Faith in Protest | Northey Lecture by Michael Mawson

In 1969, the World Council of Churches launched its controversial Programme to Combat Racism. Over the next two decades, the programme funded and supported Civil Rights activism in the USA, anti-apartheid movements in South Africa, and revolutionary groups in South America. What is less well known is that the programme made important contributions to anti-racist theologies and activism in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Using the work of the Programme to Combat Racism as a point of departure, this lecture will explore the kinds of ideas and theological commitments that led New Zealand and Australian Christians to become involved in anti-racist activism in the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, it will suggest how this history can continue to provide valuable lessons for responding to racism and white supremacy today.

Michael Mawson is a Pākehā (white) theologian and holds the Maclaurin Goodfellow Chair of Theological and Religious Studies at Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland. He previously worked at the United Theological College in Parramatta. Some of his recent books include Standing Under the Cross: Essays on Bonhoeffer’s Theology (2023) and, with Brian Kolia, Unsettling Theologies: Memory, Identity and Place (2024).

Time and Date

2.00 pm AEST Wednesday 2nd September

Location

Online via zoom or in person Centre for Theology and Ministry, 29 College Crescent, Parkville

This is a free event, but tickets are required for catering purposes and to access the zoom link.