Sturt Lectures - Flourishing in a World of Disconnection
Description
Sturt Lectures 2026: Flourishing in a World of Disconnection
Sturt Lectures bring theology and professional counselling into honest conversation, exploring what it means to flourish when anxiety, loneliness, and digital overwhelm have become part of everyday life. Hosted by Laidlaw College and named for John and Agnes Sturt, pioneers of holistic counselling and Christian leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand, this series of lectures has long served as a meeting place for theological insight and practical care.
This year's theme asks a pressing question: can flourishing be found alone, or only in community? As individual wellness culture pulls one way and relational, communal understandings of healing pull another, our speakers—counsellors, a theologian, and a case study from Te Wānanga Ihorangi—will explore what it takes for faith and flourishing to take root in a fractured, disconnected age.
Join us as we integrate theology, counselling, and community for a conversation about what it truly means to flourish—together.
Lineup
Rev. Dr Maja Whitaker
Maja is the Academic Dean at Laidlaw College; she oversees all programme development and delivery and contributes to the development and outworking of College strategy, with a focus on integrated programmes and a strong partner ecosystem. Maja is a senior lecturer in the School of Theology, and has served as Practical Theology Lead and with the School of Theology Leadership team. She teaches into courses on spiritual formation, reflective practice, leadership, and pastoral ministry. Summary of key research Maja’s research focusses on what the Christian tradition can offer to critique and inform modern cultural ideologies about human flourishing in general and the diversity of bodies in particular. She has published 3 books, 15 journal articles, and 8 book chapters. She is the author of Perfect in Weakness: Disability and Human Flourishing in the New Creation (Baylor, 2023), co-author of Speaking for the Dead: The Human Body in Biology and Medicine (Routledge, 2016), and editor of Pursuing Perfection: Faith and the Female Body (SCM, 2025).
Rev. Silvia Purdie
Silvia Purdie is a counsellor (MNZCCA) and supervisor in private practice, based in Upper Hutt. She is an ordained Presbyterian minister, together with her husband Chris who is a military chaplain. Over the past year Silvia has formed both an inter-church network for mental health and a professional development training business, Conversations Seminars: www.conversationscounselling.nz/seminars. Silvia was active in A Rocha and the establishment of Eco Church in Aotearoa, and now leads Climate Mental Health Network, an interdisciplinary community of people concerned about the human impacts of climate change: www.climatementalhealth.nz. Summary of key research Silvia has collaboratively authored two books: ‘Awhi Mai Awhi Atu: Women in Creation Care’ (2022) profiles 30 women leading in environmental action, and ‘Moving On: Grief in Ministry Transition’ (2022) explores the experience of endings in ministry. She has also published ‘Let’s Say a Psalm: Psalms for children and all-age worship’ (2018) and has an extensive collection of online worship resources at www.conversations.net.nz. Her research on church leaders’ attitudes to climate change is currently on the ‘back burner’ while she develops training for counsellors and pastors, including courses on biblical ethics, the business of private practice, and faith-based mental health first aid.
Rev. Te Karere Scarborough
TUMUAKI | CO-PRINCIPAL (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hauā) Poet, community educator, and whānau advocate, Te Karere Scarborough has spent the last 15 years working in the community-wellbeing and arts sector. During this time, he was largely based at Parenting Place. He held a variety of roles there that included leading the Attitude Programme for Schools, National Young Leaders’ Day, Toolbox, Building Awesome Whānau and Space programmes. An appointed trustee of his hapū board, Whatitiri Māori Reserves Trust, he has also held governance positions at Maxim Institute, the Mihinare social service provider Te Whare Ruruhau o Meri, and the youth development organisation Zeal. Te Karere holds qualifications from Te Wānanga Takiura, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Unitec, and is concurrently completing his Masters in Chaplaincy through the University of Otago. He was the founding CEO of Te Wānanga Ihorangi and feels privileged to lead alongside Anameka.
Matt Judd
Matt began his professional counselling journey at Laidlaw College, completing the Bachelor of Counselling in 2013. He has since completed a Master of Counselling through the University of Waikato. The research component of his Masters involved working with young men in high schools caught up in violence. The research focused on shaping counselling practices which invited the young men into preferred positions that sought to build on anti-violence/peaceful practices and ways of being.
Agenda
- 9:00 am - 9:30 am
Welcome and tribute to John Sturt
- 9:30 am - 10:30 am
Rev. Dr Maja Whitaker - Flourishing together: Vulnerability and Mutuality in Church Communities
In an age that prizes autonomy, self-sufficiency, and personal empowerment, church communities are called to embody a different vision of what it means to flourish. Vulnerability and mutual dependence are not personal failures; they are the real conditions of our life together and central to a Christian understanding of flourishing.
- 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Rev. Silvia Purdie - Flourishing: More than a State of Mind
Mental health is less about our minds and more in our bodies; and counselling is less about ‘issues’ and diagnoses and more about helping people shift their state. This is the perspective of emerging neuroscience such as Polyvagal Theory, and Silvia argues that this brings us closer to a biblical view of human suffering and flourishing. Silvia draws her use of somatic practices in therapy and her extensive experience in Christian ministry to offer practical and theological reflections on mind-body-spirit connection.
- 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Rev. Te Karere Scarborough - Reconstructing Faith: A Story of Te Wānanga Ihorangi
Te Wānanga Ihorangi is a Māori Christian tertiary institute where students learn te reo Māori alongside Christian faith and formation. Over our first few years, we have discovered that faith is often not absent, but that the ways it has been taught or expressed have not always connected. Through daily rhythms, embodied spirituality, relationships and the modelling of faith, we are learning what helps faith take root and flourish in the lives of our students.
- 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Matt Judd - Narrative means to flourishing ends: Identity stories of hope in the face of failure stories that disconnect us from God, self and others.
Have you ever noticed how much energy goes towards a deep sense of not measuring up? Whether in work, wellbeing, finances, or lifestyle, we are surrounded by stories that define success and failure and shape the identity stories about ourselves that follow. These stories can leave us disconnected from God, self, and others. This presentation explores how narrative therapy can help people identify and challenge these dominant stories, making space for alternative identity stories grounded in hope, relationship, and a God-shaped vision of human flourishing.
- 3:45 am - 4:15 pm
Conversations - Questions & Answers
A final session that combines the expertise and
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