16 September 2021
Woldingham was delighted to welcome Fr Andrew Pinsent, Research Director of the Ian Ramsay Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, to give the annual Faith in Action Lecture on Wednesday 15 September. The lecture launched the Sacred Heart goal for the academic year, respect for intellectual values, and Fr Andrew, who has an illustrious background in the world of physics, made many fascinating connections between science and religion, which, as Dr Whitehead commented afterwards, are often overlooked. An audience of students and staff heard about God and the cosmos and the hugely important contributions to science of people such as Mgr Georges Lemaître, who formulated big-bang theory, in a talk topped and tailed with an exploration of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen.
During his introduction, Fr Andrew had explained that he would be throwing a lot of things at the audience and that “Some of it may stick and that’s great”. The subsequent stream of questions put to Fr Andrew, and debates among students as they left the auditorium, demonstrated that much had indeed stuck in enquiring minds.