Brian E Beck Memorial Lecture

Perfecting Love and the public sphere? Towards a Wesleyan social ethics for a fractured world.

You are warmly invited to join us either in-person or online for the second Brian E Beck Memorial Lecture on Thursday 22 January 2026

This year's lecture will be provided by Professor Dion Forster, Professor of Public Theology & Ethics in the Department of Beliefs & Practices, School of Religion & Theology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

This lecture asks how perfecting love might inhabit the public sphere as an expression of Wesleyan social ethics for a fractured world. In the spirit of Scripture and Conference, embodied by Brian Beck, the lecture considers the promises and perils of diverse and sometimes divergent Methodisms that are shaped by migration, contextual, and global entanglements, and explores how these can serve, and hinder, the common good.

Honouring Brian's legacy his family established the Brian E Beck Memorial Fund to support teaching and research into Methodist theologies. Donations are invited in Brian's memory

If you are attending in-person we would strongly recommend using public transport where possible including the Cambridge Park & Ride service.

The closest pay and display car park would be at Shire Hall which is only 2 minutes walk from our premises.