Eric Symes Abbott Memorial Lecture

In 1985 the Eric Symes Abbott Memorial Fund was endowed by friends and former colleagues of The Very Revd Eric Symes Abbott to provide for an annual lecture on spirituality and pastoral theology, often interpreted in the widest sense, in memory of him. 

In the same year, The Revd John Robson LVO gave the sermon at the Memorial Eucharist service for Eric Symes Abbott.

The first Eric Symes Abbott Memorial Lecture was delivered by Cardinal Basil Hume in June 1986 in Westminster Abbey, and subsequent lectures have taken place every year since then; while past venues have varied between London, Oxford, and Lincoln (to reflect Abbott’s appointments), the current pattern is for the Lecture to be delivered at Westminster Abbey and Keble College Oxford on successive days in May.  The Lecture is now a regular part of the lecture programmes at both Westminster Abbey and Keble College Oxford, and has a growing constituency.

In 2006, the centenary year of Eric Symes Abbott's birth, his "The Mystery of the Transfiguration: Seven Meditations" booklet was reprinted. 

In 2023, Professor Anthony Reddie, Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, delivered a lecture titled 'From Black Theology to Black Lives Matter and Back Again' on Thursday 25 May at Westminster Abbey and on Friday 26 May at Keble College.

In 2024, Dr Paula Gooder, a writer and lecturer in Biblical Studies, will deliver the lecture on a theme tba on Thursday 23 May at Westminster Abbey and on Friday 24 May at Keble College.

Previous lecture texts are available to download, and there are links to the some lecture audio recordings where they were recorded. Should you require assistance in printing any of the lecture texts, please contact The Office of the Dean via email.

Email the Dean's Office to express an interest, or find out more.