Registration is at 10.30am and the forum will start promptly by 11am. refreshments will be provided during the day, but please bring your own lunch.
I READ THE NEWS TODAY - OH BOY! Famously, Karl Barth advised young theologians ‘to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.’ The Arab Spring has appeared in our newspaper headlines for almost a year but how have we interpreted it? There is also a wider question: how do we relate the news that we read every day with our wider missiological concerns? Or are the two completely disconnected? If we stopped reading the news would it make any difference to the way we do mission? Taking another look at the Arab Spring may help us to answer this question.
Two experts about the Arab World will provide background information about the events of 2011 and how they are panning out in 2012. This will provide opportunity for discussion both about the Arab Spring itself and how it is being interpreted, plus consideration of the wider missiological response to 'the signs of the time'.
Speakers
Chawkat Moucarry was born in Aleppo (Syria) to a Roman Catholic home. As he grew up in a predominantly Muslim society many of his friends were Muslim. He worked for 12 years with IFES with Arab and Muslim students and then moved to England where he taught Islamic and Middle-Eastern Studies at All Nations Christian College. In 2006 he joined World Vision International as director of interfaith relations, where his role includes supporting staff working in other faiths contexts and facilitating engagement with Islam and Muslims in particular. He is fluent in Arabic (mother tongue), French and English and has an MA in Christian theology and a PhD in Islamic Studies from the Sorbonne University (Paris). He is married, his wife is from Denmark. They live near London and they have four children.
Richard McCallum has spent 25 years travelling in North Africa and the Middle East and lived for 10 years in Tunis whilst lecturing at the Université de Tunis. An Arabic speaker, he has extensive experience of relating to Muslims and working in an Arab culture. He holds an MA in applied linguistics and a PhD in society and religion from the University of Exeter where he researched Evangelical Christian responses to Islam in Britain. He is currently conducting freelance research into the teaching of Islam and the impact of interfaith events. He also works commercially delivering cross cultural training and briefings for companies working in the Arab world. He lives in Oxford with his wife Heather.
The cost, which will help towards the expense of holding the forum, is £10 to people from GC member agencies and churches. Cost for non GC members is £40.
For more information, please contact Jane Showell-Rogers.
