The St Andrew’s Trust Winter Seminar, “Paradise Lost, Paradise Restored?’ is happening on Friday June 22nd and Saturday June 23rd 2018 at St Andrews on the Terrace. The Trust is the St Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion and Society (SATRS)
Registration form and information or see below
The theme is loosely structured around the themes from The Greening of Christianity by the trust’s former theologian and lecturer Rev. Professor Sir Lloyd Geering. Basically his thinking covered the territory of Naomi Klein’s later book This Changes Everything. His analysis was that: the future of the earth is in our hands; social solidarity and altruism need to be at the heart of what we do; democracies can only act to make the needed changes when they have broad public consensus and finally that significant and urgent change is required internationally if unstoppable climate change is to be averted. To do that we must recognise our inter-dependence and respond to the ecological imperative for the benefit of future generations.
We have organised the conference theme around Sir Lloyd’s 10 suggested resolutions on the values needed to achieve this. Summarised they suggest a need to:
- Adopt an attitude of wonder and reverence towards the world
- Develop a philosophy of care for the world
- Build a society-wide altruism & community towards the globalised world
These ideas speak to how internal factors (a willingness to be altruistic, to value the world and to recognise ourselves as citizens and partners in joint endeavours with others) should help us to address the challenges we face. But to be really effective we need these qualities (reverence, care, recognising that we are part of a global community) to permeate our public institutions
To help us think about this we have invited speakers who can talk about good government at local, national and international levels. Other speakers can address how we can work well together and how to have this understanding permeate and influence government and civil society.
The weekend will provide participants with informative speakers, insights, opportunities to reflect and to discuss how best to address the looming environmental and social crises. We hope you can join us.
Speakers
Confirmed speakers - more details to follow
- Wellington Deputy Mayor Jill Day
- Professor Jonathan Boston on Anticipatory Governance
- Associate Professor Niki Harré on her new book The Infinite Game
- Theology Professor Paul Morris on the New Materialism
- Lawyer and author Andrew Butler who has worked on the case for a NZ constitution with Sir Geoffrey Palmer
- Rev. Dr Susan Jones Minister St Andrews on the Terrace
- Nick Laurence is a psychologist and one of the founders of Mindfulness for Change
- Dr. Ros Jiko United Nations Association NZ on the Sustainable Development Goals
- Nadia Webster on the future of the public sector.
Format
The event will be a mix of speakers with time for conversation, questions and reflection based on what we have heard from the speakers.
Speaker Biographies and talk topics
Niki Harré
The Infinite Game: How to Live Well Together
Imagine if life was a game, an infinite game in which we continually changed the rules to keep our deepest values in play and ensure that everyone could take part. In this talk, I first discuss what people value most deeply by presenting data from a study with 1,085 New Zealand adults. I then discuss how we can keep these values alive by creating cooperative, innovative and responsive social structures. What kind of world would you like to live in? What kind of player would you like to be? This talk raises fundamental questions about how to live well together on the planet that we share.
Biography
Niki Harré is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Her recent research projects have focused on sustainable communities and schools, positive youth development and political activism. Niki is a founding member of the Pt Chevalier Transition Town, cycles to work, learns the guitar from a musician who lives on her street, and has a large organic garden thanks to her husband.
In 2007 Niki edited, with Quentin Atkinson, the book Carbon Neutral by 2020: How New Zealanders Can Tackle Climate Change. Her two latest books released in May 2018 are The Infinite Game: How to Live Well Together and Psychology for a Better World: Working with People to Save the Planet.
Paul Morris is a Professor in the School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies at Victoria University and his areas of research include
the moral and religious dimensions of change in New Zealand, 1984–1999 (funded by a Marsden grant), examining the relationships between economic rationalism and moral programmes within the context of parallel changes overseas
spirituality in Aotearoa/New Zealand, looking at the spiritual elements of New Zealand culture, the transformation of religious institutions, new religious movements and new age spirituality.
Andrew Butler is a lawyer who has worked on a large scale consultation about a Constitution for New Zealand with Sire Geoffrey Palmer and their latest book Towards Democratic Renewal, Andrew and Sir Geoffrey Palmer set out their vision for a modern constitution that strengthens democracy, protects rights and liberties, reflects New Zealand’s identity and nationhood, and prevents governments from abusing power.
Jonathan Boston is Professor of Public Policy in the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington. Profesor Boston is a leading contributor to policy debate in New Zealand on a range of issues including climate change, tertiary education, child poverty and inequality. The author of numerous books and articles he contributed to Inequality: A New Zealand crisis (BWB 2013) and chaired the book’s advisory group. He subsequently co-authored Child Poverty in New Zealand with Simon Chapple. In 2014 he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to investigate ways of mitigating the ‘presentist bias’ or political ‘short-termism’ in democratic governance. Two books were based on this research. A major study Governing for the future: Designing Democratic Institutions for a better tomorrow and the shorter BWB text Safeguarding the Future were both published in late 2016. In 2017 Social Investment: A New Zealand Policy Experiment (BWB) was published which Professor Boston co-edited with NZIER economist Derek Gill.
Presentation topic
At the St Andrew’s conference Professor Boston will be talking on the topic of Anticipatory Governance: How do we safeguard the future? This includes ideas about inter-generational well-being and justice and the kinds of policies that are needed to take account of this.
We will announce other speakers in the leadup to the conference.
To register for the conference you can pay by credit card, cheque or electronic banking.
Details are here or below
Satrs 2018 Winter Seminar: Paradise Lost! Paradise restored?
Registration Form
Venue: St Andrew’s on The Terrace, 30 The Terrace
Date & Time: Fri, 22 Jun, 6:30–9:00. Sat, 23 Jun, 9:00–3:30
Cost: Friday Fri: $10 for 1 person $15 for 2 people
Sat and Friday & Sat: $30 waged, $20 unwaged, $15 student
(lunch and morning tea provided)
Take $10 of if ringing your own lunch
Dietary needs
Vegetarian/Vegan
Gluten free
Will bring my own
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My cheque for $………… enclosed covering:
( ………people Friday night- $10 for one $15 for two)
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RSVP by Friday 21 June 2018
Post: SATRS, 30 The Terrace, Wellington 6011
or Email admin@satrs.org.nz
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