Latest news: Shrove Tuesday lectures
Last Updated on Thursday, 23 September 2010 10:58
Science and Religion will top the bill in the Bishop of Sheffield’s 2010 Shrove Tuesday lectures (16th February) at the Victoria Methodist Mission in Sheffield.
It has become a tradition for the Bishop of Sheffield to put on a day of reflection, study and debate for clergy and church workers prior to the start of the solemn season of Lent (the next day) which prepares Christians for Holy Week and Easter later in the year.
The new Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Steven Croft, said today that he was delighted to be continuing the tradition of his predecessor Jack Nicholls in organising this special day and looked forward to welcoming back a former colleague from Durham.
Although Dr David Wilkinson, currently Principal of St John’s College, Durham, was invited before Bishop Croft’s appointment, the two worked together when the Bishop headed up Cranmer Hall theological college at St John’s.
Bishop Croft said today: “I am delighted David is coming to deliver these lectures. He is currently Principal of St. John’s College, Durham and a leading expert in science, religion and apologetics.
Hawking, Dawkins and God: Science and Religion in Contemporary Debate is the title of the first lecture to be followed by Communicating the Faith in a Scientific Age.
Before working in Durham as a theologian, Dr Wilkinson was a scientist and then a Methodist minister in inner city Liverpool.
His background is research in theoretical astrophysics, where his PhD was in the study of star formation, the chemical evolution of galaxies and terrestrial mass extinctions such as the event which wiped out the dinosaurs.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and has published a wide range of papers on these subjects. He has written God, Time & Stephen Hawking (2001) and Creation (2002).
The Diocese of Sheffield is called to grow a sustainable network of Christ-like, lively and diverse Christian communities in every place which are effective in making disciples and in seeking to transform our society and God’s world.
