Deification and the Sacraments: Perspectives East and West
25-26 June 2026
St Mary’s University theology department is leading a quiet renewal of Catholic theology in the
UK. A fruit of this renewal was the June 2024 international theology conference, Christian Know
Your Dignity: The Royal Priesthood and the Renewal of the Church. Speakers included Bishop
Erik Varden, Professor John Bergsma, Professor Lawrence Feingold, Dr Matthew Levering, and
many others.
This year’s event, Deification and the Sacraments: Perspectives East and West, runs from
25th-26th June. It builds on the success of the previous conference and focuses on the central
Christian teaching about deification through the sacraments. The event brings together notable
Eastern and Western Catholic theologians, along with Orthodox contributors, to highlight the
importance of this theme. It is hoped that this will contribute to the ongoing renewal of the
Church, especially in the areas of evangelisation and catechesis.
Keynotes this time include Monsignor Livio Melina, Paul Gavrilyuk, Matthew Levering, and John
Behr. Other speakers include Simon Gaine OP, Ralph Weimann, Andrew Louth, Teresa Teresa
Obolevitch, and many more. Attendance at the conference is £80 per person for the entire
two-day event, with lunch provided. The sessions will all be filmed as well as interviews with
some speakers. A new YouTube channel has been established for this, which will serve as an
ongoing vehicle for the renewal of British Catholic theology and a bridge between academic
theology and the life of everyday Catholics.
It is surely providential that this important theology conference, with an East-West theme,
coincides with the establishment of a new Institute for the Study of Oriental Rites at St Mary's,
set up in partnership with Newman Theological College, Edmonton.
In addition, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has recently established a seminary in London.
The St Mary’s University theology department will provide the philosophy and theology
programs for students in the new seminary, who will also receive a Pontifical degree through
Mater Ecclesiae College, the Pontifical foundation which has been based at St Mary's since
2019. This compliments St Mary’s established role in providing intellectual formation for
seminarians and religious across the UK, and further afield.
The main liturgical event at the conference will be the Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Ukrainian
Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London.
For further information, please contact Dr Jeremy Pilch, Head of the School of Theology at St
Mary’s University: jeremy.pilch@stmarys.ac.uk
