held at Cuddesdon, which is now into its fourth year.
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Stefan Reynoldswas educated by the Benedictines at Worth Abbey and has for many years been a Benedictine oblate of the World Community for Christian Meditation and leads retreats teaching the practice of contemplative prayer He has just finished his Doctorate on Late Medieval English Mysticism.He is also a Tutor of Church History at Heythrop College in London.(mainly from Journey to the Heart: Christian Contemplation through the Centuries, edited by Kim Nataraja, Canterbury Press, 2011)
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Angela Tilby, author and Anglican priest, previously vice-principal of Westcott House, Cambridge, is now a Diocesan Canon at Christ Church, Oxford and the Continuing Ministerial Development Adviser for the Diocese of Oxford. Before ordination she spent 22 years as a producer within the BBC's Religious Department and has made regular appearances on television and radio, including ‘Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Four and writes a regular column for ‘The Church Times’. Among many publications, she is the author of The Seven Deadly Sons: their origin in the spiritual teaching of Evagrius the Hermit, SPCK, 2009).
Liz Watson became interested in the Christian mystical tradition after returning to Christianity and beginning to meditate in her early forties. Previously she had pursued a career in public libraries, having graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Latin. She has since studied for a Master’s Degree in Theology at Exeter University and is now closely involved with the World Community for Christian Meditation, teaching, leading retreats and as a spiritual director. Her particular interests include Evelyn Underhill and Etty Hillesum and she has written about both in Journey to the Heart: Christian Contemplation through the Centuries, edited by Kim Nataraja, Canterbury Press, 2011).
Robert Wright, Revd Canon,previously Rector of St Margaret’s Church Westminster Abbey and Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons,Sub Dean and Archdeacon of Westminster, relinquished his posts in 2010, after 12 years at the Abbey, in order to devote more time to painting. He has acquired a reputation as a painter of abstract works with religious and contemplative themes and is now known as a priest painter. Some of his paintings will be exhibited at St Giles’ Church, Oxford in June 2014. He is particularly involved in and committed to contemplative prayer and has a special interest in the life and work of Thomas Merton.
Colin Thompson, MA, D Phil, is an Emeritus Fellow of St Catherine’s College, having retired in 2011 from over twenty years of lecturing and teaching in Spanish Golden Age studies. He has a particular interest in the writing of the Spanish mystics St Teresa of Ávila and St John of the Cross. Amongst many publications, he is author of St John of the Cross: Songs in the Night (London: SPCK, 2002; paperback, 2008) and El poeta y el místico (San Lorenzo de El Escorial: Editorial Swan, 1985). He was ordained into the Congregational Church in 1971 and has been a Minister of Word and Sacraments of the United Reformed Church, since it was formed in 1972. For many years he has been Associate Minister at Wheatley United Reformed Church.
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