Booking open for annual SEI Lecture on 20 October

August 25, 2022

The 2022 Scottish Episcopal Institute (SEI) Lecture, the seventh in the annual series, will be given by the The Rev Professor Sarah Coakley FBA,

The SEI announced this morning that this year’s SEI Lecture will be on the topic: ‘Worship and Desire in the Anglican Tradition: Why this Matters in Contemporary Church and Culture’.

Sarah Coakley is an Anglican priest, systematic theologian and philosopher of religion. She is Emeritus Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge, and since 2018 has also been Honorary Professor at the Logos Institute, University of St Andrews. She is an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, a member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Lund, St Andrews, Toronto (St Michael’s College), and London (Heythrop College).

Registration for the lecture is now open. Please register your attendance using this eventbrite form. The event will take place using Zoom as the platform and attendees will be sent the Zoom meeting details ahead of the event. You can download Zoom here.

The Lecture will open up a discussion about how ‘desire’ operates, often all-unnoticed, in the workings of Anglican prayer and worship, and how we should think of its enduring significance in the particular context of contemporary church and culture. It is argued that theological reflection on the ordering of desires is a spiritual and ascetic task of particular significance for contemporary Christians (in this era of intense conflicting political and economic desires, generally, and distressing divisions about sexual desire in the Church), and one that should not be dislocated from public worship and prayerful preparation for it. The question is pressed: how should our prayer and worship change the way(s) we desire and see the world? How can this help us see a spiritual way forward in this time of crisis – economically, politically, and ecclesiastically?

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-2022-scottish-episcopal-institute-lecture-tickets-406192030297

(Photo used with Professor Coakley’s permission)

This event will also be streamed live on Scottish Episcopal social media channels.