sustain:if:able kiwi

Edge-walkers: Reimagining faith, church and theology

I’m delighted to be working with Karina Kreminski and Armen Gakavianen to publish a new book in 2026.

Edge-walkers: Reimagining faith, church and theology is an exploration of emergent and generative ‘Christianities’, seen through the lenses of a diverse range of reflective practitioners in Australia.

The edge-walkers in this book show us what is possible in a season when so many are leaving the church and deconstructing (and reconstructing) their faith. Their persistence, innovation and gentleness give us hope for the future of the changing landscape of the church, faith and theology.

My role includes writing a chapter (titled Making) and a conclusion, along with providing feedback on the various chapters. It’s been a delight to see the book grow from a facebook post to a zoom gathering to chapters. I’ll be in Sydney for a book launch on Tuesday 10th March, 2026 and a research symposium on Friday 13th March.

Ecclesial Futures twelfth issue now live and free online

I’m delighted to curate another issue of Ecclesial Futures and offer selection of articles and book reviews focused on the mission of God in the world, particularly in local Christian communities and the systems that support them (link to full issue is here).

Ecclesial Futures is a diamond open-access journal published through Radboud University Press. The publisher provides human copyediting and design layout and is at the forefront of open access publishing. Authors retain their copyright. There are no Article Processing Charges and the publication is available to everyone, free online. It’s brilliant.

This is the twelfth issue of Ecclesial Futures and the sixth issue where I’ve taken the lead. This issue presents seven articles that explore the nature of the mission of God. Three of the articles are written by scholars in Global South contexts, while three investigate charismatic and Pentecostal churches. Four articles examine the systems that support local Christian communities, including funding, ecumenical partnerships, diocesan strategies, and digital technologies. The issue also offers five book reviews, evidence of a community of scholars who are reading, thinking, and interacting together about the mission of God in the world in and through Christian communities (link to full issue is here)

Finally, in this twelfth issue we announce that from next year Ecclesial Futures will move from two to three issues a year. The shift is due to a steady increase, first in the submission of individual articles and, second, in scholars working with us on special-themed issues.

This is an exciting development for Ecclesial Futures, made possible by our readers and reviewers, along with the other co-editor, Dr Nigel Rooms, the publishing team at Radboud University Press, and the technology team at Open Journals.

‒ Steve Taylor, Co-Editor, December 2025

an essential tool for workshopping reviewer feedback

Last week I received reviewer feedback on a Registered Report I had submitted to undertake quantitative research into the social impact of silence as a spiritual practice.

A Registered Report involves submitting an academic journal in two stages. Stage 1 involves blind peer review of the proposed methods and analysis plan. If these are accepted, Stage 2 involves doing the research and writing up the results and discussion for further blind peer review.

Registered Reports have many advantages. First, they promote transparency by sharing research results no matter the outcome. Second, they enhance research quality by allowing a study design to be workshopped. It’s far better to catch a mistake in my design before I begin, rather than have it pointed out after I’ve gathered the data.

After letting the feedback sit for a few days, this week I have built a table.

It has a column for each of the 3 reviewers. It also has rows to gather the different areas of feedback. In this case, the feedback included comments with suggestions about my design, theory, data gathering and analysis.

I make a table to ensure I hear the affirmations. When reviewers say things like “exciting” and “compelling” and “interesting,” I need to be encouraged and say thankyou.

A table also helps me look for patterns across the reviewers. Where are the reviewers saying the same thing that I really need to do more work? Are there questions raised by Reviewer 1 that might actually be answered by Reviewer 3?

Finally, a table gives me an overview of what needs to be done. I can feel a bit overwhelmed by the feedback. In this case it was over 3,000 words! So having a table breaks things down and and enables me to develop a checklist of things to work through.

Over time, I will add a further column, which is what I have actually done in response to the Reviewer feedback. What have I changed? What do I disagree with and why? This I will use when I resubmit the Registered Report, to show my workings.

(For more on responding to reviewer feedback, I have co-authored an open-access journal article with Lynne Taylor, Elaine Heath and Nigel Rooms, “Courageous, purposeful, and reflexive; Writing as a missional and emergent task,” Ecclesial Futures 2 (2), (2021), 99-120, here.

Academic paper proposal – Climate justice and the performing of prayer in digital spaces across transational margins

A paper proposal I submitted today, for a hybrid conference early in 2026.

Climate justice and the performing of prayer in digital spaces across transational margins

The 2024 Tuākoi ‘Lei Declaration by the Pacific Conference of Churches outlined how neighbourly love within creation can turn the tide for climate justice. The twelve-page document called for a decolonising of climate change language, using stories grounded in the faith and wisdom of Pacific people. The Declaration included digital photographs of church leaders kneeling together in prayer on a Fijian island. At this moment, performances of prayer were being digitally curated to assert indigenous identity and to express solidarity with communities experiencing the impacts of climate change.

This presentation will use visual grammar analysis of digital images in an interdisciplinary study of the performance of prayer in digital activism. First, selected indigenous digital activist social media sites will be examined to document how, in the Pacific, digitally performed prayer is framed as a holistic and communal activity. Second, the theological implications for prayer when climate justice is located in neighbourly love, as in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, rather than in rights and responsibilities derived from Genesis creation stories. Third, how digitally performed acts of Pacific prayer compare and contrast with digitally performed acts of prayer from the Global North.

The paper will outline how digital media plays an important role, first in allowing Pacific communities to voice an integrated worldview and second in weaving solidarity among global neighbours. However, such digital Pacific activism requires secularised approaches to digital activism that circulate in the Global North to renegotiate how they respond to cultures that kneel in public prayer.

Whether the proposal is accepted, time will tell. But I’m placing the proposal here because it’s another marker in my thinking around the digital activism research project, which I have been working on since my Visiting Research Fellowship in Edinburgh in 2024.

Earlier this year, I had an article published in Theology journal (Taylor, S. (2025). Visualizing online climate change activism: public eco-theologies in grassroots climate-justice organizations. Theology, 128(4), 247-256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040571X251354942). The article drew on two case studies to describe the presence of prayer as a distinct contribution being made by faith-based digital activists online.

Since I submitted that article to Theology, I have continued to read and think around the practices of prayer in contemporary climate justice organisations. The paper proposal I submitted today frames some ideas and puts them in writing.

Global Mission Consultation participation

It was a privilege to be a resource person at the “Let Your Light Shine (Mt 5:26): Witnessing to Radical Hope in Catastrophic Times,” Global Mission Consultation (GMC), 26 November – 1 December 2025, Lake Kivu, Rwanda.

GMC was jointly organised by three Protestant mission societies, CWM, Cevaa and UEM. Participants came from 36 countries to explore the challenges and trends in mission today. We were splendidly hosted by the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda and enjoyed the scenic backdrop of Lake Kivu during our various breaks.

I was asked to present a paper on my research, which I titled “Let Your Light Shine” (Mt 5:16): A Prophetic Reclaiming of making in the Church’s Mission of resistance and renewal in Catastrophic Times. In my paper, I drew together my research into knitting as activism and digital eco-justice praxis among indigenous and grassroots communities. I suggested these were expressions of mission as making and that making provides distinct ways to share in God’s mending and re-making of a broken world. I brought these acts of making into dialogue with the parable of the woman lighting a lamp in a search for lost coins. She was a maker, of a household and a joyous community. Prior to the conference, I provided the talk as a 5,000 word chapter, which I understand will in time be published.

My work was well received. There were several requests for further articles. (An article I work on knitting as a making in mission will be shortly published in Colloquium journal, while my research into digital activism has been published in Theology). Further, the conference statement drew on my research in outlining contemporary trends in global mission.

While it is a long way to travel, from Aotearoa New Zealand to Rwanda, it was gratifying to draw ordinary acts of making, like knitting and content creating, into a mission framework. I return motivated to keep writing up the research. I also have some new friends and possible further connections, particularly around the digital activism research project.