Theology, Scripture, personal experience & passionate fire for transformation

SUNDAY WORSHIP on BBC Radio 4 this week was recorded at the annual HeartEdge Conference, which hosted the final of the 2022 Theology Slam, a competition that invites young people to reflect on contemporary issues through the light of theology, scripture and tradition.

The service included all three finalists who wove together reflections that held threads from theology, Scripture, personal experience and passionate fire for transformation.

The winning reflection by Amanda Higgin, who is training as a Baptist minister at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, was included in full. She spoke movingly of the challenges of mental health through the lens of the letter to the Hebrews.

The service also features extracts from the two runners-up:

• Victoria Turner, a member of the United Reformed Church completing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, who reflected on justice in the light of the words of the prophet Amos.

• Alex Clare-Young, Co-Chair of the Open Table Network and a pioneer minister in the United Reformed Church, currently serving in Cambridge, who is in the final stages of a PhD at the University of Birmingham, who reflected on the experience of queer bodies and speak movingly of the centrality of the incarnation. Read Alex’s reflection in full.

Sunday Worship presenter Revd Dr Isabelle Hamley said:

It was striking that in all three reflections, bodies and what happens to bodies featured prominently – in relating to queer bodies, in the impact of injustice on bodies, and in the lingering mark that suffering bodies leave on the whole person. All three talks also called us to see what we may often choose not to see – bodies, inequality, mental health challenges.

HeartEdge is an initiative from St Martin-in-the-Fields that seeks to transform church and society through commerce, culture, compassion and congregational life. The conference, which took place at St Edmund’s Church, Roundhay, Leeds on Tuesday 27 & Wednesday 28 September 2022, also included workshops on enterprise and commerce, cultural projects, developing congregations and sustaining community involvement.

LISTEN to BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship in full here [38 minutes – available until Monday 7th November 2022].

WATCH the Theology Slam 2022 final on the Church Times YouTube channel [2 hours].