Ekklesia profiled by London newspaper
-03/05/05
Ekklesia has been profiled in London’s Evening Standard (ES) magazine, along with seven other London-based think-tanks.
It comes two weeks after Ekklesia was listed as one of the top 20 British thinktanks by the Independent newspaper.
The thinktank emerged from the theological training programme ‘Workshop’, run by the Anvil Trust, which has been teaching theology for 23 years. It operates in five centres around the UK.
Coming from a radical theological tradition, Ekklesia works to promote amongst other things ideas of non-violence, peace-making and restorative justice.
Ekklesia provides a daily news briefing service, regular public comment, conferences, consultancy, media training and workshops in a range of areas combining both practical and theoretical knowledge to encourage the expression of a radical theological perspective.
Its recent work has covered ideas of the nation state and Europe, the ethics of wealth creation, non-violent regime change, and development of a radical Christian political perspective.
It is currently involved in developing responses to ideas of “Post-Christendom”, being pioneered by one of Ekklesia’s partners, the Anabaptist Network. Paternoster Press is publishing a series of books following on from Ekklesia associate, Stuart Murray Williams original book “Post-Christendom”, which looks at how the church needs to adjust as it moves from having been at the centre of society for the best part of 1700 years, to the margins.
Later this year Ekklesia will publish a multi-author book with Darton Longman Todd, looking at ideas of the cross and atonement and their socio-political implications.
The thinktank’s web site www.ekklesia.co.uk recently became the second highest ranked religious site in the UK, according to Kesher Search, which lists religious websites using the Alexa system run by Amazon.co.uk.
Through its web site Ekklesia produces a news syndication service which brings a theological perspective on the daily news agenda. Hundreds of churches now carry Ekklesia’s news headlines on their web sites. The news is syndicated via the google and yahoo news services, and is often quoted in newspapers and journals around the world.
As well as promoting radical theological ideas, Ekklesia has also pioneered a radical structure in the way that it operates.
Unlike most thinktanks, Ekklesia has no salaried staff and works instead on a co-operative basis using associates. This means that all money given by supporters to Ekklesia is maximised to its fullest potential. It does not seek large funders and donors, but encourages individuals to become partners in its work.
Its web site raises on average £6,000 a month for development, and peace and justice work around the world.
Ekklesia was featured at the beginning of the year in a Radio 4 documentary which looked at the role of religious thinktanks in public policy.