CiS executive officer Mary is retiring
And it’s goodbye from me…..
I must admit I thought of the two Ronnies signing off from their shows when I thought of writing to you all to say goodbye. Why I don’t know, but it’s always so good to laugh. We’ve had a few people stepping down from their CiS posts in the last couple of months and now it’s my turn as the CiS Executive Officer to retire. During my initial interview in 2015 I was asked how long would I stay. I thought 10 years?. Well I have kept my word and now it’s time for me to say farewell.
I hope as new people come on board you will assist and welcome them as they take on the exciting challenges ahead for CiS. I have enjoyed meeting so many of you in person at various events and Conferences over the years. Some of you I’ve met via zoom and many more through a flow of emails over the years.
CiS has certainly changed during those years and I hope will continue to develop and support you in fellowship, providing talks etc but hopefully take its place in supporting the Church with discussions on science. This will continue to require your support first and always prayerfully, then attending events in person and online, perhaps volunteering and particularly financially.
Enabling online events or live streaming the conference is expensive. I think it is worth every penny to enable people to attend as widely as possible. Whether they stay home from necessity, or from choice. We are blessed that so many churches now have the tech we can hire to broadcast the talks.
My hope for the future of CiS???? I hope you will continue to support in many of the existing ways that have happened for years, and the new ways now on offer too. It is hoped some of the new ways will include online discussion of one or two of the papers in the Science and Christian Belief journal every six months. There is a hope to have Roadshows around the UK. To occur in local churches with open doors to everyone. If any Roadshow occurs near you please volunteer to support. And please, please remember each of them in prayer.
A newly designed website, new resource materials. There is a long list of desired work the CiS team would like to do. Many of them I hope will not only come to fruition, but be prolific, bountiful and reach so many across the nation. Imagine if every county in the UK and Ireland had churches that could and would talk about science. For them to know where to go for Christian speakers that are actual scientists. Not just watch the BBC shows, while wonderful or interesting, do not always represent GOD. Or have people believe what they see in social media. We have so much to speak about and share.
God’s word is powerful, His world is beautiful, we stand in Awe and Wonder of our mighty God, in the science lab or the class room, at work, in the street and in our church.
Sadly we have had many of our members pass away. The membership numbers have dropped. I wrote in my early CiS Updates about you encouraging another person to join CiS. I’d still like to encourage you to do that. Many of our members are older which can be great as you have so much to offer, with mentoring younger people both early career or students. Your experience matters. I remember so many of you telling me how much people like Oliver Barclay, Sam Berry and so many others helped you when you were younger, with a listening ear or career advice. You can now offer the same.
Let’s us see what we can achieve by lifting our eyes beyond what we receive from CiS, to what each of us have to give. My skills have been what was needed over these years, but now I think we need many different types of skills and I know there are other people bursting with those. I’ll hand the baton on and watch to see CiS flourish if we let it.+2
What is next for me? Not actually sure at this moment. What does God want of me now, I’m looking at, mulling over and discovering. One of the things I hope to do in my retirement is make a trip to Australia to see family. Beyond that I’ll wait and see what God has in mind.
From my heart to yours, may God bless each of you in this journey ahead. Thank you.
Mary Browett CiS Executive Officer
Retiring 9th January 2026
Cis autumn conference
Report on the Friday evening by Helen Billam
This was my first time attending a Christians in Science conference. As part of the ECLAS project, I’ve worked closely with CiS on several occasions, and it was great to see some old friends again and meet some members for the first time. This was also my first visit to Altrincham and, in true Manchester fashion, it was drizzling when I arrived. Luckily, the Baptist Church building was warm and welcoming, and there were plenty of hot drinks on hand.
The evening kicked off with a welcome and a challenge from Gavin. He shared some stark statistics, of which I’ll highlight one: according to the National Ministry Survey (2022), 48% of people who stopped being a Christian did so because they felt that science better answered their questions. By comparison, 1% did so because of the quality of worship and music in their church. That made me reflect on how much time and energy many congregations put into their sound systems, rotas, and music choices – wouldn’t it be amazing if a fraction of that were devoted to exploring the science-faith relationship!
Gavin also laid out how the conflict myth continues to pervade among the general public, starting from school age. In this context, he clearly laid out the importance of science-faith engagement and the work of Christians in Science. Gavin also introduced the conference theme ‘God makes the difference’, inviting us to think about how God makes the difference in our lives.
The next session was an interview with Baptist Science Missioner Dave Gregory to launch his new book, Divine Windows. Dave referenced the Italian theologian Bonaventure, who saw clues or ‘vestiges’ of God in creation, from rocks to stars. Dave’s book consists of ten reflections, aided by photographs such as Earthrise, through which science helps us see God at work. For Dave, looking through a lens of wonder, play, and order can offer fresh perspectives on God.
The themes of play and wonder carried on in the evening’s final session, an entertaining hour of science, trickery, and ‘magic’ with Matt Pritchard, the Science Magician. As well as introducing us to his favourite shape (the hexahexaflexagon), Matt demonstrated optical illusions, behavioural nudges, and a matchbox trick that I’m going to use with my seven-year-old. His presentation was fun and thought-provoking, and made science seem full of excitement, curiosity, and ‘wow’ moments. In other words, the perfect set-up for the rest of the programme.
Report on the Saturday by Zachary Ardern and Anke Ardern-Arentsen
The annual CiS conference in Manchester was focused on exploring the ways in which “God makes the difference” in Christian interactions with science. This is a great theme for CiS and something that deserves more exploration. As an organisation and as individuals we need a compelling story for both our churches and non-Christians about how God does make a difference in our life including in our engagement with science.
Saturday morning: keynote talk, panel and short talks
We started the day with a keynote talk by Bishop Richard Cheetham on “Your Gospel is too small: Why engagement with the science and faith conversation is central to the life of the Church today”. He discussed the many ways in which science is relevant to theology and the church from apologetics to ethics to discipleship.
In general, a message about how science makes a difference is a fairly easy sell in a CiS conference! There is a harder question of how God should make a difference in the work and witness of practicing scientists. The gap between the academic field of “science and theology” as done largely by theologians and the everyday lives and mission of Christians working in science perhaps needs more attention.
In the second session, Sam McKee interviewed three guests whose work intersects with science: Davinder Gardner and Mike Kirby are both radiologists working in the NHS, and Nelly-Helen Ebruka is a PhD student in international relations relating to nations’ actions in space — a fascinating topic! For Davinder and Mike, working with people experiencing a cancer diagnosis, God makes the difference particularly in their engagement with suffering and opportunities to encourage others in what can be a very dark time. For Mike, conversations from being known as a Christian have also been a way to bring Christ into dark places. Nelly is involved in a community of “Christians in Space”, an opportunity for mutual encouragement. She also noted that as Christians we can be known for “bringing something more than just science”, a spiritual dimension in contexts where the scientific work can be all-consuming — this is a really helpful insight.
Next, short talks were run across two parallel sessions. In session A, Peter Bussey spoke on “Why God makes the difference in morality”. Interestingly, Darwin saw the moral sense as the key distinctive characteristic of humans. Andrew Jackson spoke on “God, the Logos, the maker of difference”. In this clear, helpful and beautifully illustrated talk, he argued that in presenting a Christian view of science we might, like Plato, often emphasise the “universals”, but there is a strong theological basis for seeing both universals and particulars as important. Sam McKee unpacked “Contrasting approaches to naturalism among believing scientists of the past century”, who were non-traditional in their religious beliefs. It seems that Quakerism has been particularly conducive to excellence in science, and it’s worth pondering why that is.
In Session B, Todd Kantchev introduced “AI and the Christian understanding of humanity”, noting that any artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be “homo fecit” – created by us. We may want to recreate ourselves with technology, but God will do this desired renewing in his own way rather than ours. Suzanne Kalka told “Stories of a Pentecostal scientist”, emphasising the need for the science faith conversation to include stories to have a wide reach. She highlighted some examples of Black scientists making important but unrecognised contributions to famous scientific developments. Harold Thimbleby spoke on “Can computers be conscious?”, advocating breaking down the dichotomy between the spiritual and material worlds and suggesting that consciousness is not the most important conversation around AI. But AI can be a good conversation starter about Christianity!
In between sessions and during lunch, we enjoyed engaging with attendees with a range of backgrounds. We met many friendly Christians interested in or working in science including a theoretical physicist, a retired geneticist, a lecturer in geography, an undergraduate in physics, and staff of science-church engagement organisations. It is so valuable to share thoughts and experiences with each other.
Saturday afternoon: plenaries, short talks and oliver barclay lecture
After lunch we had two talks from ECLAS (“Equipping Christian Leaders in an Age of Science”) – Kathryn Pritchard and Helen Billam, highlighting their important work in communicating the relevance of science to church leaders and the opportunities for further dialogue. Equipping church leaders to speak into the ethical and societal debates of the day in a way informed by science is important and brings opportunities to bring a Christian faith perspective to leading scientists also shaping the debates. There are some difficult and important questions about how to use “secular” reasons/arguments in public debate without losing a distinctively Christian voice.
The second session of short talks started with Clair Griffiths presenting on some creative ways of explaining Christian concepts to young people through scientific examples, which was fun to hear about, and interesting to hear her experience coming from outside a faith perspective. Ruth Bancewicz helped us think about helping our churches engage with science. For instance, we often make reference to creation in our songs; we could often be more intentional in using science to unpack this a bit more, to make it more specific rather than abstract. Nelly-Helen Ebruka presented the results of a very interesting small study on African Christian youths’ views on science and religion. One particularly clear result was that evolution and astronomy/cosmology were widely seen as challenging Christian faith. There is more work to do in contextualising science and faith across more diverse congregations.
To end our conference, we heard from Emma Penwright, the Oliver Barclay winner for 2025. She spoke about the “quiet revival” among young people, which she is also seeing evidence of in her work with UCCF, and how it creates an opportunity to communicate Christian faith in a fresh way. There are many cultural factors that may have led to the observed growing openness, and behind and through it all God is evidently at work. Questions about science have not gone away, but they may not be the first asked. In the midst of growing acceptance of a spiritual view of life we need to help people shift from “fine for other people” to “true also for me”.
Part of this may be adopting a more holistic apologetic, including that the Christian faith is simultaneously true, profound, and beautiful. The Christian picture of the world also gives a more interesting explanation than a God-less universe (something I’m now adding into my outreach talks!). The shifting attitudes may also help those engaging with students get to Jesus and the core of the gospel more quickly than previously in a more antagonistic culture. Students are also curious how Christian faith really impacts how we live. In summary, there are many opportunities for scientists to help communicate the gospel to a new generation that has found many other purported answers aren’t helping them.
General reflections
The topic “God makes the difference” is an important one for CiS. How does God truly make the difference for us as Christians in science? This is likely different for Christians who reject mainstream science and those that are broadly comfortable with it. The former may have a difficult task in the academy, but a fairly straightforward message to the church about how God makes the difference. We shouldn’t simply dismiss this perspective in principle. There are indeed some academic areas where Christian skepticism can be appropriate, and scientists are human and fallible and worldview does affect interpretation.
And what difference does God make for those who are broadly comfortable with mainstream science, like most of us within CiS? What is our role in the church? How can we help our fellow Christians distinguish between good and weak science? Should we combat the spreading of what we see as misinformation, and if so, how? How can we foster the church’s enthusiasm for science, building a deeper appreciation for the handiwork of the Creator? How can we use science to attractively present the Christian faith to those outside of the church? And how does being a Christian impact our daily work in science? Some topics to keep discussing within CiS and beyond!
What is the role of CiS in this? There is much work to be done. From our (the writers) side, we would like to see CiS develop into a trusted mission partner of more churches and parachurch organisations, including UCCF. We need to get better at communicating a specifically Christian view of science which the wider church can get onboard with, including more theologically conservative contexts. The history of CiS shows that an evangelical faith need be no hindrance to scientific excellence, that science is not in conflict with robust orthodox theology, and that we have a faith which can be winsomely and persuasively commended to scientists. The increasing spiritual openness of young people is a massive opportunity. As CiS develops, let’s celebrate how God makes the difference and tell more stories of both Christians coming to love science and scientists coming to love Jesus.