Past Institute lectures
Dignity and Public Service
Watch a series of lectures that explore how public service can preserve, protect and enable one of the most fundamental aspects of humanity: dignity.
About the series
What does dignity mean in individual and institutional contexts? Where can dignity be found, and how can it be enriched, in the darkest of places and hardest of times? How can dignity be restored in contexts where it has been lost or denied? How can dignity be woven into policy-making approaches and outcomes? What can the Christian tradition contribute to this debate?
In this series our speakers explore how public service can preserve, protect, and enable this most fundamental aspect of humanity.
Watch and listen
Lecture: How Faith can help build a stronger Society
The Right Reverend Dr Graham Tomlin celebrates 500 years of St Margaret's Church in the opening lecture of Westminster Abbey Institute's autumn season.
Watch: How Faith can help build a stronger Society
Dialogue: Dignity and Imprisonment
Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE discusses dignity and imprisonment with a guest speaker from the Prison and Probation Service.
About the speakers
Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE is an Independent Peer in the House of Lords. He is Chairman of SOAS, University of London and Professor of Leadership at the Stephen L. Covey Institute at the Huntsman Business School, University of Utah, USA. He was previously Head of Public Affairs at the BBC and Global Head of Citizenship for KPMG. He was the founder and Chair of Crime Concern from 1988 to 2009, and later founded Catch22 where he remains Vice President. He is a passionate advocate for the SDG’s – the 17 Sustainable Development Goals the world must reach by 2030 to give dignity to all.
In conversation with Lord Hastings is a guest speaker who is a passionate advocate for the voice of lived experience in criminal justice reform. She has over 15 years’ experience leading prison and probation initiatives in the charity sector with particular expertise in prisoner rehabilitation and leadership. She is currently Senior Policy Advisor at His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS), where she shapes Prisoner Education policy with a focus on personal impact and growth.
Dialogue: Dignity and Hostility
Archbishop Bashar Warda discusses dignity and hostility with Tim Livesey.
About the speakers
Archbishop Bashar Warda is Archbishop of Erbil. He is well known for his wide-ranging support for Christian refugees in Iraq and for promoting inter-religious dialogue and environmental protection in the region. Ordained a priest in 1993, he joined the Redemptorist order of Flanders in Belgium two years later. After receiving his MA at the Catholic University of Louvain in 1999 he returned to Iraq. In 2009 the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church elected him for service as a bishop. Bishop Warda was consecrated in July 2010.
Tim Livesey is Chief Executive of Embrace the Middle East, a medium-sized UK charity which works with 50 civil society and church affiliated partners helping to sustain Christian social witness in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel and Iraq, including the Chaldean diocese in Erbil. Embrace’s partners seek to transform the lives and livelihoods of marginalised and excluded communities and people. Previously Tim worked in politics, government – predominantly the Foreign Office and also Downing St – and as an adviser to both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.
