Landings Third Annual Lecture April 2019
Dr. Gemma Simmonds ‘Accompanying the Return to Faith and Practice’
The talk by Dr. Simmonds was fascinating and challenging with many questions being asked of us and our faith practice. The focus of the talk was about the role of women in the Church and the myriad of reasons why women find it hard to stay in the Church, and though many do leave, yet many do say on. There were many instances throughout the talk that were easily relatable to those whom Landings reaches out to, i.e those who had distanced themselves from the Church and yet yearn to find a way back to their faith. Dr. Simmonds engaging talk certainly left us with much food for thought.
Our team – L to R
Janet Connor, Landingsuknorth, Margaret Johnston Landingsuknorth coordinator, Ellis McNorthey-Gibbs, our new LandingsUK administrator, Ruby Almeida, LandingsUK south coordinator, our speaker: Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ, Newnham College, Cambridge – and Fr. Dominic Robinson SJ, LandingsUK director.
Some comments on the day:
“To try to stem the tide, especially of women, who are leaving the faith community, Sr Gemma described components of a truly authentic welcome of those who want to return – or whom are on the cusp of leaving – with characteristic earthy passion.”
“The photos of the team…showed real joy!”
“This is such a fascinating subject…”
“I know someone who would be very interested in the setup of this ministry elsewhere…”