sustain:if:able kiwi

Books, silence and sacred listening paper proposal acceptance

While I waited last night to talk about my knitting research on Radio New Zealand’s The Panel, an email arrived with good news in relation to another research project. My paper proposal for the 2026 Centre for the Book Symposium has been accepted.

The 2026 theme for this annual conference, hosted by the Otago Centre for the Book, is “Books and Silence.” Since I have done action research on spiritual practices, including lectio divina as a movement between reading Scripture aloud and holding silence, I decided to pop in a proposal.

Books, silence and the transgressive complexity of sacred listening

Silence and the reading of books have a complicated history. Reading from books was originally a vocal activity, and the cost made reading a shared and social experience. This paper explores the entanglement of silence and reading by focusing on the practice of sacred listening, or lectio divina.

The paper begins by tracing in history the valuing of the heart as a structure of cognition in monasticism, along with the development of reading aloud in Benedictine monasteries. It observes the shift from reading as a regulated community exercise to an individual activity focused on intellectual study.

The paper then presents empirical action-research conducted in 2025 in Ōtepoti Dunedin, in which participants (n=20) from two religious communities spent eight sessions exploring lectio divina as a form of sacred listening. This involved repeated movements between reading aloud, silence and communal sharing. Pre- and post-intervention psychological measures of listening, socio-emotional connection and religious intensity were used to gather quantitative data. Observation, participant research diaries and focus groups were used to gather qualitative data.

The findings suggest that entangling silence with reading aloud has a disruptive yet generative impact. Participants described new insights that fit the definition of “experiential reading,” defined by Natalie Depraz (in Steinbock 2022) as speaking to the heart in ways that invite hearers to enter the experiences described in the text. Silence disrupts. It opens a transgressive space, challenging scientific forms of knowing and the privileging of rational approaches to reading.

Rev Dr Steve Taylor, Director AngelWings Ltd, Research Affiliate, University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka

My paper will share findings from when I was a  Fellow in the Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians Project, delivered by the University of Birmingham and funded by John Templeton, including a coffee conversation with Dr David Leech, Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion, University of Bristol during the biennial International Association for the Psychology of Religion last year. David was researching different ways of knowing including how the Christian mystics described their encounters with God and gave me some helpful ideas that made sense of some of my empirical research.

I’m looking forward to trying to join the dots on November 27, 2026 at Books and Silence.

Needling for change article in the media

I’m thrilled to have some of my Ordinary knitters research picked up by the media.

1. Needling for change: the surprisingly political history of knitting appeared in The Conversation on Friday.
2. Needling for change: the surprisingly political history of knitting, the same piece, appeared in The Spinoff on Saturday.
3. I am booked to appear on the Radio New Zealand The Panel on Monday (Edit- here’s the link now that details have emerged).

The backstory to the Needling for change media pickup is that I posted a few bluesky comments about the history of knitting in Parliament in response to the online comments outraged about Deborah Russell knitting in parliament. My bluesky posts generated reposts and likes, including, most importantly for me, a like from Deborah Russell.

Given the interest, in my role as a Research Affiliate, Centre for Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago, I pitched to The Conversation. The Conversation Australia and New Zealand is a unique collaboration between academics and journalists that is the world’s leading publisher of research-based news and analysis. Academics and journalists work together to turn knowledge and insights from academics into easy-to-read articles. 

They said yes and over 4 working days I wrote an 800 word article and responded to several rounds of editorial feedback.

The much longer backstory is that I became curious about knitting as a force for social change in around 2018, when I became aware of people yarnbombing knitted Christmas Angels in the North of England to bring “glad tidings” of joy to their local communities. So during 2019, I researched how people responded to being found by a knitted angel, analysing social media.  This resulted in a journal article and a book chapter.

Next during 2022-2025, I researched knitters to understand their motivations. Initially Christmas angels, then Climate Scarves, strawberries and a peace loom. This resulted in a journal article in 2025 and several conference presentations (one in Rwanda, another in South Africa). Currently I am working on a book-length project and have around 45,000 words analysing the results. I am remain curious about why people knit for change and why some people seem to get so needled!

As I write, the media interest and public feedback (currently 108 comments and 234 shares on The Conversation facebook page. Plus 14 shares to the Ravelry Facebook page!) are so helpful.

prayer of praise and confession Feast of Christ in Creation Colossians 1:15-20

It was the Feast of Christ in Creation on Sunday. In preparation, I wrote a prayer of praise and confession, working with The Message translation of Colossians 1:15-20, plus a nod to Genesis 1 and Isaiah 55:12-13. The prayer has a Trinitarian pattern, working with Jesus Christ in creation and reconciliation.

Creator God thanks for Jesus Christ, through whom creation is made

who brings life out of chaos, order out of uncertainty

Creator God thanks for Jesus Christ,  who connects creation,

who gives creation purpose, to multiply and bear fruit

who gives creation abundance, to share in goodness and joy

Creator God thanks for Jesus Christ, who reconciles creation,

makes peace and justice possible,  fits all things in vibrant harmonies

Creator God thanks for people who help us see Christ in creation,

Thanks for scientists and ecologist. Thanks for gardeners and orchards,

Thanks for florists and children who pick daises and remind us we are surrounded by the gifts of creation.

God we pause and reflect on our week,

The times when we have not cared for creation

The times when we have not been open to surprise and wonder

The times when we have not been good neighbours.

And we hear your words of assurance and forgiveness – you are beloved, you are made for vibrant harmonies – so Spirit of God, help us sing joyfully with you and all creation.

Amen

Ecclesial Futures special issue on Grassroots and Indigenous Digital Faith-based Activism

I’m delighted to share the publication of a special issue of Ecclesial Futures, focused on Grassroots and Indigenous Digital Faith-based Activism. Ecclesial Futures is an diamond open access academic journal, free for authors and readers, with the entire issue available online.

I wrote a proposal for a special issue to the Editorial Board of Ecclesial Futures in July 2025. It was accepted and a call for papers advertised. Submissions were gathered through until January 2026. The Co-editor, Nigel Rooms, then stepped in, to oversee the peer review process to ensure the entire issue was double blind.

With seven articles accepted, I picked up the editorial baton again, working with authors around readability, moving the articles through copy-editing and layout. I also wrote an editorial, which explains some of how the special issue developed and the future research questions that emerge when seven case studies of grassroots and indigenous faith-based activism are gathered together.

The further research questions I identify in the editorial include

• the challenge to Eurocentric approaches to technology and theology
• longitudinal research to understand whether digital movements toward solidarity are enduring and behaviour changing, or temporal, and the implications given how humans make meaning
• the role of emotions in digital activism and the theological and ethical implications of these affective engagements
• how theological understandings of Divine revelation made tangible in material bodies are complexified by categories of visibility and invisibility in digital cultures
• how ecclesial groups might recognise and share in the spiritual formation of digital activists and content creators
• what life to the full and human flourishing mean for minority communities in digital cultures of surveillance
• the methodological implications of case study approaches to digital ethnography

Among the seven articles is one I wrote, The Visual Grammar of Online Faith-linked Climate Activism Case studies of grassroots “moana” theologies in Oceania.

My article presents research on online grassroots digital activism by three faith-linked groupings in Tonga, Solomon Islands and Fiji. I argue that the visual identities of these digital activist organisations in the Pacific centre an ocean or “moana” eco-praxis that is immersive, communal and prayerful. This challenges existing Eurocentric theorisations of digital activism and climate justice. It also demonstrates how digital technologies contribute to new forms of Christian organising and the role of gender and lay leadership in the mission of God in a climate emergency.

The special issue has been a huge amount of pro-bono work. My thanks to AngelWings Ltd for approving the pro-bono time. My thanks to all the authors, reviewers and publishing team for their support and grace.

Finally, my thanks to IASH Edinburgh, one of the world’s premier Institutes for Advanced Study. The entire project began with an IASH Research Fellowship in June-July 2024. That gave me the intellectual space to think through methodologies and begin data gathering. IASH then agreed to funding to support an online colloquium as part of their 55th anniversary celebrations, out of which grew this special issue.

The special issue has been described as “cutting-edge” and advancing “scholarship in our field in several directions” and I’m relieved and thrilled to have been involved.