The Anglican Communion Office and Virginia Theological Seminary both recently announced new programs designed to equip church leaders and congregations to explore connections between faith and science.
A partnership with the U.K.-based Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science (ECLAS) announced on April 8 will enable the Rev. Dr. Muthuraj Swamy to become a theological facilitator and researcher for the Anglican Communion Science Commission, which was formally launched at the 2022 Lambeth Conference.
Virginia Seminary’s project is a curriculum called Being With Science, which will help congregations explore scientific issues behind contemporary ethical questions. The Rev. Dr. Sarah Colvin, a priest and pathologist, is designing the program, which is supported by a $24,000 grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
ECLAS has been researching Christian leaders’ attitudes to science for more than a decade, and supports conferences for church leaders and programs based in seminaries and congregations that probe connections between faith and science.
Swamy will explore how these resources can be used to strengthen and expand the Anglican Communion Science Commission’s work. He will also support the lead bishops on science and faith who are being appointed in each of the Anglican Communion’s 42 member churches.
A conference held at Virginia Theological Seminary last October included 22 of the lead bishops. The Episcopal Church’s lead bishop is Nicholas Knisely of Rhode Island, who studied physics and astronomy before training for the priesthood.
In recent months, the commission launched a series of films about faith and science issues, and is developing regional hubs to facilitate gatherings of scientists and faith leaders in different parts of the world.
Swamy is the director of the Cambridge Center for Christianity Worldwide, and taught pioneering courses in science and faith at Serampore Theological College in India before taking up his position in Cambridge.
“I am delighted about this new partnership to strengthen this engagement in the Anglican Communion worldwide, especially among the senior church leaders,” he said. “I look forward to working in this new role to learn about how Christians engage with science in different global contexts, and what we can learn from each other so that we can work together in the service of God’s kingdom.”
Being With Science is inspired by the 10-week Being With course developed by London’s Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Being With uses a small-group format focused on sharing stories to discuss topics like Jesus, prayer, the cross, and suffering.
Being With Science will also be ten sessions, and Colvin will invite 10 leading scientists to contribute their stories for the course.
“The stories will be designed to spark personal story-sharing from participants,” she said. “It’s through that sharing that those participating in the program will come to honor the truth they already know, be invited to shed their fears of not knowing, and discover scientific truth through new information and the experience of others.”
Current students at Virginia Seminary were asked to suggest topics for the sessions, and ideas have included “the science of artificial/augmented intelligence and its relationship to consciousness; the neuroscience of dementia, empathy, and violence; molecular and gene therapy; chronic illness and diet; trauma and its impact on human development; loneliness and mortality; and human flourishing and nature.”
Colvin, former Deputy Chief Medical Examiner for Washington, D.C., holds master’s degrees in divinity and ethics, in addition to her training as a medical doctor.
The funds from the AAAS’s Science Engagement for Congregational Flourishing initiative will also support the recruitment and training of 30 course leaders, “each representing different regional, racial, economic, gender, and theological backgrounds that exist within The Episcopal Church.”
The course will be produced and distributed by Virginia Seminary’s Department of Lifelong Learning, which will support the teams developed through the course, and plans to expand its faith and science offerings in the future.
The Rev. Dr. Muthuraj Swamy is a member of the Living Church Foundation.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
