truro theological society

When Rt Revd Graham James (now Bishop of Norwich), Revd David Rhymer (now of the University of Exeter) and me (now nothing in particular) formed the Society in 1995, a local cynic asked us which of the three telephone boxes in High Cross we intended to use for our meetings. We had a bit more faith than that, but even we were amazed when the Chapter House of the Cathedral was filled with 141 people listening to Revd Prof Leslie Holden delivering our Inaugural Lecture on 9th October 1995 on 'Resurrection in the New Testament and Beyond'. Since then our three meetings per year have averaged an attendance of 113, though that statistic is helped a bit by the fact that we have had one or two unusual and spectacular attendances, such as the visit in his election campaign of a certain candidate for the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, the visit having been fixed up, of course, long before. He didn't get the job. Among our speakers we have had a number of bishops and other eminent clerics, and several broadcasters (the most prominent being Sir Mark Tully), but most have been university staff, in post or recently retired, and they have come from as far away as Glasgow. Most Christian denominations have been represented, together with a speaker each from Judaism and Islam. Very rarely have we had a dud session. There is no committee, no AGM, no presentation of annual accounts; just a small, self-perpetuating Steering Group, but as TTS is obviously not broke we see no reason to fix it. Please see below for our forthcoming sessions.

All our meetings are in the Chapter House of Truro Cathedral (otherwise known as the Benson Restaurant), 7.30 for 8pm, admission £4 (under 18s free) and we begin with wine and soft drinks.

Steering Group

Revd Canon Philip Lambert Revd Canon Dr Anthony Phillips Revd David Rhymer Andrew Sampson
Revd Canon Dr Stephen Dawes (correspondent) 01872 223181 mands.dawes@virgin.net

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