Revd Dr Christine Dutton

I started at Queen's in September 2021 as part of my Methodist Connexional role as Officer and Tutor in Evangelism and Leadership.

Having combined local preaching and teaching Modern Languages in Morecambe and Glasgow for 10 years, I then worked for an educational consultancy firm.

I trained for presbyteral ministry at Hartley Victoria College in Manchester while researching for my doctorate in Methodist Fresh Expressions at the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield.

I was stationed to the North Cheshire Circuit in 2014 and from 2017 combined part-time circuit ministry with the role of PhD tutor at the Urban Theology Unit.

Qualifications

BA (Hons) in French and German – Lancaster University 1991

Post Graduate Certificate in Education – University of Oxford 1992

MPhil in Fin-de-Siècle Studies – University of Glasgow 1998

PhD in Urban, Liberation and Contextual Theology – Urban Theology Unit/University of Birmingham 2017

Thesis Title: The Ecclesial Reality of Fresh Expressions: Doing Church Differently in the Liverpool District of the Methodist Church

Roles at Queen's

I am a Methodist tutor, working within the Centre for Ministerial Formation, and teach the Introduction to Theological Reflection Module, and co-teach the Black Theology and Theologies from the Majority World Module

External roles and responsibilities

My role is Officer and Tutor for Evangelism and Leadership for the Methodist Church in the Connexional ministries team. The role is divided between working at Queen’s with students and Methodist probationer ministers and supporting ministers in the active work.

Connexional work includes training for superintendent ministers and, in conjunction with the Evangelism and Growth team, working with the Community of Evangelists and the Transforming Leadership Programme.

Research interests

My own research interests are at the intersection of ecclesiology, ethnography and liberation theology, focused particularly on the development of new ways of being church. My own doctoral research was empirical and qualitative and I am particularly interested in being able to hear the voices of those involved in emerging churches and church plants.

I currently supervise doctoral students working in the areas of urban mission and theology and MA dissertations in the leadership of inclusive churches.

Publications

‘For Fresh Expressions’, in Chris Rowland and John Vincent (eds.), British Liberation Theology for Church and Nation (Sheffield: Urban Theology Unit, 2013), pp. 76-85.

‘Unpicking Knit and Natter: Researching an Emerging Christian Community’, Ecclesial Practices, 1.1 (2014), 31-50.

‘Knitting as a means of sharing the Good News’, Anvil: Journal of Theology and Mission, 35:3 (2019) 34-36.