Staff Profile of Dr John Parry

Name:

Rev'd Dr John Parry

Position:

Lecturer

Email:

john.parry603@ntlworld.com

Location:

Phone:

0161 249 2506

Background

Church life began for me at an English–speaking Congregational Church in North Wales where I was encouraged to ask serious questions about doubt and faith. This continued as I trained for the ministry in Manchester where I was fascinated and challenged by the study of the encounter of missionaries with modern Hinduism. That interest took me to Bengal and to ordination by an erstwhile Anglican Bishop into the Church of Bangladesh where I helped found a Bengali-medium theological college. On returning to the United Reformed Church in the U.K. I worked as Director of an interfaith project in Southall, West London and was encouraged to follow this work with research into Sikh-Christian dialogue in London, Patiala and Amritsar for a Birmingham PhD. Since 1996 I have been teaching at an ecumenical theological college in Manchester in the fields of Missiology and World Faiths. This has led to an exploration of local theologies developing in Samoa, Taiwan, India and Madagascar in which countries I’ve taught as a guest lecturer. I now am involved in part-time lecturing in Bangor.

Module Taught:

The Global Christ

Research Interests:

Interfaith relations, Sikhism, Local theologies, Radical Islam.

Selected Publications:

I have just completed a book on the encounter of Sikhs and Christians in India and the UK.

Chapters in edited volumes:

Sikhs and Christians Study Scripture Together – Some Reflections in Price, Sepulveda and Smith: Mission Matters, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Verlag, 1997

Sikhism in Markham and Ruparell: Encountering Religion, Oxford, Blackwell, 2001

“Truth is Highest, but Higher Still is Truthful Living” – The Nature of Sikh Theological Method in ed. Israel Selvanayagam: Moving Forms of Theology – Faith Talk’s Changing Contexts, Delhi, ISPCK, 2002

“Worship in Sikhism” in The New SCM Press Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, London, SCM Press, 2002

A chapter on Sikh-Christian encounter in a forthcoming SCM Core Text book edited by Alan Race.