Ms Claire Foster-Gilbert will preach the University Sermon on Sunday, 7 May in the University Church, Great St Mary's, at 11.15 a.m.
Claire Foster-Gilbert is Director of the Westminster Abbey Institute. After reading Theology at Balliol College, Oxford, she was a Research Officer at the Ian Ramsey Centre and Foundation for the Study of Christianity and Society at St Cross College, and then a Research Fellow at the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, King’s College London. National Policy Adviser on Science, Medicine, Technology and the Environment to the Archbishops’ Council from 1999 to 2008, she co-founded and directed the St Paul’s Cathedral Institute and was a member of the Chapter as a Lay Canon 2003–09.
In 2008 she founded the Ethics Academy, an educational charity providing programmes teaching moral strength and courage to schools, young adults, the homeless, asylum seekers and the victims of torture. After two years at St Martin-in-the Fields as Development Director, she moved on to Westminster Abbey to found the Institute there, launched in 2013. It works with both public service institutions and public servants to regenerate faith in the sector and revitalise moral and spiritual values within it as a force for good.
An expert in medical ethics, having built intellectual frameworks for the ethical scrutiny of research and worked with the Department of Health to create a comprehensive national network of ethics committees, she has also been instrumental in providing a theological basis and practical guidance for developing the Church's thinking on the environment.
Due to submit a PhD thesis this year, Claire Foster-Gilbert has just edited and contributed to 'The Moral Heart of Public Service' (2017). Her earlier publications include 'Hero’s Journal' (2009), with David Shreeve 'Don’t stop at the lights: managing your church in a changing climate' (2008) and 'How many lightbulbs does it take to change a Christian?' (2007), 'Sharing God’s Planet: a Christian vision for a sustainable future' (2005) and 'The Ethics of Medical Research on Humans' (2001).
With Edmund Newell she co-edited 'The worlds we live in: dialogues with the Archbishop of Canterbury' (2005) and she was editor of the 'Manual for Research Ethics Committees', first published in 1997.
The Choir of Magdalene College will sing at the Sermon.
All are welcome. Members of the University attending should wear their gowns.