Research Projects

 In 2020-2021 - and hopefully for many years beyond - I will study liturgy through the lens of autism. I have been awarded a Research Incentive Grant from the Carnegie Trust for the following project. 

The project develops a novel interpretation of liturgy, by mapping the worship experiences and theological interpretations of people with autism. Often people with autism experience and understand the world around them different from others. However, this experience has hardly been taken into account in liturgical studies, either with regard to the challenges this experience brings with it (e.g. through sensory overload) or its unique contribution to liturgy and worship (e.g. redefining the importance of certain liturgical elements, such as ‘sharing the peace’ by shaking hands). Therefore, this project is significant in at least two ways. First, it acknowledges the voices and experiences of a fast-growing group in society. Second, studying liturgy and worship through to the lens of autism has huge potential to gain new insights in this core practice of Christian communities, which is also a fundamental aspect of theology in general.

The core of this project is participant observation of worship services and interviews with people with autism, caregivers and/or family members, church leaders and disability advisers. This will take place at two sites. The first is a church in Singapore which is centred on those with autism. This church will be studied as a best practice example. The second site is various churches and participants in churches in Scotland. Here the experience is studied in churches that do not necessarily focus on autism, which will be the setting for most people with autism. Thus this project seeks to reframe liturgical theology through the lens of autism.

As a corporate chaplain, I am daily inundated with the spiritual and emotional challenges of the workplace. This led me to read heavily into the Faith at Work (FAW) movement which emerged in the 21st century to bridge the gap between our economic and spiritual lives. Through my studies, I found that this movement speaks almost exclusively to one segment of the workforce, white-collar professionals, while leaving other large portions out. My research focuses on the spiritual and economic needs of autistic workers with a keen interest in seeing all people as made in the image of God and for the purpose of flourishing. Integrating autism into the FAW conversation both creates a more inclusive theological anthropology and imparts a greater vision of God’s beauty, design, and purpose for all of humanity and for our work.

My PhD research project explores the lived experiences of inclusion, belonging and exclusion as experienced by those within the Church of England and the Roman Catholic church who have a range of non-visible disabilities (including autism, ADHD and dyslexia) and who are enquiring after ordained ministry, in pre-ordination formation or in post-ordination ministry.

My research is an exploration of the lived experience of the Eucharist in the Church of England by autistic people. My motivation for the research stems from having an autistic child who, at times, finds church very difficult but in some way is able to engage with the Eucharist. The church should be a place where all belong and by carrying out this research with the autistic community, it will provide valuable lived experience accounts, both positive and negative, of participation in the Eucharist of the Church of England and will hopefully prompt discussion around how our church communities can be truly inclusive.

This project investigates both the empirical and subjective experience of the sensory aspects of worship for autistic and non-autistic people. We aim to offer a theological reflection on facilitators and barriers to worship, resulting in a ‘sensescaping’ tool and training resource for churches.

Within the psychological and developmental literature, sensory processing is described as a “critical cornerstone” for understanding autism, with sensory issues having knock-on effects on multiple areas of life (e.g. social functioning). Therefore, it is unsurprising that the sensory environment of liturgy and worship could impact autistic experience and engagement. At the same time, theologically it is important to understand the worship service as a highly sensory space. We interpret the sensory aspect of worship as constitutive of relating to the Divine. Thus, understanding the sensory aspect of worship and liturgy is key to understanding both autism and the church service.

This project investigates both the empirical and subjective experience of the sensory aspects of worship for autistic and non-autistic people. We aim to offer a theological reflection on facilitators and barriers to worship, resulting in a ‘sensescaping’ tool and training resource for churches. For this, we will work together in churches in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore, and provide a 'sensescape' (i.e., a ‘sensory landscape’) of six churches in these countries. From the outset, we involve autistic people who will advise us on key stages in the project. We are also working together with a partner in Singapore, the Centre for Disability Ministry in Asia. 

This project is the follow-on project that emerged from the project Dr Katy Unwin and I conducted in the summer of 2021, as Summer Fellows of the New Visions in Theological Anthropology project at the University of St. Andrew's, titled “The Effects of Sensory Issues on the Experience of Worship by Autistic People.” The results of the first project were published as: Armand Léon Van Ommen and Katy Unwin, “The Sensory Aspects of Worship and Liturgy as Experienced by Autistic People,” Questions Liturgiques / Studies in Liturgy 102 (2022): 267–88, https://doi.org/10.2143/QL.102.3.3291363

My research concerns the cross-section between a theology of autism and a theology of ministry. By interviewing autistic Christian leaders, I want to discover how said leaders believe their 'autistic-ness' informs their theological reflection and ministry.

Beginning in September 2024, Dr Henna Cundill, a postdoctoral researcher with the Centre for Autism and Theology, will begin a two-year project in response to the question: How does ADHD impact Christian discipleship? This research is funded by the Hope Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme.

This research question arose during Henna’s doctoral project, Autism, Prayer, and Anxiety: Conversations about Autistic Experience. During the interviews for this project, several of the participants commented that the co-occurrence of ADHD with being autistic (sometimes called “AuDHD”) could make it very difficult for them to sustain traditional ‘discipleship’ practices - such as routines of daily prayer and Bible-reading. Some also described how they felt that ADHD negatively impacted their ability to engage with Sunday worship, and with church life more broadly. However, wider literature suggests that living with ADHD often entails strengths as well as struggles. For example, AHDH is associated with increased creativity, problem-solving skills, and a high level of tenacity or ‘hyper-focus’. There seems to be much scope for this to positively impact a person’s Christian life – and yet, to date, there has been no research in this area.

Henna’s project will aim to take a holistic standpoint on the relationship between ADHD and Christian discipleship – looking at both the positive and negative impacts of this intersection. The research will draw on in-depth interviews from Christians with ADHD, alongside wider literature about ADHD more broadly. Outcomes of the research will include training materials for clergy and those in pastoral ministry, alongside a resource booklet for Christians living with ADHD, and those who journey alongside them in the Christian faith.

Commencing autumn 2020, research student Henna Cundill will undertake a project to gather insight into the way autistic people describe their experience of prayer.  The project will seek to determine the extent to which autistic Christians find the prayer life of the Church to be accessible and inclusive. It will ask whether prayer, or prayer-like practice such as mindfulness, has unrealised potential as a therapeutic strategy for autistic people with anxiety disorders. The project will also seek to determine how much existing theologies of prayer within the Church resonate with the experience of autistic people. Do the insights of autistic people call for a re-imagined, inclusive theology of prayer?

This research will be supervised by Dr Léon Van Ommen at the university of Aberdeen and Dr David Simmons at the University of Glasgow, and will involve collaboration with key partner organisations, such as ‘The Astonishing Community’ and The Cross Party Group for Autism at the Scottish Parliament. The research is funded by the AHRC through the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities.

In the short video below Henna introduces her project.

While the intersection of autism and theology continues to be explored in greater detail, most treatments to date tend to focus on seeing the full humanity of autistic individuals and how better to include or incorporate them into Christian community. These are important concerns, but my research will seek to explore what insights might result if we instead sought to identify the imago Dei with autism and autistic experience  per se. My hope is that, following Christ’s lead in Matthew 25, and seeking not just the humanity but the divinity in autism and autistic people might lead us to a dramatically different system of valuing and appreciating autistic individuals.

I plan in my research to explore the concept of the imago Dei and flaws in prevailing understandings of it. A more open-ended conception of the imago would allow us to seek the face of Christ in everyone. By doing so, I hope to explore what insights might result from locating the imago within autism itself, and how this might lead not only to greater acceptance and valuing of autistic people, but crucially, a fuller, truer theology by exploring autistic experience to deepen our understanding of—and even expose flaws in—classical or prevailing understandings of God.

As an autistic Christian, and committed member of an evangelical church, I am interested in the interaction between faith and autism, particularly within evangelical churches in the UK.

My research project will explore the experiences of autistic Christians, particularly their sense of success or failure in the Christian life. The focus for this project grew out of my research into the lived experiences of autistic Christians in evangelical churches, conducted as part of a master’s degree in Autism Spectrum at Sheffield Hallam University. One of the themes that emerged from the interviews with autistic Christians was a sense of failure or inadequacy in terms of putting into practice the Christian faith.

My research focuses attention on the experience of non-verbal worshippers and those who worship alongside them. Supervised by Professor Brian Brock, I will be asking where the attention is drawn when the words of the liturgy are unavailable to a worshipper?

More than Words: learning to love and be loved in return through participation in Holy Communion.

In September 1996, whilst living in Szeged, in South-Eastern Hungary, I entered the Votive Cathedral which I passed on my way to university every morning just as worship was beginning.

People were gathered in the central nave and two priests emerged from the vestry, one attired in the Roman Catholic style and the other according to the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The gathered people peeled off behind their chosen priests, with the Catholics heading towards the sanctuary and the Orthodox worshippers to a side chapel. Having been entranced by Orthodox worship in the Kremlin five years earlier, I followed the orthodox group, standing at the back of their worship space.

I had been learning Hungarian for approximately six weeks, so was surprised when the priest began to conduct the service in Serbian. I thought about leaving, I had no hope of understanding the service. At that moment people began to prostrate themselves. I realised that this was asking for forgiveness and did likewise. I thought about the colours of the vestments and inhaled incense. I made the sign of the cross, indicating my willingness to receive blessing, whenever the priest drew a cross in the air. I listened to the chanting, concentrating on the various tones; I knew the different tones expressed different meanings, so I tried to discern them. Eventually I was offered bread; I believed I was taking communion (it was probably Antidoran) and returned every week, slowly becoming familiar with the service. I learned to worship without words.

Six years later, as a mother to infants, one of whom would remain non-verbal, I became freshly aware that despite the emphasis most post-Reformation Christians place on the words of the liturgy, the ways in which we use our bodies in worship communicates our theology and contributes to a shared Christian identity. Recognising the importance of the non-verbal aspects of liturgy is essential if Christian churches are to include in their number non-verbal peoples (whether through youth, autism, mutism, ill health or dementia). I hope that through this research I will be able to offer church leaders and theologians a vocabulary for discussing the non-verbal communication of the gospel.

My research focuses attention on the experience of non-verbal worshippers and those who worship alongside them. Supervised by Professor Brian Brock, I will be asking where the attention is drawn when the words of the liturgy are unavailable to a worshipper? In what moments or aspects is the non-verbal worshipper an active participant in communal worship? What gifts and insights are brought to communities blessed by the presence of non-verbal individuals in their midst?

In seeking answers to these questions experience will be in conversation with Biblical stories of creation as well as theological musings from many centuries concerning the power of God's Word; divine communication and the image of God in human beings and human speech.

This is a project first and foremost concerned with a theology of identity. At its simplest level it is asking: Do you love me?

God asks this question of each of us. We come warily to worship echoing back to God, do you love me? Even if... in Derrida's apostrophe, the question hangs in the air, asking the human congregation: Do you love me, even if I have no words?

Hi, I'm Sarah, a late diagnosed AuADHD AFAB woman who has come back into academia after a few decades break from formal study. I am exploring autistic experiences of spiritual abuse initially as a distance learning MRes and am hoping to develop this further into an autistic theology of trauma in a PhD thesis. Spiritual abuse is a relatively, but much-needed new area of study, but to date there has been no research into autistic experiences of this damaging phenomenon. I want to engage with and shine a light on autistic stories of SA so that pastorally, church communities can become not just informed, but competent in their response to trauma of this nature.

It was a daunting prospect beginning this research in middle age, as well as with my neurodivergences and disabilities, but I quickly felt that I was a welcome part of the CAT research community and that I deserved my place the table. 

My other professional interests include autism/neurodivergent participatory research study consultancy, working alongside survivors of sexual assault for SARSAS, a South West support charity and being a public face for StepChange media outreach. 

I am also delighted to have recently co-authored 'Understanding Autistic Relationships Across the Lifespan; Family, Friends, Lovers and Others' with Dr Felicity Sedgewick, a friend and colleague at Bristol.

Amongst other things, I love singing, karaoke and rock/metal. My neighbours are delighted!

The mainstream UK discourse on autism is dominated by actors working out of either a 'medical model' of autism (largely the scientific-medical-psychological establishment) or a 'social model' of autism (largely from an autism advocacy viewpoint). The result is a discourse that is often fractious, contentious, and confusing. The introduction of a 'neurodiversity paradigm' seeks to provide some potential common ground but at the risk of providing further scope for varying interpretations by the actors in the discourse.  

What contribution can a Christian theological viewpoint make to the development of a more constructive discourse on autism in the UK?  

This is the question that I will explore throughout my PhD at CAT. The construction of a Christian theological viewpoint with the potential to establish a credible actor in this discourse will necessarily be a cross-discipline exercise. Whilst theological thinking about autism itself is an emerging area of study championed by CAT, there are rich veins of more established and potentially relevant theological thought on topics such as the use of analogy in describing the inaccessible, indivisibly complex and mysterious, what it means to be human, the role of the Gospel in breaking down ‘them-us’ barriers, God’s preference for the poor and marginalised and the ethical aspects of engaging in discourse in the context of conflict. 

My research explores dyslexia and engaging with the Bible.

Dyslexic adults often experience associated mental health issues and exclusion. Despite this, conversations about the lived experience of dyslexic adults, representing 7-10% of the population, are limited. To address this knowledge gap and foster the inclusion of dyslexic adults, this research explores the experience of dyslexic Christians within faith communities, specifically looking at Bible reading practices. Approaching this through the lens of theology provides tools to explore normative frameworks of communities. Through participatory action research, this project constructs a theology of dyslexia and enables dyslexic Christians to propose theologically grounded strategies for inclusion, support and thriving, generalisable to other community settings.

You can read my preliminary research on dyslexia and the Bible here: Dyslexia and Reading the Bible (tandfonline.com)