sustain:if:able kiwi

Grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism colloquium: April 4

I’m thrilled to have pulled together and to be part of the Grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism colloquium, in Edinburgh on 4 April, 2025.

The day involves 6 papers, presenting research on faith-based digital activism in Asia, Africa and Oceania. The full colloquium programme, with abstracts and author details, is Conference programme Grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism.

The Grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism colloquium is nested within the 55th Festival of IASH, exploring fruit of their three year project around decoloniality. To further my June/July 2024 research fellowship with IASH, I proposed a gathering around indigenous digital faith-based activism. I wanted to gather other scholars from diverse contexts with the hope of working toward an edited book.

IASH agreed. Other sponsors came on board, including Researching Indigenous Studies and Christianity Network (RISC), the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI) and the Centre for the Study of World Christianity (CSWC). A call for papers went out in late November. Blind peer review happened through January, along with lots of ongoing organising with IASH. It has been a thrill to work with different research centres and to collaborate with scholars from diverse contexts. And in a few weeks, to be able to present some of my research into Oceanic digital activism in Edinburgh.

People can attend either virtually or face to face.

To register for in-person at IASH, RSVP Dr Steve Taylor at kiwidrsteve@gmail.com and advise any dietary or access requirements. Lunch is provided. Bookings are limited to 8 people.

Virtual delegates can register here. This will allow access to the Grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism colloquium plus all events associated with the IASH’s 55th Anniversary Celebrations: Institute Project on Decoloniality Conference on Thursday 3 April and Friday 4 April.

Race, Justice and mission: Glasgow archival perspectives on missionary engagement and South Pacific “blackbirding”

With a nod to sea shanties and the need to decolonise history, here’s a summary of some writing I’ve just completed, and a presentation I’ll be doing at Trinity College, University of Glasgow, in a few weeks time.

Race, Justice and mission: Glasgow archival perspectives on missionary engagement and South Pacific “blackbirding”

“There once was a ship that put to sea … to bring us sugar and tea and rum.” Sea shanties make for catchy TikTok viral hits. They also make visible mercantile activity and migratory labour flows upon which empires expanded.

Historical imaginaries often begin with ships that put to sea and journey from north to south. Yet in the corners of the archives are experiences from the Pacific northward, as Indigenous peoples engaged in what they saw as reciprocity in Oceanic voyaging.

This paper analyses the work of Williamu, an Indigenous man from the islands then called the New Hebrides, who lived in Scotland between 1861 and 1862. During his time in Scotland, Williamu wrote nineteen letters. These were translated by Rev John Inglis, who in 1883 was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Glasgow for his linguistic skills.

Williamu’s letters, housed in the University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections, provide a remarkable account of the Indigenous meeting the imperial. They also contain tragedy as Williamu processes the death of his wife, Dora, from diseases carried by ships that put to sea.

This paper will examine these letters using frames of locating, initial encounter and theodicies of migration. It will document the agency of Indigenous people as initiative takers and the presence of “sugar and tea and rum” in the histories of migration and religion.

pausing and projects

It is good to pause. It is better to pause with coffee.

Today I’m pausing with coffee after submitting a research application. The application is for travel, accommodation and research assistance to enable a small qualitative research project to better understand a citizen science climate justice initiative by a denomination.

Research applications take time. Applications are always a bit of a punt with funding never guaranteed. However, every application advances my thinking. Putting words on a paper sharpens connections. Developing costings require planning. So an application becomes a way of crafting new futures.

I’ll hear more about this application in May. Until then back to the other (eight) research projects I have at different stages of completion. But only after a pause. With coffee!

introducing ordinary time festival research

(used with permission).

Delighted to be published in Theology Today journal (last article, scroll down. Or go here). Here’s a bit of the backstory, something I wrote when the article was published online in August. Now that it’s published in paper, here’s a short video of me introducing the research.

For those who like to read not watch, here’s the script:

I’m Steve Taylor, I research and write. Recently I’ve written about why – and how –  Christians can love festivals.

The Christian year is divided into the major seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter on the one hand, and ordinary time on the other. Churches and ministers and lay people put hours of time and energy into celebrating the major seasons. Christian feasts and festivals like Christmas, Easter and Pentecost gather lots of attention. Which then raises the question – if we put so much time in the major seasons around Christmas and Easter, then how should ordinary time be celebrated? What might it mean for our faith and our life as a church to put energy and focus into festivals in ordinary time?

I began to research if there are ways to connect ordinary time with festivals. Theoretically, one place to explore why – and how –  Christians can love festivals is the work of Amy Plantinga Pauw. Amy read the wisdom literature of the Old Testament and called for the value of ordinary time. From Proverbs and Ecclesiastes she drew out 6 themes of

• making new,
• longing,
• giving,
• suffering,
• rejoicing
• joining hands

She called this a wisdom ecclesiology and argued these 6 themes are essential to life of the church. So that’s a possible why. Which raises the question of how? How can Christians love “ordinary time” festivals?

So I researched three “ordinary time festivals,” three ways that local churches and local ministers and lay people could put some “Christians love festivals” energy into ordinary time. I used video footage and web documents and newspaper reports and I discovered that “wisdom ecclesiology” to research

• A harvest festival in Scotland, occurring in a farming shed during Covid
• a spin and fibre festival celebrating wool and craft in Australia.
• a local community festival started by a group of local churches in Aotearoa New Zealand

Three different types of ordinary time festivals in 3 different countries.

I discovered evidence of those 6 themes. And where they were not found,  I suggested some easy ways that the missing themes could be added. I also suggested a 7th category, what I called local placemaking, to add to Pauw’s wisdom ecclesiology. Because the empirical research made clear that ordinary time festivals are a great way of celebrating the particularity, the special, the incarnated qualities of a local community.

So my why and how research has implications for churches wanting to connect with their communities. First, those wisdom ecclesiology themes of

• making new,
• longing,
• giving,
• suffering,
• rejoicing
• joining hands
• placemaking

give a reason for churches and groups to love ordinary time festivals. Second, ordinary festivals give a how – how might churches work in particular and local ways to placemake – to connect the wisdom of Christian ordinary time with the special qualities of our local communities.

If you want to read more see my article in a journal called Theology today. Called “Ordinary-Time Festivals: An Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology.” Theology Today Volume 81, issue 4. Or follow my blog – emergentkiwi.org.nz – where I place resources and thinking. Because, Christians can love festivals.

colours and community building

Today was the first church council meeting of the year. By way of devotion, as Chair, I took along a box of different coloured pens. Placing the pens in the middle of the group grabbed attention and created curiousity. A perfect way to begin.

“What was the colour of your Christmas,” I asked? “What was the colour of your summer?” Folk chose colours. “And if you want to test your colours, feel free,” I then said, as I handed around small pieces of paper.

After a few minutes of choosing and colouring, we shared with each other about the colours we had each chosen.

It worked splendidly. A real depth of sharing. New insights about each others realities. Greater awareness of how we could pray and support each other.

Then some questions about what being good news might mean among us. What if the range of colours among us also connects with the experience of folk in the community? What does the range of colours mean for how we preach and care as we move toward Christmas in 2025?

And so a prayer as the meeting began, that our work as a council would engage the full reality of the colours among us and the community in which we are part.

Choosing colours was a simple exercise that resulted in sharing of stories and supportive listening. Choosing colours builds healthy teams.

Making and Christian witness in Australia today: journal article acceptance

Thrilled. Delighted. Stoked.

I’ve just had news of journal article acceptance by Colloquium, an international peer-reviewed journal, for an article titled: “Making and Christian witness in Australia today.”

I’m thrilled with the blind peer reviewer comments, which were just so positive.

• Reviewer 1 – “Excellent article. Well focused and innovative theme, clear methodology and aims, sound research design, and thoughtful practical theology and mission implications – all well written”
• Reviewer 2 – “This is a creative and interesting article about Christian witness as ‘making’.”

I’m delighted to have a piece of qualitative research on the topic of knitting accepted in a scholarly academic journal.

I’m stoked because it’s the first concrete sign of academic writing progress on the Ordinary knitters research project. I’ve been quietly working away on the research for over 3 years. I have over 45,000 words written on a book. But a book takes so long to write and I wanted some way of testing the waters regarding academic suitability. So I peeled off a slab of the data, 14 of the more than 50 interviews. I then applied a different analytical lens, using the marks of mission to analyse the data rather than reflexive thematic analysis.

Thrilled. Delighted. Stoked. Here’s the abstract, keywords and acknowledgement.

Abstract: Christian witness is generally framed as occurring through words and deeds. This paper explores making as another approach to Christian mission. Christian theology understands God as Maker. Yet, making as a domain of Christian practice rarely features in theological accounts and mission thinking. Craft in general and knitting in particular is popular in contemporary society, yet there is little research into Christians who make in mission. Hence this paper conducted qualitative research, including “scavenge” ethnography and interviews with knitters, to investigate contemporary acts of making by Christians in Australia. Some makers knitted angels to yarn bomb at Christmas, while others knitted scarves in climate activism. The Marks of Mission were deployed as a holistic frame, with all five Marks evident in the knitting of angels and scarves. The interviews unravelled understandings of making as a joyful experience of active praying that provided distinct ways of relating. Making allows ordinary people, particularly women, to participate in mission as telling, teaching, tending, transforming and treasuring. In a contemporary culture saturated with words and cynical of deeds, the research has significance for how mission and theology are conceived in contemporary Australia and practised in local church contexts.

Keywords: activism – knitting – making – qualitative research – mission – witness

Acknowledgements: My thanks to the knitters willing to show and tell, to peer reviewers for their attention to the craft of writing and to AngelWings Ltd for the allocation of pro-bono time to undertake this research project.

The Social Impacts of Listening Practices in Religious Organisations

The Social Impacts of Listening Practices in Religious Organisations: A pilot study*

This project applies research related to the science of listening to analyse how religious practices might contribute to social connection and human flourishing.

In religious settings, the importance of listening is emphasised. A range of religious activities could be said to facilitate listening, including contemplation, confession, examen and lectio divina. However, there is little theoretical or empirical research into the social dynamics surrounding these religious practices. In psychology, there is a growing body of research into the science of listening and how attention, comprehension, and intention contribute to social connection and human flourishing.

Hence, research is needed to understand how selected religious practices contribute to social connection and human flourishing in religious organisations. This twelve month pilot study will
• undertake a literature review to assess religious practices against the psychological framework of listening structures and listening as attention, comprehension, and intention
• conduct a real-world intervention by offering selected religious practices in small group settings in local religious communities
• conduct mixed-methods research to assess the social impacts of these interventions. Two religious practices will be offered. Quantitative data will be gathered using pre- and post-intervention psychological measures to assess social impact over time. Qualitative data will be gathered from participant observation, participant research diaries and summative focus groups exploring how religious practices contribute to social connection and human flourishing.

Hence, the research project will offer theoretical, practical and foundational benefits. Theoretically, the project creates an interdisciplinary dialogue between listening research in psychology and religious practices. Practically, the project sheds light on how religious practices might foster stronger connections within religious communities. Foundationally, this pilot study will guide further research into the social impact of religious practices.

The research project offers an exciting mix of academic outputs in psychologically-informed theology and research shared with religious communities and religious leaders. Some of the outputs include
• an academic article
• a conference presentation
• an online presentation of findings to interested church leaders
• an online workshop inviting interested researchers and religious leaders to consider further research into the role of listening in community building

For enquiries or to register interest in the online presentation or online workshop, please email s.j.taylor at otago.ac.nz (Research Affiliate, University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka; Psychology Cross-Training Fellow, University of Birmingham; Director AngelWings Ltd).

*This project was made possible through the support of a grant from John Templeton Foundation, awarded via the grant entitled “New Perspectives on Social Psychology and Religious Cognition for Theology: Training and Developing Science-Engaged Theologians,” University of Birmingham.

Reverse migration: insights from an 18th-century journey from the Pacific to Scotland

I’m delighted to have a chapter proposal accepted for a planned Migration and Religion in Australia and the Pacific volume with Springer Nature, edited by Rev. Dr. Titus S. Olorunnisola, Interim Director of Research at Whitley College, University of Divinity, Melbourne.

My chapter proposal is the first written output from my 2023 University of Glasgow Library Research Fellowship, where I was able to spend time immersed in a unique archive collection of mission archives at the the Archives and Special Collections of the University of Glasgow. My research fellowship was titled Race, justice and mission. During the archival search, I came across 19 letters written by an indigenous man, who was living in Scotland for two years in the 1860’s undertaking Bible translation work. The letters offer a glimpse of the theological resources that an indigenous migrant brings to their journey of migration.

Here’s the chapter proposal which I submitted a few months ago:

Reverse migration: insights from an 18th-century journey from the Pacific to Scotland

Historical imaginaries of migration to Australia and the Pacific focus on journeys north to south. Motivated by science, commerce and religion, Europeans embarked on so-called “South Sea Voyages.” However, in the corners of the archives are experiences from south to north, as indigenous peoples voyaged north (Brook, 2001; O’Malley, 2015). This paper analyses the experience of Williamu, an indigenous man from Aneitynum, an island in what is now Vanuatu, who lived in Scotland between 1861 and 1862 and worked alongside Rev John Inglis in Bible translation. During his time in Scotland, Williamu wrote nineteen letters, which provide a “vivid picture of the “First Impressions of Britain and its People”” by an indigenous man (Inglis, 1890, p. 317).

Theoretically, these letters open windows into a reverse migration. Missiology uses the term reverse mission (Adogame, 2013) to focus on the role of Christians from the global South in mission to Europe and North America. Williamu’s letters illuminate the role of indigenous peoples in Bible translation. They invite questions about the role of “reverse mission” and power dynamics present in the translation of Scripture. Further, the letters provide insight into the theological resources a migrant used to respond to grief and suffering. In particular, while in Scotland, Williamu hears news of the death of Dora, his wife, from “migratory” diseases. Hence, Williamu’s letters stand as the first written indigenous migrant theodicy of the Pacific. Research into reverse migration is needed to challenge historical imaginaries and foreground indigenous communities’ resources in journeys of migration.

Acknowledgements: The research was made possible by the University of Glasgow, the Archives and Special Collections, the resources of the Trinity College collections, and the award of a Visiting Library Research Fellowship in 2023.

listening as community building in public spaces

It was great to begin a research side project yesterday and sit at a public community event doing some ethnography.

The side project is researching the science of listening and social connection, seeking to understand what happens when adults gather for an hour to have great literature read aloud. It is a pro-bono AngelWings Ltd project that complements and localises my Birmingham University/John Templeton Cross-training research into the social impact of listening in community organisations.

This research side project will use a mix of methods, including observation and interviews with readers and listeners. So yesterday involved not only observing, but also introducing myself and the research with information and consent forms.

Hence, the photo is of a brand new research journal and pen for taking notes, along with consent forms and information.

For those who want to know more about the project and the connections I am making between researching listening and community building, see here.

Knitting as public theological witness

Researching Ordinary Knitters – people who knit for Christian projects in public spaces – has been a research side project for me since August 2021. This paper, if accepted, will be the first public articulation of data.

A paper proposal: Knitting as public theological witness

LOUDFence knitted strawberries, Newcastle 2024

This paper examines the ways in which acts of making are public theology. Matthew Engelke has researched how the Bible Society in the United Kingdom is active in public domains. He uses “ambient faith” as an analytical tool to theorise Christian activity that challenges the political and civic constraints imposed by the modern secular imaginary.

This paper applies “ambient faith” to recent practices of knitting in which Christians have been publicly active through yarnbombing and social activism. This paper draws on interviews with fifty knitters in four countries, along with participant observation of public interactions with several knitted projects, including visible displays of solidarity with those affected by abuse. While knitting is commonly seen as a domestic activity, done in private spaces, this paper describes how making offers new ways of relating and gives voice, particularly to lay women. Making as “ambient witness” offers new ways to think about the nature of public theology and Christian witness.

Cross-training and research capacity

I’ve been privileged to spend the last two weeks at the University of Birmingham, participating in the Psychology Cross-training Fellowship Programme for Theologians. The fields of psychology and theology have multiple points of shared interest. These include what it means to be human and relate to the world around us. Yet often the worlds of psychology and theology talk past one another. Hence the Cross-training Fellowship, funded by John Templeton Foundation.

The Fellowship runs for 16 months and is structured to include

• an initial two week intensive
• monthly online training
• a contestable grant to undertake new research
• a mid-point one week workshop
• a final gathering to share research

The two week intensive has involved training in research methods, introduction to current developments in social psychology and workshopping a research project in psychologically engaged theology. It’s been full on, 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday.

Some highlights for me include:

• some really helpful professional development, particularly around research empirical methods and open-science. I use plenty of empirical methods in my work with AngelWings Ltd, as we use different research methods to serve the church. So it was superb to have 3 days listening to current best practice
• space and support in thinking about a research project, supported by a small grant. The support included space to present a possible project, followed by feedback both shared and immediate, and individual in the days following. Having a concrete research project possibility helped to focus attention and provide inspiration
• plenty of formal and informal opportunities to build connections with others interested in interdisciplinary research. These include the other 18 fellows. It also includes networking with theologians and psychology academics. I suspect that connection-making will deepen and interweave even more over the next 16 months and beyond
• the greenery of English summers and the long evenings, in particular the Winterbourne Gardens.

It’s been a rich, intense and engaging experience, for which I’m very grateful to the organisors and funders. I am looking forward over the next few weeks and months to experiencing how the doing of a small research project can further build capacity around interdisciplinary research. That begins with an grant application process. But first, the long trek back to Aotearoa beckons.

reflective listening to knitters for change

Currently I’m writing up 45 interviews with makers who have knitted for change. Some knitted scarves to activate for climate change, others knitted angels to yarnbomb local communities or strawberries to support survivors of church-based abuse.

As I prepare to write, I listen back to the interviews. One of the things I hear myself doing in the interviews is active listening. Particularly toward the end of an interview, I might reflect back to knitters some of the connections I am pondering. This allows me to check what I’m hearing and to gain their feedback.

Sometimes what I reflect back gains excited and enthusiastic agreement. Like this:

Judging by the excited response, this connection seemed important.

Next week I will print this connection onto a A4 sheet of paper. I will brainstorm, writing out links to other interviews and wider reading. It might well be that this piece of reflective listening is actually an important theme for the research. If so, then it has emerged from reflective listening. I like the way that conversations with people can shape thinking and help develop ideas.

The Convert: theological film review

Monthly I write a film review for Touchstone (the New Zealand Methodist magazine). Stretching back to 2005, some 175 plus films later, here is the review for April 2024.

The Convert
A film review by Dr Steve Taylor

The Convert works as a historical drama of importance for all who live in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Aotearoa in the 1830s was a period of time during which te reo Māori was central and hapu were powerful. Māori chiefs defined trade, shaped politics and enacted justice.

A few Pākeha clutched the edges of the Land of the Long White Cloud. Some brought Christianity. Others brought guns, mixed with visions of a European good life. These Pākeha intrusions inflamed the tribal conflicts that beset Aotearoa through the 1830s. As lay preacher Thomas Munroe notes so astutely, he sailed from a land steeped in blood, only to step ashore on another land also soaked in blood.

The film, directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors and Mahana), draws from Wulf, a debut novel by Hamish Clayton. Bradford Haami, Laidlaw College lecturer and Māori historian, provides cultural advice. Extended sequences of The Convert are set in Māori pa. These include several delightful scenes that illuminate the role of tohunga, waka voyaging and Māori perceptions of Pākeha. The result is a rich immersion in Māori worldview.

Several strong performances carry the film. Guy Pearce (previous roles in L.A. Confidential and Memento) plays as Thomas Munroe, challenging stereotypes of missionaries as pious destroyers of culture. Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne (previous roles in Cousins and Whina) plays Rangimai, who as a grieving widow offers quiet karakia, dignified courage and assertive actions to showcase the place of wahine toa (strong women) in Māori culture.

Birds are also a feature of The Convert. They express another dimension of Māori filmmaking, given that for Māori, ngā manu are tohu of the future. In an opening sequence, a marauding karearea (falcon) savages a lone kāhu (hawk). Turiwhatu (dotterel) skip across a beach scene, while in a joyous moment of cross-cultural encounter, Rangimai and Charlotte (played by Jacqueline McKenzie) mimic tui call. In a closing sequence, a flock of birds offer a sense of kotahitanga. Flying together, they illustrate a movie that turns from solo violence to collective action.

These shifts required profound transformations. The Convert bears witness to the multiple conversions that occurred in pre-colonial New Zealand. Politically, iwi were reforming to ensure a collective identity. Individually, emerging leaders were transforming the practices of utu.

Utu is often defined as revenge. Yet the term emerges from an indigenous worldview that values balance and applauds those who uphold harmony in relationships. While a wrong must be put right, how restoration happens can vary greatly. Utu can include the possibilities of gift exchange to create and restore social bonds.

The transformations around utu evidenced in The Convert offer significant theological resources. Māori Christian historian Hirini Kaa, in his groundbreaking Te Hāhi Mihinare: The Māori Anglican Church, demonstrated how Māori creatively responded to Christianity, drawing on rongopai (gospel) to enhance maungārongo (peace) and seek rangimarie (harmony). Approaching Easter, The Convert resonates with Christian themes of peace and reconciliation.

Whakarongo mai, Ki te kupu o te manu rongo
(Listen, to the words of the bird of peace )

Rev Dr Steve Taylor is the author of “First Expressions” (2019) and writes widely in theology and popular culture, including regularly at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz.

stashes as research methods in researching making

I’m writing!!

As I planned the 2024 year, I set aside April and May to progress analysis and writing on the Ordinary Knitters research project. Since Ordinaryknitters began, I have been privileged to interview 43 people from 4 countries who knitted for a public project, collected over the last few years.

There are knitters who cared for their community by making Christmas angels. Other knitters cared for creation by knitting climate scarves, encouraged peace-stitches through “French knitting” peace loom installations or personalised their place through knitting remembrance poppies. Each person making as a way of connecting their Christian faith in public ways with the wider world.

To understand these experiences of making, I’m using reflexive thematic analysis. Reflexive thematic analysis values three things. First, the intuitions and interests of the researcher. Second, the unfolding nature of analysis. Third, the ways in which the particularity of one experience can illuminate the particularity of another experience.

I see reflexive thematic analysis as a way of making. I’m sifting through a rich stash of wool. My stash is unique, shaped by the active role my interests and networks have played in gathering the wool. I compare balls of wool, believing that fresh and new connections can emerge as different colours and textures (interview quotes and stories) are laid alongside each other. As I make, the unique colours of each ball will remain. In all I do, gathering, comparing, knitting, my craft as a maker will be visible. Yet the whole will be greater than the individual parts.

Practically, I undertake reflexive thematic analysis not with an existing set of themes to look for. Rather, I read “reflexively.” I start with the first interview and read it noting what I think are key words (codes).

I try to cluster these key words (codes) around big ideas (themes). I read further interviews. As I do, I work in “pencil” (reflexively) because the key words (codes) and conversation (themes) shift as I read. The experience of one knitter invites more codes, or a reworking of a theme, to better cluster a range of unique experiences. These reflexive changes require me to reread the earlier interviews. As a result, experiences from a range of interview are informing the experiences of another interviews.

I track the shifts in reflexivity by using mind maps and tables. These make visible my unfolding analysis. The mindmaps and tables allow me to keep track of my decisions and reflect (reflexively) on my assumptions.

This approach, of reflexive thematic analysis – assumes that I as a researcher have an interest and a set of values (why else would I be asking for an interview) which I bring to the interview and the analysis. This approach assumes that naming my interests and the way I make decisions will decrease the chance of imposing my research agenda on those being interviewed. It also assumes that insights emerge over time, particularly as the uniqueness of each interview is brought into conversation with the uniqueness of other interviews.

I love the making of reflexive thematic analysis.