MPA Faith-Based Leadership Course, University of Birmingham

Start date : April 2020

Duration : MPA: 2 years part-time

Course Type : Postgraduate, Taught

Fees : UK/EU/International: £9,000 each year, part-time for two years

Leading a faith community today is an increasingly complex and challenging task. Our MPA helps develop effective, equipped and well-informed leaders who can help their organisations maximise their impact for the good of society.

Today’s faith communities are often sizeable organisations with sophisticated educational, healthcare or social engagement projects and significant financial turnover. However, the initial training of faith leaders understandably focusses on their theological and pastoral skills, leaving many leaders with significant professional responsibilities and management challenges that they sometimes feel ill-equipped to confront.

The Birmingham Master of Public Administration in Faith-Based Leadership offers a globally-unique approach to faith leadership development, combining insight into organisational, administrative, managerial and leadership skills from negotiation to social entrepreneurship, from decision science to ethical purchasing, and from leading volunteers to intercultural engagement with a commitment to faith-sensitive application of these core principles on the ground in faith communities across the world.

The MPA is a two-year, part-time programme designed for senior and emerging senior leaders from across a variety of faiths, from faith-based organisations and from governmental and non-governmental organisations that deal with faith-based issues as part of their everyday life. Our programme is ideal for, for example, chairs of trusts, mosques, temples and gurdwaras, directors of companies and CIOs, bishops, area deans or equivalent, CEOs or COOs from faith-based organisations.

Applicants will ordinarily require a 2:1 or above at undergraduate level (or equivalent), three years’ experience in a leadership role at some level (not necessarily a senior yet), and will need to be employed or presently volunteering extensively in a leadership capacity, with the capacity to dedicate approximately 8 hours a week on average to their studies throughout the two years.

Apply via the Degree Apprenticeship Levy

If your organisation is based in the UK and pays the degree apprenticeship levy, or is prepared to apply for UK government support, it may be possible for 2021 admission only for funding which will cover most of the programme fees. Please contact us for more information on this.

Please visit HERE for more details.

Trauma and Response: A Theological Reflection, Free Webinar

Free Church Healthcare Chaplains Annual Study Day is an opportunity to step back, draw breath and reflect on the impact of the experience of trauma.

Wed, 4 November 2020
14:00 – 16:00 GMT

The Free Churches Group is hosting the Annual Healthcare Chaplains Study Day on the subject, "Trauma and Response: a theological reflection". This is an opportunity to step back, draw breath and reflect on the impact of the experience of trauma. Our thoughts will be led by Rev Sue Shortman, a Methodist Minister in the Birmingham District, with opportunities for discussion in break-out groups.

This event is organised by the Healthcare Chaplaincy Steering Committee on behalf of the Free Churches Group and is aimed at Free Church Chaplains, but others of different denominations, faith/belief groups, are welcome to attend.

This event will be held via Zoom. Booking is now open via Eventbrite here.

Login information will be sent to you by email nearer the time. For more information please contact Revd Meg Burton at meg.burton@freechurches.org.uk

Photo courtesy of Katherine McCormack at Unsplash.

The Congregational Federation is proud to announce the holding of its first Summer School on 28-30 August 2020

The Congregational Federation (CF) is a federation of independent or Congregational churches formed in 1972 with the object of the advancement of the Christian faith, and with churches directly affiliated to it from England, Scotland and Wales. We are also part of the International Congregational Fellowship.

The aim of this Summer School is both to encourage and to challenge Christians to play our part, especially as Congregational churches, within the broader non-conformist tradition in the public life of the UK today. We will explore our distinctive values, perspectives and principles, reminding ourselves of our call to radical discipleship under Jesus.

The Summer School will immediately appeal to those in any of the non-conformist church traditions but it is open to anyone who believes that Christians and churches should have an impact on the structures and policies of society as well as getting involved at a local level to support disadvantaged people and those suffering injustices.
For information about the Summer School, the presenters and the venue follow this link here.

The weekend will involve a mix of plenary sessions, presented by people with experience and expertise in different aspects of Christian dissent, and interactive, workshop type sessions, led by equally experienced scholar-practitioners.

The venue for the Summer School is the iconic grade 2 listed National Justice Museum in the heart of Nottingham. The cost for delegates is £200 per person, which includes buffet lunches and evening meals, plus a guided tour of the National Justice Museum.

Places should be booked by 31 July 2020, and the first 30 places will attract an early-bird discount of £50.

The particular issues to be explored include the following:

What Are the Distinctives of a Christian Non-Conformist Voice in Public Life?
Challenging ‘Empire’ is a Non-Conformist Church’s Responsibility
Significant Historical Congregationalists with an Ongoing Influence Today
Reading the Bible as Non-Conformists
The Importance of a Congregational Voice in the UK Today

The following academic experts and practitioners are our presenters:

Professor Anthony Reddie
Professor Reddie is the editor of Black Theology: An International Journal. In 2015 he was appointed Professor Extraordinarius in the Department of Philosophy, practical and Systematic Theology at the University of South Africa. He is also the Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture and a trustee of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology.
His latest book is Theologizing Brexit: A Liberationist and Postcolonial Critique, the first intercultural and postcolonial exploration of the Brexit phenomenon.

Rev Dr Ann Jeffers
Dr Jeffers is a Research Fellow at Roehampton University, and formerly a Director of Research at Heythrop College, University of London. She is also a Tutor on the Congregational Federation’s ministerial training course. She is the co-editor of a textbook on Gender and Religion and has contributed to The Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception and to Oxford Biblical Studies Online.

Rev Dr Alan Argent
Dr Argent is Research Fellow at Dr Williams's Library, London, and is a significant expert in the Non-Conformist and dissenting Christian traditions with several important books published on this, including the major work, The Transformation of Congregationalism 1900 - 2000. He is the Minister of Trinity Congregational Church, Brixton and a Tutor on the Congregational Federation’s ministerial training course.

Rev Suzanne Nockels
Rev Nockels is the President Elect of the Congregational Federation and the Minister of two Congregational churches in Sheffield. She has a Masters’ degree in Mission (Pioneering) and is a Tutor on the Congregational Federation’s ministerial training course with a particular interest in fresh expressions of church.

Rev Dr Julian Gotobed
Dr Gotobed is a Senior Lecturer in Ministerial Theology at the University of Roehampton. He is a member of the Research Group in Theology, Religion and Practice, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He has published several important articles including one on Martin Luther King Jr, entitled Rediscovering Justice. He is also an Accredited Minister in the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

Rev Dr Graham Adams
Dr Adams is a tutor at Northern College and one of the ecumenical staff team within Luther King House. He is programme leader for their MA and teaches Mission Studies in the context of global Christianity and religious diversity and dialogue. He is the author of Christ and the Other and is a Tutor on the Congregational Federation’s ministerial training course.

For further details and information about booking on the Summer School please contact the administrator at: madeleine.varley@congregational.org.uk. Or telephone: 0115 911 1460.

This press release is available to download here.