Welcome to digital sessions of continued education for clergy!
We are happy to invite all clergy in the United Methodist Church in Northern Europe and Ukraine to a new way of continued education together. The next year, we will have four digital sessions of
continued education, each diving into one of the main fields of theology. The sessions will be a
combination of lecture, group discussions and
questions/response in plenary.
We strongly encourage all of you to participate! In these sessions we have guests who bring updated knowledge and contributions, and often exploring methodist identity or with a methodist flavor.
It is the area-cabinet and the sub-committee for continued education within our regional conference who initiated and invite to these sessions.
The four sessions are:
September 2nd, 12-15 CET, 13-16 EET
Church history. “Wesleyan Viletality”
Guest: Dr. Ashley Boggan, general secretary of General Commission on Archives and History. She is
the writer of the book Wesleyan Viletality which has contributed to refresh Methodist theology for
our time and the
encouragement of methodists to follow Wesley in “submitting to be more vile”, that is to leave the
comfort-zone and be church in new ways.
Recommended reading: Ashley Boggan: Wesleyan Viletality.
October 28th, 9-12 CET, 10-13 EET
Biblical studies, the Old Testament
Guest: Rev. Albert Andersen Gjøstøl is District
Superintendent in the United Methodist Church in Norway. He has a deep interest in the Old
Testament, and did his special studies work on the field. A more specific title of this event with recommended readings will come later.
February 11th, 15-18 CET, 16-19 EET
Systematic Theology, “A Systematic Theology of Love”
Guest: Prof. Thomas Jay Oord, theologian, philosopher and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies.
In 2026, he published the first of three volumes of “A Systematic Tehology of Love”, and has
earlier published many books. In his works, his Wesleyan heritage is recognizable, but he uses a more common language and thereby communicates with readers from many different traditions. He is a leading theologian in the field of open and relational theology.
Recommended reading: Thomas Jay Oord: A systematic theology of love, vol 1.
If you prefer an easier introduction to Oord’s thinking: Thomas Jay Oord: Open and relational
theology: An introduction to life-changing ideas.
May 2026
Practical theology, Preaching
We will come back to exact date and lecturer for this session.
The link to all the sessions is:
https://mf-no.zoom.us/j/8103122865?pwd=r7wnSNmMSgir6FABta7VGJDaE6xXgS.1
Again, we welcome you to these session and strongly encourage you to participate in this fellowship of exploring theology together as United Methodist clergy in our region.
Knut Refsdal
Bishop
The United Methodist Church,
Northern Europe and Ukraine
Hilde Marie Øgreid,
Rector
The United Methodist Seminary
Oslo, Norway