Big Issues: The Edmund Lectures 2024

Please book a ticket for each session you'd like to attend. Use the information below to choose the correct day.

“A Different God? A Different Mountain?” – Dr Ed Kessler MBE

Wednesday 2 October at 7.00pm

Dr Edward Kessler MBE is the founder and President of the Woolf Institute and a leading thinker in Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations. He is also Chair of the Commission on the Integration of Refugees and Fellow of St Edmunds College, Cambridge. In this talk, he will address the question: In an increasingly polarised and dangerous world, what’s the point of interfaith dialogue?

Ed will explore the tensions, positive as well as negative, between religion and civil society, both in the UK and around the world. He calls for genuine dialogue at a time of increasing tensions between and within faith communities in the wake of the Israel and Gaza conflict, argues that diplomats and policymakers need to be better trained in religion and belief, and emphasises the need to rediscover common ground in light of growing polarisation and the rise of sectarian voting trends in the UK and elsewhere in Europe after the recent elections.

“A Very British Scandal” - Mark Russell

Wednesday 30 October at 7.00pm

Mark Russell was appointed as Chief Executive of The Children’s Society in 2019 and leads a team of 750 staff and 6,000 volunteers. He is passionately committed to social justice and fighting for children and young people to feel hopeful and happy.

Why do so many British children live in poverty? Why do they have the lowest well-being rates in Europe? Over four million children in this country live in poverty. Many are open to exploitation, poor mental health, and vulnerable to online abuse. How might we contribute to a society which cares for our children and young people better. In this talk, Mark will help us to understand how we can help and hope, and how politics can create change.

“Climate Change: Science and Solutions” - Professor Rachel Warren

Wednesday 20 November at 7.00pm

Interdisciplinary synthesist Professor Rachel Warren is Professor of Global Change and Environmental Biology at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, UK. She has over 25 years’ experience leading interdisciplinary teams to deliver policy relevant science on climate change. Rachel is a joint author of a Nobel Peace Prize winning intergovernmental report on climate change (2007) and co-authored the UN Environment Programme’s Making Peace with Nature report (2021).

The effects of global climate change are greater, and are happening faster, than most people ever imagined. Big increases in searing heat and flooding are no longer confined to the predictions scientists have made about the future - they are already lived realities for much of the world’s population. After record hot summers in southern Europe and floods in the UK, many of us are finally waking up to an inconvenient truth; our climate and our weather is changing fast. Science has identified a crisis. How big are the risks? What do they mean for the economy, biodiversity, and food security? How can climate science help us to think about our planet and how we can safeguard its future? Professor Warren will address these questions and help us to reflect on what we can do.

Speaker bios:

Dr Ed Kessler

Dr Ed Kessler regularly appears in the media commenting on religion and belief issues of our day. He founded the Woolf Institute in 1998 and was elected Fellow of St Edmund's College in 2002; in 2007, He was Convenor and Vice-Chair of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life (2013-15), which published a major policy report entitled, “Living with Difference” and Principal Investigator of the Woolf Institute study of diversity in England and Wales which published a major policy report entitled, “How We Get Along” (2019). Dr Kessler was described by The Times Higher Education Supplement (London) as 'probably the most prolific interfaith figure in British academia' and in 2011 was awarded an MBE for services to interfaith relations. He has written or edited 12 books, including An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations (Cambridge, 2010), Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Encounter (SCM, 2013) and Jesus (The History Press, 2016). His Documentary History of Jewish-Christian Relations is being published by Cambridge in 2024. Also In 2024, he was awarded the Seelisberg Prize for his contribution to fostering better relations between Jews and Christians.

Mark Russell

Mark was appointed as Chief Executive of The Children’s Society in 2019 and leads a team of 750 staff and 6,000 volunteers. He is passionately committed to social justice and fighting for children and young people to feel hopeful and happy. Mark grew up in Northern Ireland and read Law at Queen’s University Belfast. He has 10 years’ experience as a youth worker, supporting young people in England and Northern Ireland. In 1999, Mark was awarded the ‘British Gas Tomorrow’s People Award’ for his cross-community work, bringing Catholic and Protestant young people together across Northern Ireland in the run up to the Good Friday Agreement. Before joining The Children’s Society Mark served as Chief Executive of Church Army for almost 13 years. Mark has been a Trustee of The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England and has served as Chair of The Marylebone Project, the largest women-only homeless project in the UK. Mark is Honorary Canon of Southwark Cathedral and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Mark is from County Armagh in Northern Ireland and attended Queen’s University in Belfast.

Professor Rachel Warren

Interdisciplinary synthesist Professor Rachel Warren is Professor of Global Change and Environmental Biology at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, UK. She has over 25 years’ experience leading interdisciplinary teams to deliver policy relevant science on climate change. Rachel is a joint author of a Nobel Peace Prize winning intergovernmental report on climate change (2007) and co-authored the UN Environment Programme’s Making Peace with Nature report (2021) and the Special Report on 1.5°C warming (2018). Since 2007, her work has informed world governments about the risks associated with global warming and has catalysed the decarbonization of the world’s largest pension fund. Her academic background and training are in physics and the natural sciences at Cambridge University. Rachel appears in the Reuters hot list of top 1000 climate scientists.

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