News: Sixth Form RE Conference

On the 5th July, Year 12 students from Westminster City School joined students from Grey Coat for our Third Annual RE Sixth Form Conference.  This year our theme was 'Is inclusion an illusion?', and with the guidance of our three guest speakers we sought to explore the issue of the extend to which the Church can be a place of inclusion for all peoples regardless of their gender, race and sexuality. 

 

The day began with our Key Note Speaker, Dr Andrew Wright, of King's College London who set the theme in it's wider context and challenged us to consider the view that Liberalism, must by definition, have boundaries beyond which certain positions of belief and dogma are excluded.   The second session consisted of a dialogue between Dr Robert Beckford, formerly of Birmingham University and now at Oxford Brookes University, and the radio broadcaster and writer Ann Atkins.  Dr Beckford is a leading thinker in the area of Contextual Theology and he challenged us to consider that biblical teaching in the areas of gender, race and sexuality is intrinsically linked to the political and social 'context' of biblical writers.  This particular session provoked extensive questioning and discussion from the student, and all of us, without exception were challenged to consider our views and faith positions.   

 

In the afternoon, the Conference continued with workshops led by our Year 12 RE students, who facilitated activities in groups for rest of their year group.   In this session, enthusiastic discussion of the issues continued.

 

The day was a tremendous success both in terms of the quality of our speakers and the contributions made by the students themselves.   We were as a school community really 'doing Theology' on this occasion, and reflects the quality of the work and insight held by our students.