User:Puckwick/sandbox

Peacebuilding through Media Arts
CTPI launched a three-year research project on Peacebuilding through Media Arts. In addition to producing scholarly research on the relationship between peace, violence and religion in media arts, the major aim of the project is to increase public awareness of peacebuilding through arts events, workshops, lectures and seminars. The project was funded by the Binks Trust, and began in 2011 with an art exhibition, Shadows of the Divine. The exhibition, which ran from 14 May-11 June, showcased select pieces from the Methodist Art Collection alongside works from Scottish and Scotland-based artists. These original artworks are displayed with one of Scotland's rare first editions of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, combining historic words and artistic images in the 400th anniversary year of its publication. According to the exhibition organizers, King James sought to bring together conflicting religious groups through a new translation of the Bible. The exhibition aims to explore how pictorial and literary creations can represent and contribute to the search for peace.

Religion and Ethics in the Making of War and Peace
The project on Religion and Ethics in the Making of War and Peace (Relwar) studies the relationships between military, political and religious dimensions of the making of war and peace today and in the past. Under the direction of Dr George R Wilkes, the project brings together a network of partners from across the world, both within academia and from militaries and humanitarian and peacebuilding organisations. Relwar researchers are involved in academic research, dialogues, and consultations on a number of topics, including military ethics education; grassroots post-conflict reconciliation, with a special focus on the former Yugoslavia; public discussion of ethical debates over war and peace; cross-conflict interreligious dialogue; and the lessons of past wars for present conflicts. In 2010 Dr Wilkes moved Relwar from the University of Cambridge to Edinburgh University, where it is housed in CTPI in association with the Just World Institute and other University research centres. CTPI leadership is closely involved in supporting the project.

Theology in the Public Square
Theology in the Public Square was a two-year research project aimed at resourcing Scottish churches for public engagement. It was led by Rev. Dr Graham K. Blount and funded by the Binks Trust. The project duration was from the autumn of 2008 until the summer of 2010. The project had two main goals:


 * 1) To review and reflect upon the perspectives and strategies of Christian engagement in Scottish public debate since devolution.
 * 2) To identify, in consultation with the churches, policy areas where there is need for theological resourcing and to develop&#x2014;in partnership with churches and others&#x2014;theological perspectives on these issues.

Twenty-five church representatives gathered in April 2009 to discuss a starter paper on the project. In 2010 three conferences were held addressing different aspects of Scottish public life. The first, Building Home, Building Hope, addressed the theology of the home. It was put on by CTPI in partnership with Scottish Churches Housing Action, the Salvation Army and Bethany Christian Trust. The proceedings from the conference are available on CTPI's blog (link). The second, Families Today: Where Are We Now?, gathered practitioners, policy makers and academics to discuss issues facing Scottish families in the twenty-first century. The third event was the Henry Duncan Bicentenary Conference. Duncan, a Scottish minister, was an early initiator of the savings bank movement in Britain. The bicentenary event celebrated his legacy in the context of contemporary efforts to extend banking to the poor. The proceedings from this conference are also on CTPI's blog (link).

During the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, CTPI co-sponsored Murray Watts's one man play Mr. Darwin's Tree. In autumn 2010 and winter 2011, CTPI joined the University of Glasgow and Christian Aid in sponsoring a series of lectures on the Millennium Development Goals. From December 2009 to January 2010 CTPI co-sponsored a series of six lectures on the influence of John Calvin and the Reformation in Scotland.