Cultivating a joined-up field of spirituality studies through theory and practice

The British Association for the Study of Spirituality (BASS) was planning to host its Sixth International Conference, Spirituality in Research, Professional Practice and Education, in the beautiful city of York, UK, in June 2020; it was to include a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the publication of the Journal for the Study of Spirituality (JSS). Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic cut across those plans, like so many others around the globe, and the conference was rescheduled to take place in June this year. However, in December 2020, BASS formally changed its name to become the International Network for the Study of Spirituality (INSS) and, by January 2021, the continuing disruption of the pandemic and restrictions on travel meant that a face-to-face conference would remain impossible. The sixth BASS conference therefore became not only the first to be hosted by INSS but the first of the whole series to be held online (on 7/8 June 2021). These changes required most members of the INSS Executive to embark on a steep learning curve as they came to terms with the simultaneous development of a new website, the use of online communication technologies, and programming an event to accommodate participation from across the world’s time-zones. BASS/INSS conferences, as the website notes,