12 March 2019

USPG announces details
of this year’s conference

The High Leigh Conference Centre at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire is the venue for the USPG annual conference in June 2019 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

The Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has just announced details of this year’s conference, which takes place on 24-26 June 2019 at the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire.

The 2019 annual conference is an opportunity to come and engage in speakers’ sessions, workshops and times of fellowship and worship. USPG supporters can join USPG for the whole or part of the three-day residential conference, with a variety of options for attendance.

I am a trustee of USPG and throughout Lent this year, I am using the USPG Prayer Diary for my early morning prayers online. USPG is the Anglican mission agency that partners churches and communities worldwide in God’s mission to enliven faith, strengthen relationships, unlock potential, and champion justice. It was founded in 1701.

The conference theme for 2019 is ‘The Prophetic Voice of the Church’ and this is linked to the USPG Bible study course of the same name.

The guest speakers at this year’s conference include:

The Very Revd Dr Gloria Lita D Mapangdol, President and Dean of Saint Andrew’s Theological Seminary in the Philippines, who will lead the Bible studies.

The Right Revd Dr Probal Kanto Dutta, Bishop of Calcutta and Deputy Moderator of the Church of North India Synod.

The Right Revd Dr Victor Atta-Baffoe, Bishop of Cape Coast, Church of the Province of West Africa.

The Right Rev Ossie Swartz, Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman, Anglican Church of South Africa.

The Right Rev Calvert Leopold Friday, Bishop of the Windward Islands, Church of the Province of the West Indies.

Catherine Fungai Ngangira, Ordinand at Durham University, from Zimbabwe.

The day conference on Tuesday will also include inspiring Bible studies, interactive workshops, and an informal reception.

So, it looks like there is much to look forward to.

Further information is available from the conference organiser, Kathy McLeish, and bookings can be made through THIS LINK.

Meanwhile, later this week, USPG is also holding a conference in Liverpool Cathedral on Saturday [16 March 2019] on the theme of ‘Remembering History – Rethinking Mission.’

The conference is asking questions such as ‘How might 21st century mission be redefined as we remember our past?’ ‘What can churches offer to missiological thinking in a contemporary post-colonial and post-transatlantic-slave-trade world?’

This is an opportunity to rethink mission with speakers from the Caribbean, West Africa, Britain and the US, including: the Revd Dr Michael Clarke, Principal of Codrington College, Barbados; the Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons; the Revd Dr Daniel Justice Eshun, Dean of Chapel, Whitelands College, University of Roehampton, London; and the Revd Winnie Varghese, Director of Justice and Reconciliation, Trinity Church Wall Street, New York.

Rethinking Mission is an initiative of USPG that aims to stimulate new thinking about the theology of mission, enlightened by perspectives of Christians from around the world. The online journal is available at www.rethinkingmission.org

At the USPG Conference in High Leigh last summer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

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