Each year, Whitley College puts on this thing called ‘The School of Ministry’, three days marked by worship, some teaching (via keynote talks and workshops), and eating together. I haven’t been to a lot of these over the years because I’ve been out of the country, but the ones that I have been able to get along to have been very worthwhile. For example, it was at one of these gigs that I first heard Chris Marshall introducing his extraordinary work on restorative justice (published as Beyond Retribution: A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime, and Punishment, a book that was followed up a decade or so later with his Compassionate Justice), and I remember hearing Richard Foster talking about patterns of prayer, and I remember hearing Paul Fiddes speaking about baptism and the creative suffering of God in ways that I didn’t know were even possible.

This year, we welcome again Professor Paul Fiddes to address the theme of Baptist identity. Paul’s is certainly one of the most outstanding theological minds of our time, and a great teacher. I can’t wait to hear him again.

More information about the program and registration can be found here.