Dr Richard Davis, Director of the Centre for Faith in Public Life at Wesley House, Cambridge, was baptised at the Waiwhetu Methodist Church (now Waiwhetu Uniting Church) in Lower Hutt, where his parents Arthur and Pam still worship.

We ask Richard to share his faith and career journey that has spanned many years, countries and centres of learning.

Q Tell us about your upbringing and how that impacted your career choices and faith journey?

I was brought up in a Methodist home where you were expected to go to church in your Sunday best. I enjoyed youth group and Methodist Youth Conferences. I was also active in the Student Christian Movement in Otago and Wellington, which was formative in my realising the possibilities of intelligent Christianity. While doing my MA at Victoria University, Wellington I was a Methodist appointee to the Joint Methodist-Presbyterian Public Questions Committee and then became its Research Executive Officer. This was a great job but I felt that I needed to know more about the church and Christian theology so I enrolled for some theology papers through the University of Otago. By this stage I was attending St Andrew’s on the Terrace, Wellington. Becoming a Presbyterian made me eligible for a Council of World Mission PhD Scholarship.

Q Schooling and study beyond?

I was a third generation student at Hutt Valley High School. I wasn’t good at English and focused instead on the sciences. It is amazing to me that I now read and write for a living after only just passing School Certificate English. My first degree was business studies but my career in that area faltered with two redundancies from government agencies and my not finding that work very satisfying. After some travel, I returned to university and pursued religious studies, political philosophy and then theology, finishing up with a PhD in public theology from the University of Edinburgh. That was a tough journey but very worthwhile in the end.

Q You spent six years at Pacific Theological College, Suva, Fiji teaching theology and ethics. Did the Pasifika students differ from colleagues and counterparts in more urban /European locations?

I loved my students at Pacific Theological College. With students from so many places and cultures from across the Pacific, I learned something new from them in every class. PTC students are generally older than elsewhere and they are usually ordained and married, which means that they have to balance family and church commitments with study. A big difference with other students I have taught was that because they were predominantly church placed students, they were guaranteed a job at the end of their studies, either in the church or teaching. One unfortunate difference with students in New Zealand is that Pacific students have a lower life expectancy. Sadly, I have had two of my students die since they graduated. This is a great inequality and injustice.

Q What does your working week look like?

Currently my time is divided between supervising PhD students, who are mostly in Africa, and my work in public theology that is more UK-based. Through a partnership with Africa University and Wesley House, I have five PhD students from United Methodist Churches across Africa, Liberia, Mozambique, Kenya and Zimbabwe. This is an amazing opportunity to contribute to the development of the church in Africa and learn about new places. When Covid-19 restrictions are reduced, I will travel to Zimbabwe for face-to-face training of this cohort of students.

I direct the Centre for Faith in Public Life at Wesley House, Cambridge. I have been busy getting this established on a firm footing as a global hub for Methodist public theology. We recently held a series of inaugural webinars on public theology for the new normal and climate change. We are actively recruiting Methodist students and sabbatical visitors to come and work with us on public issues from a theological perspective.

Q Life beyond lecturing?

Outside of work our activities have been curtailed due to lockdown but so far my wife Ruby and I have enjoyed exploring Cambridgeshire by train and foot. It’s a great place for walking with lots of green spaces nearby although I miss mountains.

Q Are you still engaged in academic study?

I’m not doing any further formal study but I am always learning. I do have study to finish off if I ever get the chance. When I was working for the Church, I pursued a Certificate in Not-for Profit Management at UNITEC. This was great training and I wouldn’t mind finishing that sometime. Now that I am living in Europe again, I might try to improve my terrible French.

Q What motivated you to leave the comparative safety of Fiji for the Covid ravaged UK? (How the tables have turned in the interim – as the UK looks to engage strategies of learning to live with the pandemic, Fiji is battling a rising death rate).

We couldn’t predict what would happen with Covid. Moving continents during a global pandemic was challenging but doable. As pleased as we are not to be in Fiji during the current outbreak of Covid-19, we keep Fijians in our prayers. It is good to see the New Zealand government assist Fiji. Maybe after things improve, the New Zealand government can ask the Fijian government about the ongoing human rights abuses and lack of democracy in Fiji.

The big challenge for me now is being able to return home to see family and friends. New Zealand’s MIQ system makes it very difficult and expensive to return. Not every Kiwi abroad is living the high life and can easily afford to return home. If we are not careful soon only the rich will be able to move around freely.

The framing of the New Zealand government is that Kiwis abroad are either stuck offshore or wanting to come home to NZ. This is not true. I want, at some point, to be able to plan to visit family in NZ and then return to the UK. I’ve said repeatedly that if you seek to eliminate the virus, you will soon start to eliminate people and I think New Zealand is at serious risk of doing that (by limiting our citizenship and creating xenophobia toward those outside the country).