Conference 2012
SIXTY GLORIOUS YEARS
Friday August 31st – Sunday September 2nd 2012
Belsey Bridge Conference Centre, Ditchingham, East Anglia
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Venue
The 2012 Quest Conference is being held at the Belsey Bridge Conference Centre, Ditchingham, on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, 12 miles south of Norwich. Originally the oldest part of the building was a girls’ boarding school run by the nuns from the Community of All Hallows next door. After the school closed in 1990 it was converted into a conference centre and underwent substantial refurbishment and new building in 1999. CCT, the Christian Conference Trust, acquired the centre in 2009.
There are 20 acres of grounds including an outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts. And there are some beautiful walks available in the surrounding countryside. The Centre is well known for the excellent quality of food and provision for special diets. Food is prepared on site and most fresh produce is locally sourced.
The centre can accommodate 45 people in en-suite rooms and more than 50 in standard rooms. Some double and twin bedded rooms are available. Standard rooms have a basin, with suites of toilets and bathrooms nearby. Soap and towels are provided. Refreshment points are available near the rooms, for drinks at any time. Free wireless internet access available in most areas.
Quest was last here in 2001.
Disability Access
A third of rooms are on the ground floor. Two specially adapted rooms are available for delegates with disabilities. Two wheel-chair lifts provide easy access across the whole of the ground floor. There is a stair lift to the first floor.
There is ample parking. For those arriving by public transport we hope to be able to arrange transfers from Norwich, or the nearest bus stop in Ditchingham, as the conference centre is off the beaten track.
Theme – Sixty Glorious Years
As the Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee we are using the occasion both to reflect on the last 60 years and to look forward. We will be considering both the changes in secular society as well as the impact on spiritual and faith-related issues.
Speakers
- Bart Smith
Bart Smith has been a member of Quest since the previous millennium. As a librarian at the British Library, he developed a research interest into historic LGBT-related material. His presentation at the Conference will be lavishly illustrated with examples from this genre, including newspaper stories, lesbian publications and ‘beefcake’ magazines, from the 50s and 60s to the present day. All of this showing in a mainly light-hearted way how life for lesbians and gays in the UK has changed over the past sixty years and is much better in 2012 than in 1952.
- Terry Weldon
Terry Weldon is a former market researcher, teacher and librarian with a strong interest history of gay and lesbian people in the church. At his well known blog, Queering the Church, Terry has a set of pages focussing specifically on Queer Saints & Martyrs, from Biblical times to the present day, which he is presently collating into a full length book. The final chapter of this book, The Modern Resurrection, will form the basis of his talk – “Blessed are the Queer in Faith, for they shall inherit the Church”.
Details of the full programme will be available later.
Further details on the venue are available via the CCT website. Full postal address of venue: Belsey Bridge Conference Centre, Ditchingham, Bungay, Suffolk, NR35 2DZ.
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