The Reflecting Together Project: Loneliness and isolation experienced by older people in South Tyneside
Stefanie Conradt is undertaking a 12-month full time participatory research project in South Tyneside. Working together with the charity Churches Together South Tyneside (CTST), the team and Stefanie seek to understand how loneliness and isolation is experienced by the community’s older members. For that purpose, Stefanie will work with the staff and volunteers of two projects offered by CTST. By reflecting together on what is offered by the beneficiaries and local parishioners, the hope is to create a more connected and supportive environment, as well as new ways of engagement for CTST. Including different groups in this theological reflection process, the goal is to impact their priorities and ways of working, as well, so that the social and individual dimensions of isolation and loneliness are addressed. With this dedication to reflective practices, this project will provide a distinct voice from the deprived region of South Tyneside. A short video that shares findings from the project is available on YouTube . There is a booklet for churches that accompanies this video, which can be downloaded here . The full project research report is also available to download for free from this link . For further details, the project website is available here .
Friendship, Faith, and Flourishing: How do friendship and faith interact and impact the wellbeing of practising ‘Millennial’ Christians in North East?
Ruth Perrin is building on her earlier William Leech Research Fund-sponsored research into the faith development of Millennial Christians in the region (published as: Changing Shape: The Faith Lives of Millennials, SCM 2020). Her new mixed-mode project will explore the intersection of friendship and faith in their current life stage, with a view to understanding how friendship influences spiritual wellbeing and impacts the ways in which 30-something Christians live out their beliefs across the Northeast. Ruth’s fellowship is based with St John’s College, Durham University.
A Gift to the Church: Learnings from the faith lives of people living with addictions attending Recovery Church
Florence O’ Taylor is undertaking a project involving collaborative theological reflection with ‘Recovery Church’, a community of people living with addictions that gather for services that incorporate elements of the 12-Step programme. This research connects with the ‘Church at the Margins’ initiative within Methodism, and builds on her doctoral thesis, which paid attention to the lived experiences of women living with addiction in order to develop an empirically grounded political theology of addiction. Her interest in addiction grew out of working for several years in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre alongside running a Christian ministry with women facing multiple forms of marginalisation.