On Friday 21 November at 7:30pm, Bradford Cathedral will host Re:Imagine Global Peace, an interactive evening designed as an experiment in public conversation. Blending food, storytelling, and shared reflection, the event invites participants to explore what it means to pursue lasting peace in today’s divided world.
Unlike a traditional lecture or panel discussion, Re:Imagine Global Peace is structured around dialogue, curiosity, and human encounter. The evening will bring together voices of experience and uncertainty, inviting guests to take part in a collective exploration of peacebuilding through stories and conversation.
The discussion will feature David Porter, Visiting Professor of Faith and Peaceful Relations at Coventry University; Kersten England CBE, former Chief Executive of Bradford Council and Chair of the Bradford City of Culture Board; and Revd Canon Ned Lunn, Canon for Intercultural Mission and the Arts at Bradford Cathedral.
Originally from Belfast, David Porter has spent decades working in peacebuilding and reconciliation. His experience includes key roles in Northern Ireland’s Civic Forum and Community Relations Council, as well as serving as Canon Director for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral — one of the world’s leading centres for peace and reconciliation. In 2013, he joined the Archbishop of Canterbury’s personal staff as Director for Reconciliation, developing creative responses to deep conflict both within the Church and in wider society.
Speaking ahead of the event, Porter said: “Faced with the cost of conflict each generation says never again. Yet the elusive quest for peace continues. There is much to learn from the peace process in Northern Ireland, a conflict about identity, belonging and historical trauma lived out in the UK. While no conflict or peace process is the same, these deep themes resonate and fuel the violence of many of the conflicts we see today.”
The evening will also feature Kersten England CBE, whose leadership in Bradford’s civic and cultural life has been instrumental in shaping the city’s inclusive identity, and Canon Ned Lunn, who will help facilitate the conversation in the Cathedral’s historic setting.
Canon Lunn said: “Peace is not simply the absence of conflict. It is about building trust across difference, weaving together diverse communities, and imagining new possibilities for how we live together. Bradford, with its rich intercultural life, is the perfect place to host such a conversation—and the Cathedral, standing at the city’s heart for over 1,400 years, has always been a space where people come together to seek meaning, connection, and hope. That makes it exactly the right place to ask how peace can be re-imagined afresh today.”
The Re:Imagine series, launched earlier this year, is a programme of public events at Bradford Cathedral designed to create spaces for courageous, creative, and collaborative conversation. Each gathering aims not only to discuss major social challenges but to spark new imagination about possible futures.
With Re:Imagine Global Peace, organisers hope to bring together people from across Bradford and beyond for an evening of dialogue, insight, and shared discovery — exploring what peace looks like when it is built from the ground up, in community and in conversation.
