reflection

Conference details

Each of us needs space and time to reflect, time to get away and share with people and relax with people in a totally different context. The Reflect Conference offers this opportunity. There are always inspirational speakers exploring in depth an issue that is developed into the Explore study material. There is time to relax, be inspired and challenged over a period from Monday late afternoon to Wednesday lunch time.

The “Reflect” Conference is held annually The 2027 conference Is at The Hayes Conference Centre, Hayes Lane, Swanwick, Alfreton, DE55 1AU

The  2027 conference Theme is

“Stories to Feed Our Souls”

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From Monday 17th May, 2027 to Wednesday 19th May 2027

 The Speaker in 2027 will be Rev Dr Dave Dickinson

Enquire of the Conference Organiser by emailing

Rob Hufton

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The full cost is £250 full board. You may wish to lookout the details of  The Hayes

You do not have to be a Spectrum member to attend any Conference (but we do hope you will join us). We do however expect you to subscribe to our ideals and respect the views of others attending if you make a booking.

You will see below what Dr Dave Dickinson has to say about his planning for the 2027 Confernce

Stories to Feed Our Souls

Introducing next year’s Conference and Speaker

The Rev Dr Dave Dickinson

Dave Dickinson taught secondary school English before candidating for the ministry in 1985. His Masters dissertation examined how literary theory, notably intertextuality, interpretive communities and ideation, makes preaching effective. His doctoral thesis examined the form and function of sermons in British fiction from 1979-2004.

He was appointed in 2005 in response to the Anglican-Methodist Covenant to the staff of St Albans Cathedral as Director of the St Albans Centre for Christian Studies, a post he held until 2013. Having worked ecumenically for the last 18 years of his  active ministry, he worships at St James’s Church in Weybridge.

You will find a list of his book titles at the end of this note.

Dave introduces us to his Conference theme by re-asking a question posed by the first century theologian Tertullian “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” What has secular literature to do with sacred texts? How might they be related?

He continues: ever since people sat around campfires, stories have been told. Stories helped cave dwellers to make sense of what had happened to them while out hunting; stories help us nowadays to make sense of birth, life and death; stories encapsulate faith. Our faith began with a story…

In “Stories to Feed our Souls”, I plan to help us to think how fiction relates to our practice and beliefs as Christians

• In novels retelling biblical narratives (with particular reference to the Fall and Sodom and Gomorrah)

• In the spirituality of reading (beginning with Augustine’s theory of reading)

• By asking why contemporary novels obstinately continue to explore religion and theology despite the prevalence of secularity

• In considering how we might do theology through literature

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The Novel as Church: Preaching to Readers in Contemporary Fiction (Baylor University Press: 2013) [one of The Making of the Christian Imagination series]

Yet Alive? Methodists in British Fiction since 1890 (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2016)

Make-Believe: God in 21^st-Century Novels (Lutterworth Press: 2020)

Reading as if for Life: Spirituality for Booklovers (Lutterworth Press: 2025).