CRES

CRES Open for Admissions for September 2012

Martin Hodson — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:59:03 +0000

Although the CRES course starts and finishes in September each year the Spring and early Summer are the times when many people are looking for courses. CRES recommends that students make their applications by August as this allows us to find a local tutor and give instructions on the course before it really gets going! If you are interested probably the best place to look first is our CRES Certificate page. Then you might have some questions. If so go to the Contact CRES page. Then finally if you would like to apply download an Application Form and send it back to us with your payment.

CRES Field Trip, Summer 2012

Martin Hodson — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:35:03 +0000

Every year CRES/CRuC/JRI arrange a summer field trip in a different part of the country. This time we are very grateful to Revd. Tim Fox who has arranged this year’s field trip to Bentham in Lancashire on SATURDAY 7 JULY 2012 (10.30a.m.–3.30p.m.). On the day we will be visiting Growing With Grace at Clapham and Looking Well at High Bentham. For more details and a booking form for the day go HERE

GROWING WITH GRACE Is a fruit and vegetable enterprise, grown organically under glass, near Clapham in North Yorkshire, run as a Quaker-inspired community cooperative. It is on the A65 near the junction with the B6480 – between Settle and Bentham.

LOOKING WELL is run by Pioneer Projects (Celebratory Arts) Ltd that “uses the arts and celebration to nurture the whole health of individuals and their communities. The Looking Well studios are in King Street, just off Main Street, High Bentham. See www.pioneerprojects.org.uk

18th Feb. 2012 CRES meeting

Martin Hodson — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:40:21 +0000

CRES is a distance learning course, but we do meet several times a year! This gives our students and tutors a chance to meet face to face, and to discuss progress on the course. Three of our meetings every year are at Ripon College Cuddesdon (RCC) as was this one (18th Feb. 2012). About 20 of us were welcomed with coffee and we were then introduced to our first speaker. Dr. Mike Morecroft (Natural England) spoke on ‘Changing ecosystems: from the globe to our doorstep.’ Mike gave an excellent summary of the way climate change is affecting biodiversity- things happen earlier in spring, move distributions, die out. And this is already happening in the UK. Mike went on the tell us what can be done to mitigate and adapt. We then split into two groups: 1) the current students and tutors discussed progress on various modules; 2) everyone else continued the discussion with Mike Morecroft. After lunch our second speaker was Senior Tutor, Rev Dr John Reader, who spoke on ‘Ethics, Faith and the Public Sphere’. This was a wide ranging talk looking at the current political scene in the UK, where the church fits etc. Interesting discussion on HS2 and wind turbines! Martin Hodson then told everyone about the vast number of events all over the country coming up in the next few months. John Neal lead a short service, after which we had tea and departed. Thanks to everyone at RCC for making us so welcome again!
Our picture shows: centre, winter sun on RCC; bottom left, the famous beech tree; top right, building works!; and top right and bottom left, tea at the end of the day.

CRES day conference – 12th Nov. 2011

Martin Hodson — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:39:18 +0000

CRES is a distance learning course, but we also like to meet together. We are based at Ripon College, Cuddesdon nr. Oxford, and have three meetings there a year. This report on the day conference on 12th Nov. 2011 is the first meeting of this academic year. People started to arrive at around 10.00am and we had coffee together in the lounge. Martin Hodson (Principal Tutor of CRES) gathered the students, tutors and speakers together (18 in total) and we had a time of introductions. Our first speaker was Bishop Stephen Pickard (Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Adelaide, Australia) on “Multi-Parish Benefices: here to stay or signs of a church in transition?” He was a very engaging speaker and it was difficult to stop the questions afterwards! We then split into two groups when John Reader led a further discussion with Bishop Stephen, and Martin Hodson explained the running of the course to the new students and tutors. We then had a group photo before lunch under the famous Cuddesdon beech tree. Lunch was taken in the atmospheric Cuddesdon dining hall. Dr. David Robinson (Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bangor) was our afternoon speaker on “Soils and their link to ecosystem services”. Totally different to the morning, but really good, and invoked more lively questioning! Martin Hodson then gave an update on recent news and upcoming events. We ended with a short service led by John Whitehead. Then it was tea and we all made our way home! A truly excellent day. More photos are on Facebook (you need to register to see them!)

New Publications from CRES Personnel

Martin Hodson — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:59:11 +0000

This has been a very good year (2011) for publications by CRES Personnel. John Reader (Senior Tutor of the CRES Diploma) was a co-author on “Christianity and the New Social Order – A manifesto for a fairer future.” Margot Hodson (CRES Tutor and JRI Board member) published “Uncovering Isaiah’s Environmental Ethics“, and was co-author with her husband, Martin (Principal Tutor of CRES) on “Climate Change, Faith and Rural Communities.” These three publications give a very good idea about the range of material covered by CRES!