Generous Faith 2 - Turning Up the Tuned Out

Is the Church going backwards? Is British society going backwards? How can Christians speak and act in response to current challenges?

The rise of dominant silencing voices and of nationalist and racist politics is posing urgent challenges. The church still has a long way to go, as is shown by the C of E's recent moves on Prayers of Love and Faith, the continuing inequality of women in the church and the marginalisation of Black people, disabled people and poor people.

This conference is for those who embrace a Christianity which is both prophetic and inclusive. We will hear from people on the front line of resistance, working for a church which is truly for everyone.

The aim of the conference is to inspire and encourage, and offer resources for collective and individual resilience in these uncertain times.

Presented by St John's, Waterloo in partnership with Together for the Church of England, Inclusive Church and WATCH.

£45/£15 concessions, including lunch and refreshments.

Concessionary rate applies for anyone in receipt of universal credit. Please contact giles@stjohnswaterloo.org if you are not sure whether you are eligible.

Early Bird tickets £40 - book before January 31st.

Generous Faith 2 - Turning Up the Tuned Out – will

• bring together Christians working for a church where no one is excluded
• offer a chance to learn from and be challenged by the stories of people who have experienced hostility and discrimination
• reflect on how we can discern and respond to powerful voices within and outside the church at the moment.
• ask how we can work together for a generous faith
• discern how can we speak better, as a church, into the immensely challenging world around us

Turning Up the Tuned Out will hear from people who have experienced marginalisation or exclusion and have reflected deeply on their journeys, bringing liberation and profound insight into the ways God’s love has brought them hope and strength.

A prophetic dimension opens up. Generous Faith 2 will build on the reflections of the first Generous Faith conference held in March 2025.

Keynote speakers:

Dr Naomi Lawson Jacobs: Turning Up Prophetic Voices from the Margins

Naomi is an activist social researcher in disability studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. Their book At the Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches, co-written with Emily Richardson, shares the stories of disabled Christians and their call for God’s disability justice in the church and society. "Disabled people are not so much a pastoral problem as a prophetic potential,” wrote disability theologian John Hull. Yet churches have marginalised disabled people, seeing us as recipients of care rather than leaders with prophetic gifts to offer.

Professor Anthony Reddie : Refuting populism, affirming the prophetic: the challenge facing church in our contemporary era.

Anthony is the Professor of Black Theology, the University of Oxford and Director of The Centre for Black Theology, Regent's Park College. His latest book, Living Black Theology: Decolonising Knowledge will be published by Oxford University Press in 2026

Revd. Canon Dr Judith Maltby - Messy Church: Reformations from Below and Learning from Our History

Judith is an historian of Anglicanism, with publications on topics ranging from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, including the reception of religious change at the parish level in the Long Reformation, the nature of Church Establishment and the ordination of women. More recently her work has focused on the Anglican Literary Tradition, especially the role of women novelists and poets, and she is the co-editor of Anglican Women Novelists (2019). From 1993 to 2023 Judith was Chaplain and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and has been a member of General Synod since 2010.

Preacher: Rt Revd Anderson Jeremiah, Bishop of Edmonton. Anderson is a Globally recognised Anglican Theologian. He is deeply passionate about social and environmental justice as a Gospel imperative. His passion for working towards justice and peace as central to Christian Discipleship stems from his lived experience as a Dalit Christian.

Panel speakers:

Revd Grey Collier is a curate at St John's, Waterloo. Before ordination he was Advocacy Director for the civil liberties organisation Liberty. Grey is a strong advocate for the inclusion of trans people in the church, co-founder of the Transfigured Mission initiative, and one of the organisers of Christians for Palestine.

Revd Rachel Humphrey is a minister at Bonny Downs Church and a convenor of Inclusive Evangelicals

Chaplain to the conference and panel speaker:

Revd Sue Parfitt. Sue is an Anglican priest. After ordination in 1994 she continued to work as a therapist and advisor in pastoral care and counselling in the Bristol and Southwark Dioceses. Since her retirement in 2001 she has been fully engaged in work with social justice issues - asylum seekers, Palestine and the climate crisis. This has led her to find her calling into civil resistance, following Jesus and many of His disciples in the early church and later into breaking the law when necessary. Strangely, this has led to the loss of her licence to practice as a priest - at least in the formal sense!

Host:

Canon Giles Goddard. Giles is Vicar of St John's, Waterloo and Chair of Faith for the Climate. He is a former Chair of Inclusive Church and has many years working to make the church more prophetic and inclusive. His book Generous Faith inspired the conference and his third book Exploring Spirit is to be published in January 2026.

Workshops:

Can queerness save the church? The Revd Dr Charlie Baczyk-Bell is a Church of England priest. He is Associate Vicar of St John the Divine, Kennington, Associate Tutor and Research Fellow at St Augustine’s College of Theology, and the Fellow in Medicine and Public Theology at Girton College, Cambridge. He also works for the National Health Service full time as a forensic psychiatrist, is a Trustee of Together for the Church of England, and is a member of General Synod for the Diocese of Southwark.

Limitation and Justice: Fr Simon Cuff is currently Vicar of St. Peter de Beauvoir Town in the Diocese of London. He was formerly Lecturer in Theology at St Mellitus College, Fellow of the Centre for Theology and Community, and Contributing Editor to the S. Mary Magdalen School of Theology. He is a trustee of the refugee charity Migrants Organise and Vice Chair of a charity concerned with financial justice, the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility.

Crafting inclusive liturgy: Revd Dr Mary Kells is Rector of the parish of St Martin and St Paul, Canterbury, having previously served as Chaplain of King’s College, Cambridge. Before Holy Orders, she spent much of her career working in the voluntary sector – particularly in the areas of mental health and advocacy. She is a member of the National Executive Committee of Women and the Church (WATCH) and holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics. Her book, God Beyond Gender: Crafting Inclusive Liturgy, is published by Canterbury Press and is available here.

Prayer and resistance: Sister Gemma Simmonds is a sister of the Congregation of Jesus and an ecumenical canon of the Church in Wales in the diocese of St. Asaph. An honorary fellow of Durham University and past president of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain, she has studied at the universities of Paris, London, Rio de Janeiro and Cambridge, where she undertook a doctorate in theology.

Creativity, resilience and justice: Revd Jon Swales (tbc) heads up Lighthouse, a fresh expression of church for adults battered and bruised by the storms of life. Alongside this Jon is involved in theological education and is currently a tutor with Leeds School of Theology, St Hild and Niagara School of Missional Leadership. Jon is passionate about peacemaking & climate justice and seeks through prayer and activism to be a prophetic witness to the church.

£45/£15 concessions, including lunch and refreshments.

Concessionary rate applies for anyone in receipt of universal credit. Please contact giles@stjohnswaterloo.org if you are not sure whether you are eligible.

Early Bird tickets £40 - book before January 31st.

Overnight accomodation in St John's crypt is available. Please contact giles@stjohnswaterloo.org for further info

Access information

Access and travel details for St John's Church are available at AccessAble.

We are committed to being as accessible as possible. If you need further info please contact admin@stjohnswaterloo.org

The book Generous Faith has received very positive responses. In particular many have been moved by the story of St John’s, Waterloo as a place which offers a welcome to many people on the edge of society, whether LGBTQI+, people who have experience of racial or sexual discrimination, people from post-colonial nations, disabled people, homeless people and those who are prophetically active in campaigns for greater social justice.