The Exeter Centre for Ecumenical and Practical Theology (EXCEPT)

EXCEPT's goal is to foster and further theological research in contextual, practical and ministerial concerns. To this end, it is committed to developing theological and interdisciplinary research projects in collaboration with a variety of academic, artistic, faith-based and social-justice-seeking partners at regional, national and international levels. In particular, it supports projects that take community- and congregational-life (in their ordinary activity, worship, civic engagement and arts) as an object of theological reflection.

EXCEPT also explores the relationships between theological writing on the one hand and experiential, ethnographic and phenomenological attention to the patterns of civic and congregational practices on the other. The Centre's work thus responds to the current need for better understanding of the role of religion in social and political formation, with particular attention to the nuances of the personal, local, and contextual manifestations of those debates. It seeks to contribute especially to the Christian churches' need for sound research to help them develop effective strategies for working within and across the boundaries of difference in today's world.

Research Projects

• Revitalising Ecumenical Worship - A Web Resource (Siobhán Garrigan)
• The Role of Values in Responding to Major Social Change: Christian Churches and the Transition Town Movement (Tim Gorringe; AHRC funded)
• Constructing a Contemporary Rule of Life (Siobhán Garrigan, with Exeter Cathedral)
• Faith and Order Foundation, and the journal Ecclesiology (Paul Avis)
• Is Multi-Faith Worship Possible, or Desirable? (Multiple participants)