A Sion College Visit to the Barnes Wetlands Centre

Wetlands are one of the world’s most biodiverse habitats. They provide homes for many endangered species, offer a lifeline for freshwater species and act as vital ‘service stations’ for millions of migratory birds to rest and refuel. Many endemic species are found only in specific wetland areas.

Founded in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott, WWT (the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) is working to create and restore 100,000 hectares of wetlands in the UK by 2050 and to improve 1 million hectares of wetlands through locally-led action in their priority hotspots around the world.

Our Sion College visit to WWT London will include a guided tour and talk on the work of WWT, and will conclude with lunch in a nearby pub. Admission tickets will also allow a return visit after lunch for those who wish.

Online application and payment is available for this event. To apply and pay online you will first need to register if you haven't done so already. Once the Administrator has approved your registration, you will be able to log in and access the online application/payment. You will only need to register once, and for any applications for subsequent events you will need only to log in.

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A Sion College Online Seminar with Bishop Mariann Budde: How We Learn to be Brave

Bishop Mariann Budde will address this Sion College online seminar, reflecting on faith, courage and the work of love using her book, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, in which she explores how to push past our fears and act with strength, how to respond with clarity and grace even in the toughest times.

Mariann Edgar Budde serves as bishop and spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC. Prior to her election in 2011, she served as a parish priest in Minneapolis for eighteen years. Bishop Mariann earned both Master in Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary. She is a life-long student of history, and an advocate and organizer in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons, and the care of creation.

Bishop Budde is the author of three books. How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, published in 2023, was adapted for young readers as We Can Be Brave in 2025. Her picture book for small children, I Can Learn to be Brave, illustrated by Holly Hatam, will be published in July 2026.

Online application and payment is available for this event. To apply and pay online you will first need to register if you haven't done so already. Once the Administrator has approved your registration, you will be able to log in and access the online application/payment. You will only need to register once, and for any applications for subsequent events you will need only to log in.

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A Sion College Visit to Tom Stoppard’s play, Arcadia at the Duke of York’s Theatre

Widely regarded as one of Stoppard’s finest achievements, Arcadia is a play of dazzling intelligence, wit and humanity by one of the greatest dramatists of modern times, who died in November 2025 at the age of 88.

Set within a single country house across two centuries, the play interweaves mathematics, poetry, science, theology, desire and the search for truth, as its characters grapple with questions of order and chaos, knowledge and mystery, reason and the passions of the heart. Both intellectually exhilarating and deeply moving, Arcadia invites reflection on the limits of human understanding, the passing of time, and humanity’s enduring longing to discern meaning within the complexity of creation.

Online application and payment is available for this event. To apply and pay online you will first need to register if you haven't done so already. Once the Administrator has approved your registration, you will be able to log in and access the online application/payment. You will only need to register once, and for any applications for subsequent events you will need only to log in.

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Is it Me or is it hot in here? A Sion College Online Seminar with Julie Gittoes

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.

Online application and payment is available for this event. To apply and pay online you will first need to register if you haven't done so already. Once the Administrator has approved your registration, you will be able to log in and access the online application/payment. You will only need to register once, and for any applications for subsequent events you will need only to log in.

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A Sion College Seminar Supper with the Revd Canon James Walter: Building Christian Community in an age of Disintegration

The Church of England is often its own fiercest critic. Recent years have been dominated by a difficult reckoning with past failings, internal disagreement and continued numerical decline. But this is a moment of profound opportunity for parishes and chaplaincies to serve their communities and grow in faith. Based on case studies across the Church of England, James Walters offers reflections from his forthcoming Bloomsbury Lent Book 2027 to renew confidence in the practice of ordinary Christian community.

Canon James Walters is director of the LSE Faith Centre and a professor in practice at the London School of Economics.

Online application and payment is available for this event. To apply and pay online you will first need to register if you haven't done so already. Once the Administrator has approved your registration, you will be able to log in and access the online application/payment. You will only need to register once, and for any applications for subsequent events you will need only to log in.

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