Forging international partnerships
Posted: 28 February 2012
In January 2012 the explicitly Christian activities of Relationships Global (the organisation which Jubilee Centre's founder Michael Schluter currently leads) were merged into the Jubilee Centre. They have been developed under the banner of the Relational Studies Institute (RSI), which will become a second 'brand' of Jubilee Centre, alongside Cambridge Papers.
This has opened up the potential for several new partnerships with organisations in other countries which share the Jubilee Centre's vision for Christian social transformation. One of these is the Centre for Faith and Public Values in Hong Kong, part of the Chinese Graduate School of Theology. Its director, Dr Kang Phee-Seng, organised an international conference last May on 'The Family and Sexual Ethics: Christian Foundations and Public Values'. He invited Michael Schluter to assemble a team including Jeremy Ive, Jonathan Burnside and Dale Kuehne - names familiar to Jubilee Centre readers.
Together with eight Chinese scholars they presented papers on a range of issues which are of major importance to the changing cultural landscape in China. We hope the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences will publish the conference proceedings, and some of the papers will be published in English by the Jubilee Centre also.
Another partner is Relationships First in Singapore. They are running "R-Work", one of the RSI courses piloted last year, which explores ways for Christians to express their faith at work through promoting just and healthy relationships. The Johannesburg Bible College in South Africa is running another 24 session course, "R-Vision: Transforming Relationships in Public Life", for a second year.
Lastly, we are supporting Animato, a new initiative in Australia launched by the former industrial chaplaincy Converge International, as it seeks to apply Christian principles to the world of work. Alongside promoting a vision for healthy, life-giving workplaces, Animato is also considering starting a similar initiative to Cambridge Papers in Australia.