A Sion College Online Seminar with Julie Gittoes

Is it Me or is it hot in here?

Wednesday 9th September 2026: 6:45 for 7:00pm - ZOOM

This seminar is about the m-word, the menopause, and the years leading up to it known as perimenopause. These years can feel like an embodied borderland: of life and mortality, generativity and invisibility, fertility and barrenness. We will explore that borderland by focusing on one woman’s story told in the synoptic gospels: a woman known not by name, but by her constant bleeding, and because her bleeding stopped.  Her story interrupts the movement of Jesus with a touch that takes us to the borderland of the flow of blood and the flow of power. In talking about the m-word through the lens of her story, and the increased openness to discussing symptoms, their effect and work-place policies, we will reflect on how different commentators make sense of this moment of faith and the theological space around bodies, including the ecclesial body itself.

The Revd Preb Dr Julie Gittoes is Vicar of St Mary's and Christ Church, Hendon and Area Dean of Barnet. She was ordained in St Paul's in 2003 having trained alongside post-graduate studies in Cambridge. She has experience of parish ministry in west London and cathedral ministry in Guildford (where she was responsible for education, public engagement and art). Julie was a member of the Families and Households Commission and serves on the Faith and Order Commission. She continues to teach and write on theology, including ecclesiology, eucharist, marriage and singleness (and most recently theology and menopause). She is a member of the Society for the Study of Theology. Her other interests include politics, film, theatre, art and fiction. She shares the vicarage with her cats Briallen and Ceridwen.

If you have not yet registered for online payment you will be asked to do this and your registration will need to be validated by the Administrator before you can use the facility. You will only need to register once, and for any applications for subsequent events you will need only to log in. Payment is taken by PayPal, but you do not need a PayPal account. 

Please note

• Successful applicants will be sent further information by hursday 3rd September, 2026
• Cancellations after Monday 7th September will not be refunded
• A Zoom link will be sent to all attendees by Tuesday 8th September, 2026
• It is Sion College policy that no events are recorded

Sion College events are often over-subscribed and each place is generously subsidised. If you are offered a place but are unable to attend for any reason, please let the office know so that your place may be offered to another. In the event of failure to attend without notice after being reserved a place, the Court will require a refund of the subsidy. Application for a place at any Sion event constitutes acceptance of this proviso.

Event Details