Dismantling Shame and Empowering Reconciliation - a Symposium

A mix of speakers, break out discussions and creative interludes. Each will offer different perspectives on the effect that shame has on our relationship with God, self and others.  Lucie Lunn took part in the first Journey of Hope Pilgrimage with Reconcilers Together and will speak on The Dis-regulating Other: identifying and reframing our personal stumbling blocks to reconciliation’.   Laura Wheatley Downs is the Vicar of St John the Baptist Anglican Church, Crowthorne and will speak about the biblical story of Tamar, identifying resources for reconciliation in faith-based settings as we seek to better understand Tamar’s shame.  

Tickets are £15.00.  To register, please use the RSVP button to go to our Eventbrite page.  Please scroll down for more details about our speakers.

Lucie Lunn

Lucie Lunn has spent most of her adult life in Cumbria, usually in the parts outside the Lake District that most people don’t know! She currently lives with her family on the Furness Peninsula, where she can often be found exploring local woodland with her two slightly mad dogs, or engaging with the rural community through crafts and creative worship.

Called to ordained ministry over ten years ago, Lucie recognised very soon that God was leading her towards a ministry of reconciliation. Working within church structures, she has engaged with mediation and reconciliation work in local churches, schools and community. In 2019 Lucie took part in the first Journey of Hope Pilgrimage with Reconcilers Together, a journey which brought into sharp focus her own story of ‘reconciliation with self’.

Lucie’s personal experience and capacity to walk alongside others experiencing bullying or other systemic issues, has deepened her particular interest in shame and its ability to frustrate reconciliation processes. Her short paper Forgiveness as a Trigger to Shame is the start of a conversation about the language we use around shame. She is particularly drawn to explore how words and expression can cause shame affects in the body and how, in identifying triggers, we might reframe our reactions and more readily manage somatic responses.

Lucie will speak on: The Dis-regulating Other: identifying and reframing our personal stumbling blocks to reconciliation.

This talk will consider some of the linguistic and other triggers of shame-based feelings and somatic responses. In identifying these, we consider how self-knowledge can empower change and transformation more broadly.

Laura Wheatley Downs

Laura Wheatley Downs is currently the vicar of St. John the Baptist church, Crowthorne. She lives with her husband, daughter and shihpoo Bilbo.

Having grown up in and around Wokingham, she has moved around the country to Ilford and Banbury, engaging in community development projects and work with young people before moving to Shrewsbury. Here Laura worked as a lay licensed pioneer minister amongst young people and young adults, getting involved in Fresh Expressions, University Chaplaincy, and Church on Sundays. Her current post came after her curacy in Portishead, just outside of Bristol, having completed her ordination training at Trinity College where her MA thesis focused on the theology of vulnerability.

Alongside parish life, Laura is also in her second year of researching for her PhD looking at the relationship between trauma, shame, and reconciliation, thinking particularly about interpersonal abuse.

When Laura’s not planning PCCs, writing papers or procrastinating, she’s passionate about engaging in issues of social injustice, alongside enjoying a good podcast, boxset or film. You’ll regularly find her taking up new and exciting creative hobbies which don’t often last for very long…And of an evening, if there’s a chance for a cheeky cocktail and a dance, you’ll find her there!

Laura will speak on: Tamar’s shame? Resources for reconciliation in the story of Tamar

This talk will explore of the story of Tamar through the lens of shame to understand what resources of reconciliation the church might draw upon as we work alongside those who have experienced interpersonal abuse.