Patrick Comerford
I spent most of Wednesday [4 March 2020] in London at a meeting of the trustees of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).
During the day, I heard about the planning for this year’s USPG conference, with the theme ‘Rejoice in the Lord always’: God’s People in God’s Mission.
This year’s conference takes place from 20-22 July, immediately before the Lambeth Conference. For some years now, the conference has taken place at the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. But, after some years’ absence, the conference is returning this year, for the first time since 2016, to the Hayes Conference Centre at Swanwick, outside Alfreton in Derbyshire.
This year is also a momentous year for the Anglican Communion, which UPSG seeks to serve. The Lambeth Conference takes place from 23 July to 2 August, and the pre-Lambeth Conference Hospitality week, 17-22 July, brings many opportunities for engagement with global mission for many in the churches of Britain and Ireland.
USPG is playing a full part in this hospitality initiative, and this includes this year’s conference in Swanwick.
A number of USPG’s partner churches are celebrating significant anniversaries this year. The Anglican Churches of Tanzania and Myanmar, and the United Churches of North India and Pakistan all mark their 50th anniversaries this year, and USPG has been invited to these celebrations.
This year’s conference in Swanwick offers an opportunity to gather with a number of bishops and their spouses from around the Anglican Communion ahead of the Lambeth Conference, to pray and reflect together on our common mission as the people of God, to be inspired for service in Christ’s name and to reaffirm USPG’s role in this, God’s mission.
The speakers at the conference include Professor Esther Mombo, Associate Professor at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya; Dr Paul Ueti, Anglican Alliance Theological Adviser and Latin American Regional Director, Assistant Director for Theological Education for Lusophone, Francophone and Spanish-speaking regions of the Anglican Communion; and Bishop Emelyn Dacuycuy and Bishop Carlo Morales of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente.
Online bookings for the USPG conference in Swanwick are now open HERE
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