SOF London Day Conference 2024
Faith for Now
Looking back, facing forward
Saturday 20th July at St John’s Church, Waterloo 10.30am – 5.00pm
Our Annual Conference
This year, when we will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Don Cupitt’s BBCtv series and the publication of his book ‘The Sea of Faith’, three special events are being planned to mark this milestone
- 1st-2nd July, Don Cupitt and The Sea of Faith 40th Anniversary Conference at Emmanuel College Cambridge.
- Our Annual Conference on Saturday 20th July.
- 20 -22 September: A special symposium at Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden, featuring public lectures, archival exhibition, workshops and talks.
These events will celebrate Don Cupitt, his works and their influence upon the world.
The Network conference seeks to celebrate just that; the people, thoughts and events that have brought us to where we are today, and, with some forward thinking how religion and religious faith will move on and how we might move on with it.
Detailed planning is still underway, but we have secured three excellent speakers, looking both to our past and to our possible future.
The conference fee is £20, instructions on reserving a place are on our booking page.
Linda Woodhead is a sociologist of religion who is well known for her work on religious change since the 1980s, and for encouraging public debate about faith.
She read Theology at Cambridge; Don Cupitt was her Director of Studies at Emmanuel College. She then became a tutor at Ripon College, Cuddesdon for four years, before moving to Lancaster University in 1992 where she became Professor of the Sociology of Religion in 2006.
Since 2022 she has been the F.D. Maurice Professor in Moral and Social Theology and Head of Department, Theology & Religious Studies at King’s College, London. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Anthony Freeman is a priest in the Church of England and a long-standing member of the Sea of Faith Network. With degrees from Oxford in Chemistry and Theology, Anthony was ordained in 1972 and held various pastoral and educational posts, until being dismissed by the Bishop of Chichester for publishing the Cupitt-inspired book God In Us (SCM Press, 1993).
There followed a second career in academic publishing, primarily as managing editor of the international peer-reviewed Journal of Consciousness Studies, from its launch in 1994 until his retirement in 2011.
Anthony now ministers as an honorary assistant priest at St Paul’s, Chichester.
Tony Windross, author of The Reasonable Guide to Faith, has been a Sea of Faith member from the very beginning.
He worked as a teacher for 24 years.
Having found it impossible to take religion seriously, on the grounds of its sheer implausibility, the 1984 Sea of Faith television series proved a turning point in his life, eventually leading to ordination in 1993 (to everyone’s surprise, including his own) and 24 years as a vicar.
Much of his ministry has been spent trying to make religion a possibility for those unable to believe the unbelievable, and has involved some interesting episcopal conversations along the way.
