Building Home, Building Hope Conference

This conference was part of CTPI’s “Theology in the Public Square” project, generously financed by the Binks Trust. Its theme arose from a consultation with an ecumenical group of people concerned with the churches’ input into debate on public issues, who identified issues around home, hope and community as some of those on which it was important to build theological perspectives.

The method for taking this forward was one of theological reflection on church and other practice, particularly in working with homeless people, and the conference was organised in partnership with Scottish Churches Housing Action, the Salvation Army and Bethany Christian Trust. Those who attended (some 40-50 people) were architects, homeless people and those who work with them, interested church members, students, ministers and academics; they were also invited to join a theological reflection group which met four times after the conference with a dozen participants.

The conference papers, workshop presentations and notes of discussions (edited by Ann Kelly and Graham Blount) are presented here, followed by a theological paper based on these and the meetings of the theological reflection group. In addition to the Binks Trust’s support for the whole project, a generous grant from the Baird Trust has helped finance publication of these papers, with the aiming of bringing the discussions at and after the conference to a wider audience.

Download conference report here: 

Originally published in January 2010.