Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ

Email: g.simmonds@heythrop.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7795 4216

Biography
 
Gemma Simmonds is a sister of the Congregation of Jesus. After a career in teaching she worked as chaplain in the University of Cambridge and at Heythrop, where she also co-ordinated Student Support services. Since her return from study and work among women and street children in Brazil in 1992 she has been a volunteer on the chaplaincy team in Holloway Prison. She has worked in spiritual direction as a teacher and retreat-giver after training in the Jesuit Centre for Spiritual Growth, Wernersville, PA, and has been involved in religious and priestly formation since 1993. Her work as a conference facilitator and simultaneous translator has also led her into translating theological works in French, Spanish and Portuguese. She re-joined the staff at Heythrop as a Lecturer in Systematic Theology and Spirituality in 2005. She is also Course Convenor in BA Philosophy, Religion and Ethics and Co-ordinator of the Erasmus & Socrates Exchange Programmes.

Degrees
   
Ph.D. in Systematic Theology, St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, A Contemporary Re-reading of the Jansenist Crisis in Conversation with Henri de Lubac and the Ressourcement Movement, Thesis Supervisors: Prof. Peter Bayley, Prof. David Ford, 2006
M.Th., Heythrop College, University of London, 1993-5
P.G.C.E. (Postgraduate Certificate in Education), University of London Institute of Education, 1980-1981
M.A., University of Cambridge, Newnham, Modern & Medieval Languages (French and Spanish), 1977-80, (M.A. 1983)

Further Studies

University of London Extra-Mural Diploma in Theology, 1983-1986
Instituto Teológico Franciscano, Petrópolis, RJ, Brazil, 1991-1992
Teaching Courses (Undergraduate)

Ecclesiology
(Postgraduate)

Ecclesiology in Pastoral Contexts
Spiritual Direction, Theory and Practice
Spiritual Direction in Pastoral Contexts
Spirituality and Society
Foundations of Spirituality

Current Research

Women in the church
Mary Ward and the ‘Jesuitesses’
Issues in contextualized spirituality

Areas of Expertise

Jansenism
Henri de Lubac and ressourcement
Contextual Christian ecclesiologies
Ignatian spirituality
Publications

Publications

Translation of Henri de Lubac, Corpus Mysticum , SCM, London, 2007
Chapters in Multi-Authored Works

’Women Jesuits?’, Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits, ed. Thomas Worcester, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2007)
'Women in University Chaplaincy’, eds., John Sullivan and Peter McGrail, Study on Church, Chaplaincy and Higher Education, Liverpool Hope University, 2006-7
Short Publications

Articles on ‘Apostolic Spirituality’, ‘Spiritual Formation’, ‘Vows’, The New SCM Dictionary of Spirituality, ed.Philip Sheldrake, (SCM, London, 2005)
‘The Spirituality of Taizé Chants’, The Way Supplement, Spring 1990 (67)
‘The Readiness is All’: Time and the Spiritual Journey’, The Way Supplement, Autumn 1999 (96)
‘ Diverging Paths: Study and Spirituality’, The Way, April 1997 (37)
‘Spiritual Direction in Cyberspace’, The Way, July 2000 (40)

Research/Conference Papers/Seminars/Presentations and Talks in the Last Five Years

'Vincent de Paul and the Jansenists’, Church History Seminar, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 2004
'Henri de Lubac, Ressourcement and the Jansenist Heritage’, Systematic Theology Seminar, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 2005
Conferences on ‘Religious Life in the Third Millennium’ for Conference of Religious of England and Wales, 2003-5
‘Our Common Mission and Commitment: Lessons from Sister Survivors of European Communism’, Institute of Church History, Lviv, Ukraine, 2006
Conferences on ‘Living Eucharistically: Religious Life and the Church’ for Provincial Meetings, Religious of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, Sisters of the Presentation 2005-2006
 
Membership of Learned Bodies:

Catholic Theological Association