Canon Dr. Peter Sedgwick became Principal and Warden of St.Michael's College Llandaff in Easter 2004. He was ordained deacon in the Church of England, in 1974, after training at Westcott House, Cambridge, and became a priest in 1975. He was a curate in East London from 1974-77, an incumbent (in charge of a parish) in Co Durham from 1977- 79, and an assistant priest in Birmingham from 1979-1982. From 1982- 88 he was Theological Consultant to the North East churches, covering all denominations from Middlesborough to the Scottish border. He was involved in many issues such as the 1984 miner's strike; the introduction of IVF treatment in hospitals; the disputes around the theology of Bishop David Jenkins on the Resurrection; and the ecumenical relations between the churches.
His academic life began in 1967 when he studied history at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, for a BA degree, followed by a year at Keble College, Oxford studying religion, foreign policy and public opinion in the United States during the 1930s. He then returned to Cambridge where he took a second degree in theology while training for ordination. In 1977 he began studying at Durham University for a PhD in theology and moral philosophy, which was awarded in 1983. He lectured in modern theology and ethics at the University of Birmingham from 1979-82, and was Course Director at the University of Hull for the MA in Theology and Society from 1988-94. He became a life fellow of the Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey in 1991, and was also awarded a Fulbright scholarship for six month's sabbatical at Princeton. In 1994-5 he was Vice Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge. He has been external examiner at several university departments of theology, including Birmingham, Leeds and Heythrop College, London, and has also examined many doctorates.
Peter Sedgwick has served on many boards and committees of the Church of England dealing with ecumenism, theological training and social policy, and in 1996 he went to work full time for the central offices of the Church of England. He was their policy officer for home affairs from 1996-2004, where he was the link between the Church of England and the Government on mental health, criminal justice and drugs. He also founded and chaired the ecumenical body Churches' Criminal Justice Forum in 2002 , which has worked both with the Home Office and the Prison Service in promoting and coordinating voluntary action in the criminal justice system. In 2004 he returned to academic life as Principal of St.Michael's College, Llandaff. He was Dean of the Faculty of Religious and Theological Studies at Cardiff University from 2005-8, and was Moderator for Church and Society in Churches Together in Britain and Ireland from 2007- 10. He currently is Ministry Officer for the Church in Wales from 2005, and serves on the Doctrine Commission of that church as well.
He edited the journal of Christian social ethics called Crucible from 1998- 2009 and has written or edited about a dozen books, including studies of mission, the church in the city, and social ethics. Current articles over the last three years include an essay in an international symposium on the relation of the political philosophy of John Rawls to religious social thought. ; the formation of ordinands and contemporary ministry; and Anglican theology from Michael Ramsey to Rowan Williams.
Peter Sedgwick supervises three PhD students looking at prison, military and hospital chaplaincy. . He teaches one B Th module on Anglicanism, one on social ethics in the BA, and another module on ethics in the M Th in Chaplaincy.
Peter Sedgwick has degrees in history and theology from Cambridge University, and a doctorate in theology and moral philosophy from Durham University. He has published Mission Impossible: A Theology of the Local Church (Collins, 1990); The Enterprise Culture (SPCK, 1992); The Market Economy and Christian Ethics (Cambridge, 1999); and (with Andrew Britton) Economic Theory and Christian Belief (Peter Lang, 2003), as well as editing five collections of essays on topics ranging from the future of liberal theology, through urban and social theology, to criminal justice. He has published many articles on these subjects in British and Continental journals. A German translation of Economic Theory and Christian Belief was launched at the Kirchentag in Bremen in 2009. The translation was commissioned by the social research department of the German Protestant Church (E.K.D.)
He currently works in five areas:
Contemporary social Issues
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Criminal Justice, including editing the collection Rethinking Sentencing (Church House Publishing, 2004)
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Social Ethics, including articles on John Rawls ( 2009); Richard Layard ( forthcoming, 2010) Globalization in The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology (2003), edited by Peter Scott; and 'Wohlfahrstaat, (Welfare State) Theologische Realenzyklopädie, (2002)
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Economics and Theology, with the publication of Economic Theory and Christian Belief (Peter Lang, 2003: German edition, 2009) with Andrew Britton. Andrew Britton is a former director of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research.
Anglican theology, past and present
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Modern Anglican Theology, with an article in 2005 on Anglican theology from Austin Farrer to Rowan Williams in the third edition of The Modern Theologians edited by Professor David Ford
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Richard Hooker and Anglican social ethics
