Wednesday Lecture Programme

SUMMER TERM 2012

This series of weekly lectures will take place in Room 3 of the University Lecture Rooms
at no. 8 Mill Lane, starting at 2.15 pm.

All members are welcome to attend.  Please have your membership cards ready to show on entry.  Non-members may attend as guests for a fee of £2 per lecture, subject to availability of space.

17 April         

The Incredible Lady Bible Hunters:  Mrs Gibson and Mrs Lewis

Professor Janet Soskice, Professor of Philosophical Theology in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and author of Sisters of Sinai

Agnes and Margaret Smith were not your typical Cambridge ladies. In 1892 these Scottish twin sisters, both widows, made their way by camel and foot across the Sinai desert to St. Catherine’s Monastery where Agnes made one of the most important Bible finds of the centuries, launching them on a career of eastern Bible hunting, sleeping in tents, placating sceptical monks and fabulous finds… including those that led to the Cairo Genizah.  For BBC coverage of the most recent adventure see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21372839.

24 April         

30 Years as a Country Doctor

Dr. Neville Silverston, Founder of MAGPAS

The experience of being on call 24/7 as a GP in Bottisham led Neville Silverston to develop the first wide area pocket pager in the UK in 1968. In 1971 he set up the Mid-Anglia GP Accident Service (MAGPAS) to turn doctors out to serious road accidents. 60,000 patients have been attended to up to the present by the service, which is funded entirely by donations from the public. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians for his contribution to the setting up of the Vocational Training Scheme for General Practice at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and is a Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University.

1 May            

Walking the Way of St James

Peter Granville Davis, U3AC member

Peter talks about walking from Le Puy-en-Velay in France to the great and gleaming cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, a pilgrimage of something close to a thousand miles. In a world which has seen the triumph of the secular, the very idea of a pilgrimage may seem absurd. Yet, as Peter points out, as many people as ever are still walking the Way - called 'le chemin de St Jacques' in French and simply 'El Camino' in Spanish  -  just as they have done for over a thousand years

8 May                        

Endangered Primates, Caves and Cruises: Work at the World’s Oldest International Conservation Charity

Dr Tony Whitten, Regional Director, Asia-Pacific, Fauna & Flora International, Cambridge

Fauna & Flora International was founded in 1903, has the Queen as its Patron, and counts Sir David Attenborough and Stephen Fry among its Vice Presidents.  Its work across the world is innovative and exciting, full of risk and good stories.  A taster of its conservation work will be provided.