Bath Women's Conference

The 2024 Bath Women’s Conference was held on Saturday 23rd March, with main speaker Ellidh Cook.

Recordings available below.

Main Speaker: Ellidh Cook

Ellidh Cook has been involved in student ministry for 15 years, in Scotland, England and South Africa, and now works in London, where she leads the student work at All Souls, Langham Place. She studied theology at St Andrews and Durham Universities, with a particular interest in portrayals of women in the Old Testament. She spends most of her free time knitting and hanging out with friends, and she lives in central London with her hamster, Egg.

Ellidh will be helping us discover the joy of finding our home with God, as she speaks from the book of Ruth.

Seminars

1. Real Hospitality

‘Practise hospitality’, the Bible tells us, but hospitality is hard. How can we learn to enjoy welcoming people into our homes, churches and hearts? Join us in exploring God’s welcome to us, and how we can reflect that in our everyday lives.

2. From Grumbling to Grace

How often do we grumble in our daily lives? It’s likely so normal in ourselves and others we don’t see it with the seriousness we should. Let’s seek a biblical understanding of grumbling and the solution to ending it, not simply by behavioural techniques but through heart-based, sanctifying change.

3. Should Christians care about Koalas?

Jesus called us to be disciples and to make new ones, but what does that mean? And what does it have to do with the crises of climate change and mass extinction? Come and join a conversation about God’s heart for all he has made and what that means for how we live.

4. How to grow a Ruth-like trust in a Naomi-like heart

Do you struggle to believe in the goodness of God during the hard realities of life? How exactly do we move from a place of bitterness and bewilderment to peaceful trust in God? Come along as we explore together how our Lord wants to help us to rest in his character even in the grit of hard circumstances.

5. Building Cross-Cultural Friendships

In this interactive session, we will look at how to build friendships with our new neighbour, colleague or acquaintance from another culture. How do we overcome language and cultural barriers to build meaningful relationships and share the love of Jesus?

6. Say the Right Thing

Our words are powerful: they can build up or tear down. We want to use our words to do good to the people we live, work and worship with, but don’t always know where to start. We’ll explore what it means to speak truth in love, how to cultivate wise speech, and how to our words to bring hope and courage to those who are suffering.

7. The Purpose of Power

Every one of us is a power holder as an imager of our all-powerful God. But we can often find ourselves using power for our gain rather than for the good reasons God would have us use it for. This seminar will help recognise when we, and others, might use power incorrectly and reorient our hearts to the correct use of power for God’s glory.

8. Counting the Cost Together

Go on a journey with those who pay a high price for following Jesus today. This seminar will share some stories of cost and surrender and unpack some of the faith lessons our Open Doors speaker has been learning to inspire her walk with Jesus.

9. Hope and Love – Friendship and Dementia

Everyone’s dementia journey is different. Manifestations of different forms of dementia wreak varying forms of challenge. This seminar will speak of hope and faith and personhood. It will not change the facts, but better equip us as family and friends to serve those in our lives and our churches living with dementia.

10. Pornography, Children and Teens: Prevention & Healing

Internet pornography is everywhere, and the average age of exposure is 8 to 11 years old and falling. What can we do to protect the kids we care about, and how can we help them heal if they have already been exposed?

11. Speaking love in times of Crisis

Recently, the Middle East and North Africa have seemingly faced crisis after crisis including earthquakes, floods, war. Learn how we can pray more effectively into these situations and be inspired by the testimonies of Christians in the region, to face our own hardships with hope in God.

12. Time Out (afternoon only)

Spend some time in quiet reflection/prayer in designated areas.

T1: Identity: the wonderful freedom of being in Christ

Hello, I’m Ellie. I’m a halloumi-eating, Gogglebox-watching woman who lives in Bath. I hate coriander, am too scared to try contact lenses and love moody films. Who are you? Who are you really? Our culture encourages us to look deep within, or listen to our friends and family to find out. Wonderfully God tells us that the core of who we are is in Christ. Join us to think through how this transforms everything.

for 16s – 19s

T2: Identity Panel: Q&A

Plenty of time for questions … with Ellie Page & Ellidh Cook.

for 16s – 19s

Find Us

The current conference venue is Widcombe Baptist Church, Pulteney Road (South), Bath BA2 4JR

Widcombe Baptist Church is in Bath city centre, close to Bath Spa train station. Parking is available in the nearby Southgate car park. Free parking is available at Odd Down Park and Ride. It’s a short bus journey down the hill on no. 41 bus to the city centre (about £3 return).

Recordings

Downloads, videos and handouts from previous years’ Conferences.

Bath Women’s Conference 2024

REST: Ellidh Cook speaking on Ruth

Bath Women’s Conference 2023

Hope FULL: Anna Putt speaking on 1 Peter