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MODEM Book Club
MODEM UK has started running a Book Club by Zoom.
Our next Book Club via Zoom will be held on Monday 23rd January from 7.30 pm to 9.00 pm. The book being read is ‘Transgressive Devotion – Theology as Performance Art’ by Natalie Wigg-Stevenson. Joining details are:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98860439112?pwd=KzJNbHlHOHZYVjI1SU8xMlZKRFhDUT09
Meeting ID: 988 6043 9112
Passcode: 549770


MODEM Conference 2022:
Uncharted Journeys
- Professor Margaret Heffernan, Professor of Practice, University of Bath
- The Revd Professor James Woodward, Principal of Sarum College
- Rt Revd Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, Bishop of Willesden
- Jackie Le Fevre, Consultant & Author
- 21-22 November, Sarum College
As we chart our way through the Pandemic many are seeking certainty and direction but are finding that the only certainty is uncertainty. MODEM’s 2022 conference was an opportunity to explore, from a range of perspectives, our journey forward into the future. Some notes notes from the conference can be read on the posts on the right hand side of this page.
The conference theme – ‘Uncharted Journeys’ – mirrors the title of Margaret Heffernan’s book ‘Uncharted: How to Map the Future Together’, published in 2020. This is one of many books written by Margaret Heffernan which include also ‘Wilful Blindness’ and ‘A Bigger Prize’. Margaret’s profile encompasses entrepreneur, chief executive, adviser to senior executives around the world, professor at the University of Bath, and writer for the Financial Times and Huff Post…. And Margaret Heffernan will be joining us as keynote speaker as we also explore our own uncharted journeys and those of our other contributors.
The hallmark of this conference was hearing from inspirational people with wide-ranging experience and remarkable journeys who have particular wisdom to share, and this continues with Jackie Le Fevre who will also be joining us. Jackie spent twelve years in nature conservation, before working with young people and in community development and training. She followed this with the setting up her own company, Magma Effect, responsible for bringing one of the world’s leading values profiling technologies to the UK.
Professor James Woodward, Principal of Sarum College was also be one of the speakers, talking on the subject of A Leader is a Dealer of Hope? Holding, Learning and Surviving in the Pandemic at Sarum. As this suggests, James Woodward reflected on the uncharted journey that Sarum College has had to make as an institution.
The other main speaker was the Bishop of Willesden, Rt Revd Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy. Before becoming Bishop of Willesden this year, he was BAME Mission and Ministry Enabler in the Diocese of Leicester, wherein he oversaw an increase in representation and participation of those from UK Minority Ethnic (UKME) backgrounds in the life and structures of Leicester Diocese. He is a trustee of St Mellitus College, Church Army, and deputy chair of the Board of Initiatives of Change UK. His interests include ethical leadership, storytelling, and poetry. He feels strongly about issues of social justice.
The Conference followed the usual pattern of MODEM events in providing opportunity for conversation and reflection sparked by challenging and thought-provoking input from our speakers. In ‘Uncharted journeys’, we gathered round the notion of uncertainty, of how we seize the challenge of helping to create the future, what that means for us as individuals but also as part of something larger than ourselves. Our speakers drew on their stories and help us to uncover how we can think about the future, and what we can ‘do’ and ‘be’.
Book Reviews
We regularly provide reviews of newly published books that are relevant to leadership, management or ministry. Check out our book review page.
Archbishop of Canterbury supports MODEM’s work

“The work you do in bringing together perspectives on leadership and ethics from church and commerce is immensely valuable and I am grateful to you for developing these channels of communciation.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Revd & Rt Hon. Justin Welby sent MODEM a letter of “warmest good wishes” for its 20th anniversary conference in 2013. He challenged MODEM to continue its work with a reflection on “the love of Christ urges us on…” from 2 Corinthians.
You can read the full letter in a special conference issue of MODEM Matters.