What should the future of the church look like and how can it flourish?

This Lent, we’re asking big questions with faith leaders. Each week, a different voice shares their vision: of unity across denominations, of faith engaging with science, of justice at the heart of church life, of genuine care in community, of contemplation and action working together.

They’re not here to tell you what to think but instead to explore what a united church could be. What faith means in a scientific age. What justice requires. What real care looks like. How contemplation and action belong together.

If you’re curious about faith, the future, and what church could become, this is for you.

This year’s lent course theme responds to a lecture in the Cathedral given by Abbott Christopher Jamison on Shrove Tuesday titled ‘Framing the Future.’ You can find out more about this lecture and book tickets here.

Visions of a Future Church

Wednesday 25 February

A United Church with The Reverend Dr Adrian Burdon

Moderator Designate of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

The Reverend Dr Adrian Burdon is a minister in the Methodist Church and has served in urban Manchester, Leeds City Centre, County Durham, the Fyle Coast and overseas, as a mission partner in the South Pacific. Adrian is currently the Superintendent Minister of the Telford Circuit, which covers parts of rural Shropshire. He has additionally served the church in working with world church matters and the concerns of Faith and Order, especially the liturgical expression of the Methodist Church in Britain.

He has, since 2016, chaired the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) group which produces material for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In the autumn of 2026 Adrian is to become the Moderator of CTBI.

Wednesday 4 March

A Scientific Church with Dr Nick Spencer

Senior Fellow, Theos 

Nick is Senior Fellow at Theos. He is the author of a number of books and reports, most recently, ‘The Landscapes of Science and Religion’ (OUP, 2025), ‘Playing God: Science, Religion and the Future of Humanity’ (2024), and ‘Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion’ (Oneworld, 2023). His next book, on ‘Christianity and the Future of Welfare’ is due out with Cambridge University Press in 2026.

Nick is host of the Theos podcast Reading Our Times, and outside Theos he is Honorary Professor at the World Religions and Education Research Unit, Bishop Grosseteste University; Visiting Research Fellow at St John’s College, Durham; Visiting Fellow at the Faiths and Civil Society Unit, Goldsmiths, University College, London; and Fellow of the International Society of Science and Religion. He tweets infrequently @theosnick

Wednesday 11 March

A Just Church with The Right Reverend Dr Anderson Jeremiah

Bishop of Edmonton 

Anderson Jeremiah was born and raised in Vellore, a South Indian town. After his seminary training at United Theological College in Bangalore, he was ordained as a priest in the Diocese of Vellore, Church of South India (an Anglican Province). Anderson came to Edinburgh to pursue his doctoral research and served in the Scottish Episcopal Church, until his move to Lancaster.

Anderson became the first lecturer in World Christianity in the department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University. As an elected member of the Church of England General Synod, Anderson represents the Theological Education Institutions and Universities. Currently he also serves in the Faith and Order Commission and Ministry Council. Anderson was consecrated as the Bishop of Edmonton in April 2024.

Wednesday 18 March

A Caring Church with The Right Reverend Dr Joanne Woolway Grenfell

Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich 

Joanne studied at Oriel College, Oxford and the University of British Columbia, Canada and was a lecturer in English at Oxford University. She trained for ordination at Westcott House in Cambridge and later served as Archdeacon in the Diocese of Portsmouth, Residentiary Canon and Director of Ordinands in the Diocese of Sheffield, and as an inner-city parish priest in Sheffield and Liverpool.

In 2019 she became Bishop of Stepney, an area bishop in the Diocese of London and was lead bishop for safeguarding in the Church of England nationally. In 2025 she was appointed as Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

Wednesday 25 March

A Thinking and Praying Church with Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ

Director, Religious Life Institute

Senior Research Fellow, Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology

Bye-Fellow, St. Edmund’s College Cambridge

Gemma Simmonds is a sister of the Congregation of Jesus. An honorary fellow of Durham University and past president of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain, she studied at the universities of Paris, London, Rio de Janeiro and Cambridge for degrees in modern languages and theology. She is an ecumenical canon of the Church in Wales and chair of trustees of the Community of St. Anselm at Lambeth Palace. She taught theology at Heythrop College, London before returning to Cambridge to be a senior research fellow at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology where she is director of the Religious Life Institute.

Gemma has been a missionary in Brazil, a chaplain in the Universities of Cambridge and London and a volunteer chaplain in Holloway Prison. She broadcasts regularly on religious matters for the BBC and has published extensively in spirituality, the theology of religious life and ecclesiology.