Hymns Ancient and Modern announces Festival of Faith and Literature live in Winchester, February 2023
The next Church Times Festival of Faith & Literature will take place in person in Winchester next year, Christian charity and publisher, bookseller and distributor, Hymns A&M announced today.
Until now, the ‘literary festival with a theological slant’ has been held every other year since 2010 in the village of Bloxham, Oxfordshire, ending with a sell-out programme in February 2020 just before the arrival of the pandemic. Since then, a series of popular half-day online Festivals took place with speakers including Stephen Cottrell, Francis Spufford, and many more. Now the Festival has a new home at the University of Winchester and Winchester Cathedral.
Believed to the only literary event in the UK with a focus primarily on faith, the event promises to bring an exciting programme together. It will feature – as always – a mix of talks, readings and discussions with music, art and drama – with high standards of comfort, catering and accessibility. It is hoped that the new home will delight and enthuse the festival’s many supporters.
A full programme and ticket arrangements will be available from early September 2022, but early confirmed speakers include Rowan Williams, Stephen Cottrell and Karen Armstrong. Commenting on the move, Festival Director, Sarah Meyrick said: ‘After a happy decade in Oxfordshire, we’re very excited about our move to Winchester. The Cathedral and university offer a wonderful mix of ancient and modern as a backdrop to our festival. It will be so good to be meeting in person again and we’re looking forward to welcoming speakers and festival-goers, whether they are joining us for the first time or are old friends of the festival. We can assure you that there will be the usual rich diet of treats to enjoy.’
In further news, Hymns A&M, announced an agreement with HeartEdge - the international ecumenical network - to work together on future projects. The two parties have agreed to jointly collaborate and develop future digital and print projects, events, marketing and more. HA&M marketing director, Michael Addison, said: ‘We have admired and applauded the work of HeartEdge from the side-lines. This is an exciting opportunity for us to jointly-develop new projects together and for those to reach further and deeper. We can’t wait to get started.’ Revd Jonathan Evens, Associate Vicar for HeartEdge said, ‘HeartEdge and Hymns A&M have increasingly found ways to collaborate in the past year. Our recent agreement builds on the synergy between the work and aims of our organisations. As an international, ecumenical network it is part of the ethos of HeartEdge to collaborate with others, so we welcome the formalising of this agreement with all the new possibilities for collaboration and cooperation that it brings.’
Building on HA&M’s successful programme of over 70 online events throughout 2021-22 and watched by tens of thousands of viewers, a joint Church Times/HeartEdge webinar is planned for Thursday 24th May 2022. It is on the topic of disability and church and speakers will explore experiences of disability and neurodiversity, gender, mental health, sexuality, race and poverty. It will ask what are the key issues and what are our calls to the church?
Further information: Michael Addison Hymns A&M michael@hymnsam.co.uk / 0207 776 7551
Ends
Notes for editors
Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd is the commercial arm of the Christian charity. Via book and newspaper publishing, bookselling and distribution, it generates funds in order to fulfil its charitable purpose of making grants to churches and Christian organisations. It publishes around 100 books per annum in print and digital formats via imprints SCM Press, Canterbury Press, Church House Publishing (under arrangement with the Archbishops Council) and Saint Andrew Press (under arrangement with the Church of Scotland). It also publishes the Church Times and other periodicals, runs an events programme including the Festival of Preaching, and owns leading religious bookshop Church House Bookshop and distribution centre Norwich Books and Music. Hymns A&M employ 65 staff in London and Norwich. www.hymnsam.co.uk
Church Times Festival of Faith & Literature will be held on Friday 24th, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th February 2023. Full programme and ticketing arrangements will be released in early September 2022. Some talks will be live-streamed. For more information https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk/
For full details on the Church Times/HeartEdge disability and church webinar – see here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/disability-and-church-intersectionality/
For full details on our events programme visit www.churchtimes.co.uk/events/