This conference examines ways of creating spaces where women can speak boldly about their experiences and their bodies. For the past decade, the Women’s Voices conference has addressed such issues. Held at Luther King Theological college (itself inspired by Martin Luther King's vision of equality and justice), you are invited to an afternoon engaging with powerful feminist discussion. All are welcome!
CLICK HERE to book your place at the Women's Voices Conference 2025
DATE: Saturday 12th October 2024, 10:00-16:00.
Pricing:
- Early Bird Tickets (available until 30 September): £35
- General Admission (after 30 September): £40
- "Pay it forward" tickets*: £50
* By purchasing a "pay it forward" ticket, you can support attendees who do not have the financial means to engage in the Women's Voices conference.
Transport: Luther King Theological College is within easy reach of Manchester city centre by bus or foot, nestled within a nature-rich suburb. There is on-site and on-street parking available free of charge.
Accommodation: Luther King House, a part of the wider Luther King campus, offers bed & breakfast accommodation at reasonable prices, with Manchester's famous curry mile just a 5 minute walk away! Click here to book a room at Luther King House Bed & Breakfast.
Speakers:
This section will be updated with more information leading up to the event.
Professor Hannah Bacon
Hannah Bacon is Professor of Feminist Theology at the University of Chester, UK. She is interested in the interface between Christian theologies of embodiment and contemporary cultural discourses about fat and weight. Her recent book,Feminist Theology and Contemporary Dieting Culture: Sin, Salvation and Women’s Weight Loss Narratives (T & T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2019) draws on qualitative research inside a UK secular commercial dieting group and offers alternative accounts of sin and salvation that have the capacity to resist rather than reproduce sizeist norms. She is also author of What’s Right with the Trinity (Ashgate/Routledge, 2009) and co-editor (with W. Dossett and S. Knowles) ofAlternative Salvations: Engaging the Sacred and the Secular (Bloomsbury, 2015) and (with W. Morris and S. Knowles) of Transforming Exclusion: Engaging Faith Perspectives (T & T Clark, 2011).
Tite: Women and the Weight of Fat Shame: Towards a Radical Faithing of Fat
Abstract: What does Christian faith have to say to today’s omnipresent culture of fat shaming? Despite being a body-centred religion, Christianity has historically struggled to fully affirm and celebrate the body, especially the sacredness of women’s bodies. While the Bible never condemns fatness, theological links between bodies and sin, especially between women’s bodies, sexuality and sin, inform Western attitudes of fat phobia. Weight-loss dieting and other projects of ‘body improvement’ echo ancient theological ideas that promote the need to master and escape from the unruly excesses of the flesh and reverse Eve’s lustful eating. But if the body is so central to Christian faith and practice, can and should we start to think about fatness differently? In this talk, I want to reflect on some of the ways in which keeping faith with the body might resource a radical Christian account of fat pride and prophetically resist the culture of fat shame.
Rev'd Dr. Kate Bruce
Rev'd Dr Kate Bruce is an RAF Chaplain, writer, and regular preacher, with a PhD in homiletics. She leads and contributes to retreats and conferences, and has taught preaching in different contexts, over many years. She has published: Igniting the Heart: Preaching and Imagination (SCM:2015) and edited, with Jamie Harrison, Wrestling with the Word: Preaching Tricky Texts (SPCK:2016). With Liz Shercliff she wrote Out of the Shadows: Preaching The Women of the Bible, Vols 1 and 2 (SCM 2021, 2024). She is a regular contributor to The Preacher’s Companion and Reflections for Daily Prayer. She has an interest in Spiritual Direction, and enjoys training in the gym.
Professor Lisa Isherwood
Prof Lisa Isherwood is Professor of Feminist Liberation Theologies at University of Wales, Trinity St David, UK. As a Feminist liberation Theologian and as a liberation theologian she believes theology to be a communal project fuelled by notions of radical equality and empowered by divine companionship. Her work explores the nature of incarnation within contemporary contexts and includes such areas as the body, gender, sexuality and eco-theology. She has written, co-authored and edited 27 books and written numerous articles. She is an Executive Editor of the international journal ‘Feminist Theology’ [Sage] and sits on the international editorial board of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion(USA). In 2010 she was Vice President of the European Society of Women in Theological Research.
Rev'd Dr. Liz Shercliff
Rev'd Dr Liz Shercliff’s work reframes preaching not just as telling biblical stories, but as amplifying silenced voices, especially those of women—both in pulpits today and in ancient texts. She invites preachers to retell Scripture in ways that underline gender justice, surface hidden narratives, and make space for embodied, diverse truths in worship. She is on the academic staff of the Luther King Theological College.
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