Take Off Your Shoes – Hospitality and Practical Theology: BIAPT 2023 Annual Conference
The BIAPT 2023 Annual Conference, Take Off Your Shoes – Hospitality and Practical Theology, allows us to explore a theme that has come under increasing theological scrutiny in recent years. Hospitality is a universal virtue, one that is claimed by every culture, but what does it mean to welcome another into our country, home, space or personal narrative?
“Take off your shoes” was chosen as the title for this conference because it communicates very well the ambiguities, complexities and contradictions of the act of hospitality. On the one hand, it does not hide the power imbalance of the relationship between host and guest that will surely be explored during the conference but, on the other, it is an instruction that is redolent of sacred spaces in the Abrahamic religions. Receiving hospitality as well as the giving of hospitality becomes a sacred act. On the one hand it is an invitation for the guest to leave the cares of the outside world at the door and on the other it is an instruction not to bring the dirt – physical and spiritual – of the outside into the house.
During our conference this theme will be explored from numerous perspectives. Our keynote sessions will examine the hospitality offered or withheld to immigrants and refugees, the welcoming that exists within the interfaith dialogue and reflect theologically upon the theme in relation to disability. The inaugural Practical Theology Hub Event will be an interfaith conversation about hospitality. In addition to all of this there will be many short papers, workshops and informal gatherings throughout the three days. We will have stories of hospitality before each keynote that will encourage reflection in the theme and, through our very own art gallery, there will be an opportunity for delegates to tell their own hospitality story and to illustrate it through an image of a pair of shoes.
Using the whova.com platform, our conference is an online experience which will be flexible across different time-zones and as varied and creative as possible. Building on our successful online conferences in 2021 and 2022, this platform enables many different kinds of engagement over the course of our conference, from informal chats between colleagues and friends, keynote sessions, workshops, papers and online gallery space, plus the opportunity to access conference content in the forms of recorded sessions and shared resources for six months after the event.
Bursaries are available for those in financial need and Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students, scholars and practitioners, alongside BIAPT’s Emerging Regions initiative which offers full membership for £10 per annum for those from emerging regions.
We look forward to giving you a very warm welcome!
Sign up for the conference here.
© Owen Griffiths.
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