Born a baby boomer as a âKentish manâ Stuart left the garden of England to spend three years as a student in Aberystwyth before venturing for a short time into the world of archaeology on excavations and in further study. After time working in the rehabilitation of drug addicts in Andover he moved north to the West Midlands to work as a community worker in inner city Birmingham in 1982 and has remained there ever since. Stuart trained for ministry at Queens College, Birmingham and served a group of churches in Coventry and a joint pastorate in east Birmingham before accepting a training role in the new millennium alongside pastoral charge in Stourbridge and then Halesowen. He stepped down from the training responsibility after fifteen years in 2016 and enjoyed part-time ministry for a few months, before review of training provision in the Synod led to him being persuaded to apply for the new full-time Synod Training and Development Officer post. On the offer and acceptance of that post Stuart moved back to Birmingham.
Stuart retired from this post and from full-time,, ministry in the United Reformed Church at the end of October 2023 and now lives in south Wales. Contributor: Stuart P Scott
The Fire Still Burns offers seven separate but related personal, historical and theological reflections. They began on sabbatical leave in autumn 2019, and have been edited, developed and extended to include detailed discussion of responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. There are conclusions drawn before the pandemic and final conclusions looking beyond it, seeking to offer an honest and realistic appraisal of the current situation but also encouragement and hope on the basis of faith and experience. Each reflection concludes with questions for further individual reflection or discussion in book or other study groups. There are occasional interludes of poetry and two brief discussions of pieces of art, an extensive bibliography and a list of online resources.
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