Tony Franklin Ross
PhD student

Current situation

An ordained presbyter-theologian in the Methodist Church of New Zealand – Te Haahi Weteriana O Aotearoa, Tony has had ministry and academic involvement in ecumenism, interreligious conversations, and leadership in local/parish, national and international fields (including previous leadership as ecumenical chairperson for the World Methodist Council 2019-2024).

Tony has undergraduate degrees in accounting, and undergraduate plus post-graduate honours theology degrees (University of Auckland), and is a post-graduate alumni of the WCC Bossey Ecumenical Institute (Bossey / University of Geneva). His career prior to ministry was as a corporate accountant, and he owns a travel business.

Research Area

Queering ecumenism: engaging queer theologies with ecumenical theologies of unity, catholicity and diversity.

While queer theology has been developing engagement with a range of theological contexts, this project introduces a unique fresh engagement of queer theology – to ecumenism.

This project asks for a queer critique of ecumenism, and a queer model of engaging and creating a queered ecumenical theology and methodology. I intend to explore an as yet untested intersection, offering transformational discernment and radical disruptions towards embracing ‘unity in diversity’. I will invite a queer engagement that challenges [straight] ecumenism with a theology of queered unity which embodies an indecently queered ‘body of Christ’ and transgressive ‘catholicity’.

Academic Publications

Looking Behind the Blue Cards: Understanding Contested Ethical Approaches in the Ecumenical Space. International Journal of Public Theology, 16 (2022) 39-54

Framing Receptive Ecumenism as Pilgrimage in the Context of the ‘Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification’. Chapter in “Spirit Flowing Like Water: Conversations on Receptive Ecumenism”; publication expected 2025.

https://independent.academia.edu/TonyFranklinRoss

Supervisory team

The Revd Dr Daniel Pratt Morris-Chapman