Miriam Jessie joined us on staff in 2019 as the inaugural staff member in Christchurch for our Teaching programme. In 2025 she will be part of both the theology and education teams as an interdisciplinary lecturer. This is a great fit for Miriam Jessie who has a passion for the Church, theology and for education in general.

Miriam Jessie has qualifications in education and theology and has worked in educational settings in Aotearoa, England and Australia. Throughout her teaching career Miriam Jessie has taught and offered professional development in the Arts and is an advocate for how the Arts can transform and enhance creativity and classroom practices. She has led and written programmes for schools and churches as well as creating professional development for teachers. 

She has a passion for the use of te reo me ona tikanga Māori in education and church spaces.

Theologically, Miriam Jessie is interested in how creative practice can be formative and transformative and the ways in which the Church can engage with the arts (in the broadest possible ways) in its mission in the world. Her research is primarily focused on the Bible, women, spirituality, theopoetics and creative practices and expressions, in liturgy and the world. Her outputs intersect academic, spoken word/performance poetry, poetry and textiles spaces. In 2024 she finished a six-year project hand stitching every word in the Bible that women speak. (Link to: https://www.laidlaw.ac.nz/news/2024/8-999-handstitched-words-of-women-from-the-bible/)

She has written two books for children and families. ‘Adventing: A journey to Christmas’ and ‘God’s Great Story: Your Great Story.’

At her local church Miriam Jessie helps with signing worship for the Deaf community, and teaching/preaching. Miriam Jessie runs retreats and quiet days for people to engage spiritually. She has a passion to serve the Church (universal) and invite believers into a wider, more wonder-filled and theologically sound journey of faith, experiencing confidence in the God we encounter in scripture. Miriam Jessie is a joyful extrovert who loves reading, purchasing books, sewing, stitching, writing and being around people. She is married to Michael and they have two wonderful sons.

Selected

2022

A Whakapapa of Faith - Textile Exhibition. Pūmanawa Gallery Christchurch Arts Centre: Te Matatiki Toi Ora. Ōtautahi, Aotearoa NZ.

Ancient Women, Present God, an exercise in manaakitanga [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Laidlaw College.

Conference Papers and Presentations

2024 

“How Psalms Become Scaffolds for Longing and Lament.” [Workshop]. Psalms Conference, Carey Baptist College. Aotearoa NZ.

“How do we sing in a virtual land? Theology, imagination and psalms in digital spaces.” [Paper]. Psalms Conference, Carey Baptist College. Aotearoa NZ.

"By All Means Touch the Work – towards a tactile textured theology." [Presenter]. AAR, SanDiego, USA. 

"Mapping Pilgrimage – stitched cartography as spiritual practice and sacred reading." [Presenter]. AAR, SanDiego, USA. 

2023

“Where you go – _women who went – _exit via exile, slavery, and immigration in our sacred text.” [Conference Paper]. Association of Practical Theology Oceania (APTO) Conference 2023: On the Move Migration and Practical Theology, University of Otago, Otepoti, Aotearoa NZ.

“A Thesis in Stitches.” [Presenter]. Monthly Hui, Canterbury Embroiderers Guild, Ōtautahi Aotearoa NZ.

“Knowing God Through Art” [Keynote Presentation]. National Council Hui and Conference, Anglican Women’s Studies Centre,  Aotearoa NZ.

“The Arts as Pedagogical Powerhouses for Culture, Knowledge, and Resistance.” [Conference Paper]. Association of Visual Pedagogies International Conference 2023: Decolonising Visuality: Visibilising Pedagogies, University of Canterbury, Ōtautahi, Aotearoa NZ.

“The Classroom as Cruciformity.” [Keynote address]. NZACS National Conference: Tūturu, Hillview Christian School, Ōtautahi, Aotearoa NZ.

“Sewing and Gleaning: artistic contemplative practice as invitation.” [Conference Paper]. Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality International Conference: Christian Spirituality for the Modern Seeker, Tabor University, Adelaide, South Australia.

“Hands, Heads, Hearts: A Korowai of Glory – God, Women, Good-News. Rethinking our Inherited Stories.” [Keynote Speaker]. Anglican Women’s Study Centre International Hui: Many Hands; He Waka Eke Noa; Tele o lima e mama ai se avenga; Ni levu na liga e mamada na cakacaka; Takanga 'etau fohe, Tatai Hono Marae, Holy Sepulchre Church, Auckland, Aotearoa NZ.

2022

“Renarrating Our Stories as Women.” [Keynote address]. Adelaide Congress Hall, Adelaide, South Australia.

“Reading Scripture in Hope for Women.” [Presentation]. South Australian Headquarters for Salvation Army, Adelaide, South Australia.

“Art for Scholarship.” [Presentation]. Anglican Women’s Study Centre, Ōtautahi/Christchurch, Aotearoa NZ.

“Sutura Dei – homo sutura: sewing theology into the fabric of life.” [Conference Workshop]. BIAPT, British and Irish Association of Practical Theology, 2022 Conference: Flesh and Bone: Embodiment & Practical Theology. Hosted online.

PUBLICATIONS

2024

Theology as embodied: How tangible theology offers a new invitation to embodied people. Dialog, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/dial.12860

2023

A Love Song for Leah [Poem]. Stimulus Journal, 29(2), Laidlaw College, Aotearoa/NZ. https://hail.to/laidlaw-college/publication/iOXHXeW/article/DFHA3n2 

The Mercy of Christ [Poem]. Stimulus Journal 29 (2). Laidlaw College, Aotearoa/NZ. https://hail.to/laidlaw-college/publication/iOXHXeW/article/RLAKZNk

2022

Conversations with My Sisters, of gardens and graveyards in parched lands and paradise [Unpublished poetry collection in master’s thesis]. Laidlaw College.