Presenting our very first @trinity_bristol Christmas advert! 🥰👼

I am so thrilled to announce our new tutor at @trinity_bristol, and really looking forward to working with Sofi 🥳👏

I hope we can all agree that the names given to these giant turtles were a missed opportunity.

The latest @trinity_bristol newsletter is online with some lovely photos from Welcome Week!

As usual, @God_loves_women has said what needs to be said. 💔 and 🙏 for all those harmed by Mike Pilavachi today as they process both what this report does say, and what it doesn't deal with.

@trinity_bristol As if that wasn't enough, our partners and friends @BristolBaptist are also seeking a new tutor and operations manager: https://t.co/EuXfMEpioh!

It is an exciting moment @trinity_bristol as we are looking for two new tutors to develop our work in academic inclusion and forming theological educators for the future: https://t.co/UuVePkS2kw

@trinity_bristol Please spread the word! I'd love to have informal conversations with anyone who might be interested. We are VERY excited about these posts!

We have been granted funding for two new full-time tutors at @trinity_bristol, for someone of GMH to work with potential theological educators, and for someone to spearheading new provision to meet the needs of currently underrepresented groups. https://t.co/UuVePkS2kw

Back to where it all began ❤️

(Nothing personal to the LLF group members whom I genuinely love and enjoyed our weekend!) @samhwilson

Last night I dreamt that I was in Leicester again for the weekend with all the other LLF working group members to try and work out the next steps for LLF 😮 So imagine my reaction when I woke up and realised I’m in fact going to New Wine today! 🤣 🥳

A number of people have kindly noted that I featured on the front cover of the @ChurchTimes this week - no doubt a very natural person to choose to follow on from Taylor Swift, who was on last week's cover.

Thank you @fluff35 for asking me to write this - a short critique of ‘tribal’ language in the report, and some information about how theological training these days aims to shape ministers to serve the whole of the Church of England, and not just one part.

(Credit to @RobinWardSSH for this point!)

So I wanted to reassure #Synod that TEIs really want to ensure that candidates for ministry have ‘a deep understanding and empathy for other traditions’, but I am sure we also have lots of learn about how we can do so even better!

Eg a range of community worship, encountering the full range of theological ideas, and placements in a range of traditions. Students almost always come back delighted by these placements and grateful for the generosity of the parishes who welcome them and clergy who supervise.

Traditions can be inhabited defensively and naively, but they can also be inhabited generously and self-critically as a healthy basis from which to be open to others and receive their gifts.   Then of course the actual formation involves varied experiences:

Many students choose a TEI for practical reasons (eg location), & some choose one outside their ‘home’ tradition precisely to get a broader experience. But even helping people to be rooted in a spirituality that feeds and sustains them need not come at the expense of breadth.

Furthermore, nowadays the majority of candidates train in TEIs which gather students from across traditions. And even TEIs which have historically been associated with particular traditions are probably much broader these days than perhaps at times in the past.