Christ, Country and our Churches webinar
On 28 November, the Good Faith Partnership hosted a webinar titled ‘Christ and Country in Our Churches.’ Moderated by Lord Marvin Rees, the session featured a lively and thought-provoking discussion between Helen Paynter and Sarah Shin on the complex topic of Christian Nationalism.
During the webinar, Helen and Sarah explored key questions, including:
What is Christian Nationalism - and what is it not?
Can there be a legitimate understanding of nationhood and Christian heritage that does not slip into xenophobia, and where are its boundaries?
How are UK and US expressions of Christian Nationalism interacting today - towards convergence, divergence, or occasional points of overlap?
How should the Church respond to the rise of Christian Nationalism?
To what extent is the growth of Christian Nationalism connected to issues of race?
You can watch the webinar here.
Lord Rees of Easton OBE is a city leader, speaker, and strategic advisor working at the intersection of justice, climate, and inclusive growth. As Mayor of Bristol from 2016 to 2024, he led one of the UK’s most globally connected and socially complex cities through an extraordinary era, which included five Prime Ministers, Brexit, the toppling of the Colston statue, and rising populism. He is a practising Christian, and now continues this work in the House of Lords.
Helen Paynter is a Baptist minister in Bristol, England and a tutor at Bristol Baptist College. She is the founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence. She is the author of a number of books including Blessed are the Peacemakers: A biblical theology of human violence. Her most recent edited book (with Maria Power) is The Church, the Far Right, and the Claim to Christianity and her next book on the subject, Faithful Presence in a Fractured World: A toolkit for far right resistance will be published by Canterbury Press next year.
Sarah Shin teaches charismatic evangelism and church planting at Westminster Theological Centre. A speaker and trainer in ethnicity, evangelism, and the arts, Sarah previously served as the Associate National Director of Evangelism for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Her academic areas of expertise focus around reconciliation and atonement, as well as ecclesiology and theologies of race. Her publications include Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey.