Radical Hope Campaign

The task today is to dare to pursue an integral humanism that addresses the questions of our time without losing sight of its source. (Pope Leo, 2025)

We are developing a campaign around Radical Hope and what it might mean for citizens, communities and institutions shaping the public square in the UK and around the world. This campaign has emerged as a new expression of the Curating Spaces of Hope movement, as an acknowledgement of the diversification of the work from an organic movement shaped by lived experience into something much more strategic, with a rooting in political theory as well as theology and other disciplines within the humanities. In 2024, a gathering was held at Liverpool Hope University which developed the idea of Radical Hope in an Election Year. This was inspired by the fact that democratic processes were taking place in 82 countries around the world that year. We have curated the responses on this page, including a Radical Hope ebook from the gathering in Liverpool. In 2025, continued this work through the Radical Hope Podcast and a strategic conference at the Inner Temple, London, with partners from Virginia Theological Seminary (USA), exploring how to communicate radical hope in the public square in an era of poly-crisis - this led to our authentic communications charter and the establishment of strategic relationships with the St Nicholas Center for Faith and Justice (VTS) and the Susanna Wesley Foundation (UK). Into 2026 our work on Radical Hope is progressing further by offering a critical pedagogy of Radical Hope, which raises consciousness of the transformational leadership that is on offer in communities of all faiths and beliefs and the difference and creative potential that each offer for brand based organising for peace and reconciliation.

Radical Hope as critical pedagogy - An International Masterclass on Transformational Leadership

In February 2026, we designed and delivered a masterclass on transformational leadership, for the Lifelong Learning Network at VTS. This comprised a three hour deep dive on the emergence of and terms of reference for transformational leadership, the context of poly-crisis that we are living in, and a simple application of a transformational leadership dialogue. This gathering included chaplains and curators from faith communities in California and Connecticut, with an interest in psychiatry, student welfare, and the arts.

Radical Hope as critical pedagogy - Reconciliation.

In November 2025, Spaces of Hope was invited to Coventry Cathedral to curate a retreat on radical reconciliation. Coventry has a long-standing heritage of seeking peace and reconciliation, which spans its history from the seventh century to the 21st. The Cathedral has been rebuilt four times, the last of which following the blitz during the second world war, with the new cathedral opening in 1962. A key piece of this recent history was the production of a sign above the altar in the bombed out shell of the cathedral, which read “father forgive“. This sign was produced by one of the clergy at of the cathedral during the war, at which time he and it received wide condemnation. However, the emphasis on forgiveness out of broken relationships was at the heart of the gospel message and the mission of the Cathedral. This sign has become a key expression of the cathedral’s contemporary mission to pursue unity across diﬀerence. A key partner in this pursuit, is the ecumenical group, the Community of the Cross of Nails, which is active internationally as a broker of unity and reconciliation. The one-day retreat that we curated was held in the unity Chapel of the cathedral with companions from the Northumbria Community who had travelled from across the country, including from Northern Ireland and the dispersed community lead, Sarah Pillar. The retreat was attended by clergy from the cathedral, including Associate Minister at the Cathedral Rev Su McClellan, and was discussed with Canon of Arts and Reconciliation Kate Massey.

Radical Hope as critical pedagogy - Broad-based Organising.
In October 2025, I was hosted by Virginia Theological
Seminary (VA, USA) to share a series of dialogues which explored a critical pedagogy of transformational leadership. The dialogues took place within a context set by significant events both for the USA and for VTS themselves. On the 10th of September public
intellectual and conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was assassinated on the university campus in Utah. This event highlighted the significance of gun crime, the constitution, political polarisation in the USA and the ways in which these conflicts play out on college campuses. The US government
was also going through a “shutdown” due to the inability to agree a budget, which highlighted political division on the one hand and the perception of attacks by the Trump administration on diﬀerent institutions, including public ones. On campus at VTS, on the 30th of September there was a celebration and commemoration of the Rt Rev John T Walker who was the first African-American student enrolled at VTS, and later the first black Bishop of Washington. Bishop Walker was acknowledged as a servant, prophet and bridge builder who champion justice and reconciliation across the Episcopal Church and abroad. Following the celebrations, came the launch of the Saint Nicholas Centre for Faith and Justice, which seeks to build skills for social and political engagement to enable students to be eﬀective advocates for justice in the way of Jesus. This includes practical training, formation opportunities, pilgrimages and leadership training opportunities. The Transformational Leadership series was attended by seminarians from across the United States, studying as part of the diﬀerent programs oﬀered by VTS. Across the three sessions 75 people attended, with attendees studying at postgraduate level, either for ordained ministry, sent by their diocese, or as part of a discernment year. The dialogues were also attended by leaders from across VTS including the Dean, and the Director of the Faith and Justice Centre, as well as VTS Scholar, Malcolm Brown - recently retired Director of Mission and Public Aﬀairs in the Church of England, and a former Director of William Temple Foundation (1990-2000).

The Radical Hope Podcast Series 2:

In Series 2 of the Radical Hope Podcast, we are offering a series of book reviews, where we interview the author about a given text.

In Episode 1, we interview Dr Joseph Forde from the Urban Theology Union about his edited collection compiled with Dr Terry Drummond ‘Celebrating 40 Years of Faith in the City’.

In Episode 2 we interview Dr Jesse Zink from Principle of the Montreal Diocesan Theological College, about his book Faithful Creative, Hopeful: Fifteen Theses for Christians in a Crisis-Shaped World.
In Episode 3, we interview Professor Martyn Percy about his new book, The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism: Empire Slavery and Revolt in the Church of England.

Communicating Radical Hope in an Era of Poly-crisis (2025)Edited by Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell

This Temple Book offers a record of a conference which took place at the Inner Temple, London, on the 30th April 2025. The conference was a partnership led initiative between the William Temple Foundation, Spaces of Hope and Virginia Theological Seminary, with contributions from a great many others, set out in the Contributors section and chapters to in the book. The conference carried the same title as this ebook Communicating Radical Hope in an era of poly-crisis, and was derived from two main sources. 1) dialogue in summer 2024 between Nicky Burridge, Vice President for Communications and Institutional Advancement at Virginia Theological Seminary and the General Theological Seminary, New York, and Dean’s Scholar and Temple Fellow Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell, and 2) the Radical Hope campaign, roots for which can be found in our 2024 ebook and a 2025 volume by Barber-Rowell Curating Spaces of Hope: Transformational Leadership for Uncertain Times published by SCM Press.

The Radical Hope Podcast Series 1:

In this series we explore the contours of communications faith based organisations and dialogue in the public square. We will draw on stories and experiences from both sides of the Atlantic and consider what these might mean for people and institutions who are seeking to contribute to public life in the UK, US and around the world. This podcast is hosted by Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell, Communications Officer and Research Fellow for the William Temple Foundation, and a Dean’s Scholar at Virginia Theological Seminary and Vice President for Communications at VTS and the General Theological Seminary in New York, Nicky Burridge.

Finding Radical Hope in an Election Year?
Reflections from a Roundtable at Liverpool Hope University
Edited by Matthew Barber-Rowell, 2024

This eBook is an outcome of the Roundtable hosted at Liverpool Hope University on the 26th April 2024. The gathering addressed the question of how we might find Radical Hope in an election year? This volume is both a record of the proceedings of the day and should be taken up as a basis for a possible agenda of Radical Hope for the future. The election year of 2024 is an important marker for the enactment of democracy at the voting booth. However that is in itself only one expression to which we believe Radical Hope might be applied. An understanding that is present across these papers is that Radical Hope might be ongoing, as both an emerging influence and as an effective driving force for ongoing change. We commend this volume to anyone seeking change in this time of crisis, which is rooted in hopeful alternatives to the status quo.