Dr Bachelard (pictured) will speak on the topic ‘Running on Empty: Contemplation and New Ways of Being Church’.
In her lecture, Sarah will ask some challenging questions. What if our experience of the declining position and viability of the Western Church were good news? What if the confusion, failure and ‘lost-ness’ of this ecclesial ‘dark night’ could be inhabited as a space where new ways of being church and of engaging the needs of the world might be revealed and lived into?
This lecture will explore how the practice of contemplation might enable us to embrace rather than resist this experience, reconnect with the gospel dynamic of death and resurrection, and so be renewed for participation in divine liturgy, mission and justice.
Sarah is a theologian, speaker and retreat leader. An Anglican priest, she is the founder and director of Benedictus Contemplative Church, an honorary research fellow at the Australian Catholic University in Canberra, and a facilitator with the Center for Courage and Renewal.
Sarah is the author of Experiencing God in a Time of Crisis and Resurrection and Moral Imagination. She has a particular interest in issues to do with spiritual formation and contemplative action, and has recently spoken at the symposium ‘Meditation in the Monastic Tradition’ at the Monastic Institute of San Anselmo in Rome.
The Revd Dr Barry Marshall, OGS, died suddenly at Oxford in 1970, shortly before becoming Principal of Pusey House, a centre for theological scholarship and research in Oxford. Barry entered ¹ú²úBT in 1946, completing his BA in 1948. He then studied theology at St John’s College, Morpeth.
As ‘Brother Timothy’ he ministered in outback New South Wales, and after gaining a DPhil from Oxford, was appointed Chaplain of ¹ú²úBT in 1961, where he remained for ten years. Warm, vital, spontaneous, with a rich sense of fun, he was a man of remarkable influence, deeply involved with persons and causes, and much loved. After his death, this annual Memorial Eucharist and Lecture were established in his memory at ¹ú²úBT.
A short Memorial Eucharist at 5.30pm in the Chapel, followed by the Memorial Lecture at 7.45pm in the Old Warden’s Lodge (Theological School), ¹ú²úBT, Royal Parade, Parkville.
Guests are welcome to join us in Hall for dinner in between, at a cost per head of $15.
Enquiries:
T: 03 9348 7127