sustain:if:able kiwi

Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians resources

Through much of 2024 and 2025, i was privileged to participate as a Fellow in the Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians Project, delivered by the University of Birmingham and funded by John Templeton. The Project encouraged collaboration between theology and psychology and fitted well with the empirical research I do for AngelWings Ltd, studying how change happens in communities and religious groups.

The Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians Project involved three visits to the University of Birmingham, for training in psychology engaged theology, along with 12 months of online meetings for research project development, complemented by online mentoring from an experienced psychologist. This was excellent professional development, particularly in qualitative and quantitative research skills and updating me on developments in open science approaches.

The Project also included small grant funding for a research project. For many years I have explored listening processes in educational and community settings. So I used the small grant funding to reflect on these experiences. Specifically, I conducted research into the social impact of spiritual practices, focusing on several practices that encouraged listening. I drew together cohorts of people in local congregations to share in a repeated spiritual practice of four or eight weeks. I gathered data on people’s experience including pre and post surveys, focus group reflection and research diaries.

I have presented initial findings of this research at several conferences, including a poster at the Psychology-engaged Theology Conference and papers at the International Association for the Psychology of Religion (IAPR) and Ecclesiology and Ethnography. I have submitted two journal articles which are under peer review and am analysing data for two further journal articles.

The Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians Project has now made some of the resources available to the public. These include:

• a training course aimed towards researchers. This includes the modules, “Introduction to Psychology for Theologians,” “Foundations of Psychology-Engaged Theology,” “Research Methods and Practices,” and “Research Outputs and Dissemination”.
• a podcast series aimed towards practitioners, bringing current psychological research into practical dialogue with theological and pastoral questions:
• a resource list aimed towards RE teachers (or potentially those teaching undergraduate psychology of religion). This includes introductory animations developed by our team, including an “orientation to psychology of religion”:
• a blog series featuring reflections and reports from cross-training team members, fellows, mentors, and friends

I am delighted that some of my work during the Project occurs in these publicly facing resources.

Two blog posts I wrote are online. Interruptive Interviews at the Intersection of Psychology and Theology is co-authored with two other Fellows  Dr. Alison Woolley and Dr. Allen Jorgenson. It reflects on our experience of semi-structured interviews in dialogue with psychology and how interviews can be spaces of hospitality that support the wellbeing of participants and deepen the spiritual encounter with self and others.  Listening with Purpose II: A Theologian Reflects on the Interface between Theology and Psychology and reflects on what practical theology can learn about listening from psychology.

Finally, in the podcast series aimed towards practitioners, I have an interview reflecting on The social impacts of listening in community settings. I talk about initial findings from the research, how different congregations engaged and how spiritual practices can benefit congregations and community organisations. (While for some reason the Episode is listed as “coming soon” it’s still good to be profiled as producing practitioner resources!)

• Episode 1 – Ageing as a liminal experience in theological and psychological terms
• Episode 2 – Moral injury, spiritual damage, and abuse in Catholic ecclesial contexts
• Episode 3 – God and self-representations among Christians with intellectual disabilities
• Episode 4 – Necessary interdisciplinary reflections on racism in the Church of England, informed by psychological research
• Episode 5 – Associations between perceptions of God’s “where-being” (transcendent, immanent, or indwelling) and contemplative prayer practices
• Episode 6 – Patient and chaplain perspectives on the success of spiritual care visits
• Episode 7 – The social impacts of listening in community settings

At a personal level, while the Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians Project has finished, I continue with various dimensions. I have since used several psychology scales in survey design and in my writing. I am hosting with Dr Lynne Taylor a monthly Soul Space in our local congregation, which introduces a spiritual practice, locates it in Scripture, names the psychological benefits and invites sharing about what we as a congregation are learning as we practise a practice. I have continued research, including working with 7 congregations on a quantitative study around Lent. I continue to analyse data, hoping to write at least two further journal articles.

you’ve got research mail

Getting mail is the very exciting and deeply satisfying part of research.

And not just any mail, but parcels from the postie! Some local parcels from other parts of Aotearoa New Zealand. Some parcels from overseas.

Not just any parcels from the postie, but parcels with data! Inside the parcels are research diaries and survey forms. These contain insights from participants in the two different studies I’ve been running during Lent. One qualitative, the other quantitative, as I’ve researched the social impact of shared spiritual practices.

Much of the data collecting across the 7 congregations I’ve been working with this Lent has been electronic, through online surveys. But paper is more accessible for some participants. Which means more work at the start to print off copies and source research diaries. But at the end, it results in the exciting arrival of parcels 🙂.

I think I will be excited for a few more days before I pick up my orange and blue highlighters to signal the grind of analysis.

action research into spiritual practices takes the cake

I’m grateful for cake to mark the ending of another cohort of shared spiritual practice action research last night. It was a delightful gift from a grateful research participant. “But you’ve given so much,” they kindly explained.

During Lent 2026, I’ve shared silence with 5 folk face to face and 9 folk online. Silence for 10 minutes in week 1, 20 minutes in week 2, 30 minutes in week 3 and a focus group reflecting on the experience in week 4. I’ve gathered research data by seeking participant feedback on the experience through surveys start and end, individual diary keeping, the focus group and my observation.

It’s been enormously rewarding personally, to sit in silence with others and then to reflect with them on the benefits and challenges. The shared silence has also been a significant extension on the John Templeton funded research on spiritual practices I was doing last year. As a result of this year’s work, I now have 4 cohorts and 22 participants from 3 congregations who have shared silence over a four week period. My researching means that I have lots of reckons about the social impact of shared silence and it’s impact on individual, group and societal vitality. But before I share my reckons, I need to analyse the data.

After cake of course!

My thanks to the private trust who are making this slice (pun intended) of the research possible. And if other private trusts are interested in funding high-quality research into the impact of spiritual practices on congregational vitality, do get in touch 🙂!

the qualitative research box

This is my research box. For one of my qualitative research projects!

I’m researching the social impact of spiritual practices again.

Again, because during 2025, I conducted qualitative action research. I gathered four groups in church foyers and homes. I offered shared spiritual practice. Three groups shared lectio divina for eight weeks. One group shared silence for four weeks.

I gained ethics consent through the University of Otago and gathered feedback on the experience. This involved four different data gathering tools, including my observation, a focus group and a survey at the start and end. Participants also kept a research diary, with weekly prompts to help them reflect on their experiences of the practice.

During Lent 2026, I’m back conducting qualitative action research. I’m working directly with a local congregation and indirectly and online with another congregation.

Which meant last night I packed up my qualitative action research box.

Candle and matches to encourage silence. Cheese and crackers for snacks to encourage connection. Research diaries to give to participants. Manila folders with consent and survey forms. Pen, highlighter and my own research diary to keep notes. Various items to encourage engagement, like a resource book to wave and take home handouts.

Having a research box is such fun.

But having a research list is even better. Thankfully when I opened my file from last year, I find my “to take” list that I made at the end of each week in 2025.

And so hi, ho. With box and list, a researching I will go. Gathering insight into how people experience spiritual practice. Listening to understand social impact.

the social impact of shared Lenten practices: congregational life research in 2026

I’m delighted to be working with six congregations during Lent 2026. I am researching the social impact of Lenten practices.

Spiritual practices are often considered to be individual and to connect us with God. I’m looking to see what happens when practices are shared and how that impacts on social relationships.

It has been so fascinating talking with congregational leaders over the last month about the research. It is one thing for me to idealise a research design. It is quite another thing to talk through how that research design might land in the real world. I am so grateful for the honesty and insight of congregational leaders and to hear how they value good research, care for their communities and might go about introducing change.

Some of the feedback from congregational leaders has been so encouraging:

“The practice is very straightforward, we will find out what sort of difference it makes and Steve has been great to talk with.”

How good is that for unsolicited and publicly posted feedback!

This research in Lenten practices is a follow-up to my social impact of shared spiritual practices research from 2025. During last year, I had begun qualitative data gathering in congregations, working with small groups to experience a practice and provide feedback. I had also done work on what would be involved in quantitative data gathering, inviting congregational leaders to introduce an intentional practice and gather feedback using a short survey at the start and the end.

I hope to gather enough data during Lent 2026 to complete two research articles, one on the qualitative data that is being gathered, the other for a Registered Report on the quantitative data that is being gathered. I will probably also do a public webinar on the research toward the middle of the year, once I’ve reported back to the participating congregations. So if you are interested keep an eye out or drop me a message so I can add you to the list.

I’m very grateful not only to congregational leaders, but also to a private trust who is funding this research and is willing to invest in the practices of Christian faith.

Climate justice in digital spaces across transnational margins paper presentation

It was a late night, but I was very pleased to present at paper at the Digital Marginality & Plural Subjectivities conference hosted by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, at the University of Edinburgh. My thanks to the organisers for all their work to draw together a 3 day hybrid conference.

After several experiences of presenting in the conference room at Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, it was quite different to be online and seeing the room digitally. But very appropriate for a conference titled Digital Marginality.

I was presenting in a panel with presenters researching digital solidarity with Papua, Māori responses to AI and the ethics of digital representations of indigenous cultures.

My paper, titled “Climate justice and the performing of prayer in digital spaces across transnational margins,” explored the visual nature of the 2024 Tuākoi ‘Lei Declaration emerging from the 2024 Pacific Conference of Churches gathering. I placed the visual representation of kneeling for prayer alongside other visual images, from COP in 2021 and CHOGM in 2024, and used visual grammar analysis to reflect on the role of prayer in digital activism and what that means for how the West understands climate justice and digital activism. (The full paper proposal is here).

The followup questions were valuable and give shape to further work I might want to do turning the presentation into some writing.

• is the kneeling in the 2024 Tuākoi ‘Lei Declaration an act of solidarity in that moment, or are there other spiritual and theological dynamics that emerge over time including through the digital sharing?
• how were the digital images shared? Did they ripple out or were they kept within closed networks? do we need to account for different lifecycles and uses of digital images?
• what are the complexities involved in sharing contextual actions on global digital platforms? how are Pacific voices heard in the West?

The presentation builds on my IASH Research Fellowship in 2024 into grassroots digital activism. Specifically it is the 5th conference presentation using visual grammar analysis to think theologically about online visual images. I have also written a book chapter and two journal articles. Based on the feedback from last night, there could well be a third article.

Making as connecting: IAMS 2026 conference paper

I’m pleased to have a paper proposal accepted for International Association of Mission Studies, July 17-21, 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa. I am so grateful the conference is offering a hybrid option, to enhance accessibility for global scholars.

The theme is “Walking Together in Mission: Facing Global Challenges for a Sustainable World.” My paper responds to this theme and brings together two of my research interests, craftivism and digital technologies.

Making as connecting: the role of digital technologies in the diffusion of handmade missional innovation

Key words: digital technology, innovation, knitting, local Christian communities, making, missio Dei

This article analyses the role of social media in the diffusion of innovation among local Christian communities. In Making Is Connecting (2018), David Gauntlett argues that the internet is a new media technology that amplifies makers and making in our world today. He proposes a shift from a ‘sit back and be told’ culture to a ‘making and doing’ culture. This paper examines the implications for the missio Dei in local Christian communities by bringing empirical case study research into dialogue with contemporary theories of innovation in digital technologies.

In research published elsewhere, I have used the five Marks of Mission to analyse craftivism in local community outreach, including yarnbombing knitted Christmas angels, knitting scarves in climate justice activism, and knitting strawberries in solidarity with victims and survivors of church abuse.

Different Christian organisations initiated these knitted missional innovations, including a local Methodist circuit, a parachurch organisation and a Diocesan staff team. In each case, an active web presence and grassroots social media activity were essential in how individuals in local church communities became involved. Despite online toxicity, digital technologies enabled a peer-to-peer diffusion of innovation, driven by grassroots interest rather than top-down strategies. Digital technologies facilitated unplanned innovation at the speed of authentic sharing and peer-to-peer local connections.

Theoretically, the research supports claims that digital culture is a domain of God’s action in the world. Practically, it outlines how digital systems can support local Christian communities as they participate in the missio Dei.

paper presenting at the Digital Marginality & Plural Subjectivities conference

I’m delighted to be presenting a paper at the (hybrid) Digital Marginality & Plural Subjectivities conference hosted by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, at the University of Edinburgh. The conference runs 2-4 February and I’m presenting on Tuesday, February 3rd, at 10 pm NZT.

My paper, titled “Climate justice and the performing of prayer in digital spaces across transnational margins,” builds on my IASH Research Fellowship in 2024 into grassroots digital activism.

The paper explores the 2024 Tuākoi ‘Lei Declaration by the Pacific Conference of Churches and uses visual grammar analysis of digital images in the Declaration to reflect on the role of prayer in digital activism and what that means for how the West understands climate justice. The full paper proposal is here.

I’m grateful to the organisers who accepted my proposal – from among over 200 applications – and technology for allowing me to present without flying long haul.

“Making a Christian witness in Australia today” published in Colloquium

I’m delighted to have an article published in Colloquium: The Australian and New Zealand Theological Review. Colloquium is an international peer-reviewed journal published twice yearly. The journal aims to be a place for theological conversation which includes engagement with local and global context, interdisciplinary interaction and public debate. In a brilliant move, Colloquium has just gone open access, so the article is free to read (here).

Titled “Making a Christian witness in Australia today,” I argue in the article that while Christian witness is generally seen as occurring through words and deeds, we need to consider making as an essential domain of Christian mission. To understand making in mission, I conducted qualitative research into contemporary acts of knitting, particularly of Christmas angels and climate scarves, by Christians in Australia. These interviews unravelled understandings of making as a joyful experience of active praying that provided distinct ways of relating. The research has significance for how mission and theology are conceived in contemporary Australia and practised in local church contexts, particularly given a contemporary culture saturated with words and cynical of deeds.

This article is a first step toward a larger project, a book on Making in mission, which I am working on.

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.

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.

the social impact of lectio divina: an artist reflects

There’s a fascinating article in the latest Image journal, titled “Lectio Divina under Covid.”

I’ve been researching lectio divina as part of my social impact of selected spiritual practices research, so I read the article with great interest.

The author of the article, Rob Larsen, is also an artist. So Rob’s words describing his experience of spiritual practice are stunningly paired with his art. These include a contemporary response to Rublev’s icon The Hospitality of Abraham, also known as The Trinity.

Rob describes the gift of joining an online lectio divina group during Covid and discovering a new rhythm: “sitting in silence, listening to Scripture, then mixing a color and laying it down.”

The social impact is expressed in words and visual art. Rob finds himself painting a series Into the Silence. The densely layered canvases express the movements of contemplation for Rob, including paying attention, being present and letting go. They are stunning (check them out in the Image website).

The social impact of the lectio also appears in Rob’s words. He writes of being:

calmer at work and at home, attended by an oceanic peace, even amid the chaos of trying to keep up with endless emails in one room while attending to my children’s meltdowns in the other. I sensed God’s presence in difficult moments

This experience resonates with my social impact research, where 20 participants in 3 cohorts joined me to share lectio divina for 8 weeks. I gained insight into their experiences through surveys, focus groups and inviting them to keep a research journal.

My participants shared how spiritual practices have a social impact. As one of my participants in a focus group observed:

“Stopping, breathing, listening – not just here but transfer to other areas of my life” – Cohort A Survey

The internal impacted on the external, including their sense of being more fully present and with a greater empathy toward others. I’m keen to research other spiritual practices, to see if they have the same or different impacts in community and living.