Talks & Lectures

Overview A look at the Council of Nicaea from a female perspective The experience of Indigenous women in the church is marked by exclusion yet Indigenous women often make the most active participants in the faith.

Speaker Atola Longkumar

About the speaker A Baptist from Nagaland, Dr. Atola Longkumar is a faculty member in the Religion department at United Theological College, Bengaluru, India. She serves in the committee of Program for Theology and Cultures in Asia (PTCA), and the Ecumenical Indigenous Peoples Network Reference Group of the World Council of Churches.

Overview The lecture explores Nowruz as a theological framework for Persian Christian identity and covenant renewal. Rooted in themes of rebirth, reconciliation, and cosmic balance, Nowruz provides a meaningful bridge between Persian cultural heritage and Christian theology. This lecture examines how Nowruz’s rituals resonate with biblical themes of creation, renewal, resurrection, and covenant restoration.

Speaker Sara Afshari

About the speaker Originally from Iran, Dr. Sara Afshari is Research Tutor at Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. She is currently the Admissions Tutor. She received her PhD from Edinburgh University in Media Religion and Culture. She is co-founder and former Executive Director of SAT-7 PARS, a Christian television channel in Farsi/Persian language. She has MTh in World Christianity from Edinburgh University and an MA in Media Communication from Wales University. Her recent book is titled: Religion, Media and Conversion in Iran: mediated Christianity in an Islamic Context.

Overview The Nicene Creed in contemporary Christianity refers to a creedal construction that originated at the Council of Nicaea of 325 CE, and includes additions made at subsequent councils such as the Council of Constantinople of 381 CE, and the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE. This lecture will focus on the full Nicene Creed and not simply the result of 325 CE.

Speaker Masiiwa Gunda

About the speaker Programme Executive on Overcoming Racism, Xenophobia, and related Discrimination at the World Council of Churches, as well as serving as Adjunct Professor at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Switzerland. Dr. Masiiwa Gunda holds a PhD in Intercultural Applied Biblical Studies from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. He holds Honours and Masters degrees from the University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe.

Overview The lecture recounts the author’s personal journey from someone once wary of the Nicene Creed and critical of its patriarchal origins to a discovery of the subversive potential of its initial drafting at Nicaea.

Speaker Susan Durber

About the speaker Minister of the United Reformed Church in the UK, and the World Council of Churches President from Europe. Dr Susan Durber has served local churches and as Theology Advisor at Christian Aid. She was Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge.

Overview This lecture will address the understanding of church and mission in the main ecclesial families of the Middle East (Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant): It will also look at the embodiment of mission on the parish level in times of crisis and war.

Speaker Wilbert Van Saane

About the speaker Wilbert van Saane is Chaplain and Lecturer in Religion at Haigazian University, Beirut. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Theology and Mission at the Near East School of Theology. He is an ordained minister in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and has served in Lebanon for 16 years.

Overview This lecture explores biblical foundations, historical development in mission collaboration, and key statements on collaboration, contrasting them with sociological collaboration models: Attendees will gain theological, missiological, sociological and practical insights into fostering trust, unity, and mutual accountability in collaborative efforts serving God’s mission:

Speaker Kirk Franklin

About the speaker Dr. Kirk Franklin (PhD, University of Pretoria, South Africa) is a researcher, author, educator, and speaker about global missions based in Melbourne, Australia. He is also an adjunct lecturer at the Melbourne School of Theology, associate faculty at OCMS, and a missiologist with the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

Overview In the context of world Christianity and missional church, how do the theological disciplines arising from Christendom need to be reimagined? The lecture will draw on the reflections of a missiologist designing an introduction to theology for a diverse and global classroom:

Speaker Kirsteen Kim

About the speaker Kirsteen Kim (PhD, Birmingham, 2002) is the Paul E. Pierson Professor of World Christianity and Associate Dean for the Center for Missiological Research at Fuller Theological Seminary, USA. A recent publication is The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies, eds. Kirsteen Kim, Knud Jørgensen, and Alison Fitchett-Climenhaga (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Overview This lecture is an introduction to the book, Community of Missionary Disciples: The Continuing Creation of the Church: Rather than “tack” mission at the end of ecclesiology, the book focuses on Mission as starting with creation, and essential for the church’s foundation:

Speaker Stephen B. Bevans

About the speaker Stephen B. Bevans, SVD Professor of Mission and Culture, Emeritus, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago

Overview Pentecostalism has always functioned within a precarious space in which it has constantly sought to hold in creative tension its Christian identity and indigenous spiritual identity: While these aspects appear to complement each other, they are simultaneously in conflict:

Speaker Mutale Kaunda

About the speaker Mutale Mulenga Kaunda joined the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in September 2024 as a Research Tutor. She is a former Doctoral Researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal 2017-2019 and the University of the Western Cape 2022-2024. She held the position of Research Mentor and Writing coach in the School of Religion Philosophy and Classics University of KwaZulu-Natal 2015-2019. She is an expert in gender rituals, an expert in how African women negotiate cultural dynamics in places of work.

Overview Dr: Tan will explore the idea that followers of Jesus might retain their religious identities or traditions: His lecture will emphasize the contributions of a Trinitarian theology of religions that supports religious conversions while promoting indigenous Christian witness, focusing specifically on Christian-Buddhist identity:

Speaker Kang-San Tan

About the speaker Dr. Kang-San Tan (PhD, Aberdeen University) is general director of BMS World Mission. He is also Chair of the Commission on Mission and provides leadership for the Global Baptist Mission Network of the Baptist World Alliance. Dr. Kang-San Tan has previously served as head of mission studies at Redcliffe College and executive director of AsiaCMS.