Africa’s first woman bishop visits Ireland

Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya with Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town at her consecration … she preaches in Dublin this evening (Photograph: AFP/Anglican Church of Swaziland)

Patrick Comerford

Africa’s first Anglican woman bishop is in Ireland this week to join the celebrations marking the rebranding of the Anglican mission agency, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG), as the United Society – Us.

The new Bishop of Swaziland, the Right Revd Ellinah Wamukoya, will preach at a special Eucharist in Saint Michan’s Church, Dublin, at 7.30 this evening [Wednesday 29 May 2013].

Bishop Ellinah was consecrated last November and her visit to Ireland this week is her first official trip overseas.

The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Richard Clarke, will preside at the Eucharist. Earlier in the afternoon, there is an open house to mark the opening of the new Us offices in Egan House, beside Saint Michan’s Church in Church Street, Dublin.

I serve on the boards of Us, the former USPG, in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and on the council of Us in Britain. This Anglican mission agency works in direct partnership with Anglican Churches in over 50 countries, helping to support vital work, including healthcare, education, leadership training and action for social justice.

Us in Ireland works directly with the Diocese of Swaziland, where we have been building up strong networks over the last five years working with all members of the community.

The Anglican Church in Swaziland works to respond to the huge difficulties faced by the country. However, the Church there has few resources and currently relies on overseas donations to run its programmes which include local care points and feeding stations for the many child-headed households. Training in life skills is also provided for young people.

Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya (61) is the first Anglican bishop in Africa. Her election came last November – just as the Church of England failed to vote in favor women becoming bishops.

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town said at the time of her election: “We have witnessed a great occasion, and now it does indeed seem that the heavens are about to fall upon us – the falling of rain, which this country and its people so desperately need.”

Bishop Wamukoya is a former mayor of Swaziland’s economic capital, Manzini, and has worked as town planner. During her visit to Ireland she is meeting the staff and board members of Us, bishops of the Church of Ireland, and supporting parishes throughout the island.

Rebranding USPG as Us at the annual conference at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, last year

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Join Us – and be part of the change’

The USPG conference comes to an end at lunchtime today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

The annual conference of USPG, which has been taking place in the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, comes to a close today [Wednesday 27 June 2012].

We began with Morning Prayer at 7.45, using a new office from the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Our final session this morning is “Join Us – and be part of the change.” We heard from three supporters of USPG of their involvement with the society over the decades, and the changes they have seen, and we heard of their experiences in Malawi, South Africa, Egypt and Hong Kong,

An episcopal reminder ... a window in the old house at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

This morning , we also received greetings and blessings from Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, who is the President of USPG, who was supportive of the rebranding of USPG as Us.

In the absence of the Right Revd Michael Burrows, Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, chair of USPG Ireland and a trustee of USPG, I have been asked to celebrate the Closing Eucharist at mid-day, using the rite in the Church of Ireland Book of Common Prayer.

Given the proposed rebranding of USPG, I suppose this may the last Eucharist at a USPG conference per se.

Next year’s conference will be for the newly-named and newly-branded “Us.”

The High Leigh Sunken Well and Donkey Track, dating from the mid 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

In an earlier posting this morning, I wrote about how there are at least three listed buildings along Lord Street, leading to the High Leigh Conference Centre. I described the Quaker Meeting House, at the east end of Lord Street, and the King William IV Public House at the end west end of Lord Street, but said I had failed to find the High Leigh Sunken Well and Donkey Track, which is a listed building.
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But in an early morning walk down to the lake this morning, I found the sunken well and the donkey track in the grounds of High Leigh.

The High Leigh Sunken Well and Donkey Track date from the mid 19th century, includes a sunken circular pen for donkeys to draw water from well, approached by serpentine grotto passage, built of yellow stock brick and flint. The pen is about 6 metres in diameter and 2 metres deep. It has a low circular timber roof on later red brick supports. There is a tunnel on the west side. The grotto entrance on the south side has walls and an arch of imitation rock made of yellow stock brick and cement.

Before my flight back to Dublin, I plan to spend the afternoon in Cambridge, catching up with some old friends and visiting some places with the Fitzwilliam name – including “Fitzbillies” near Pembroke College, the Fitzwiliam Museum and Fitzwilliam College – for photographs and to think about some ideas I have for an essay on the Fitzwilliam family in Dublin and Co Wicklow, and these peculiar Irish links with Cambridge.

Meeting house and public house in a quiet street

The King William IV Public House at 197 Lord Street is a 17th century timber-frame building, with modern brick and roughcast walls, and an old tile roof (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

The High Leigh Conference Centre, which is the venue for the USPG conference this week, is at the western end of Lord Street in Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. Along Lord Street, there are at least three listed buildings along Lord Street: the Friends Meeting House or Quaker Meeting House, which is at the east end of Lord Street; the King William IV Public House (No 197), at the end west end of Lord Street; and the High Leigh Sunken Well and Donkey Track.

I am told the sunken well and the donkey track are in the grounds of the High Leigh Conference Centre, although I have been unable to find them on each visit.

As I was walking back from the White Swan to High Leigh on Tuesday afternoon [26 June 2012], I stopped to look at the Quaker Meeting House, close to the High Street.

This meeting house was built in 1829. It is built of yellow and grey brick, with stucco dressings. It has a slate roof that is pedimented on the north side with large, stuccoed mouldings. The central, two-fold door has an oblong, crossed-glazing-bar fan, a broad architrave and cornice on large, leaf-ornamental consoles. There are flanking sash windows in moulded frames, single-storey side bays with recessed panels, and side elevations with 6/6-pane sashes. At the front door, there are cast iron foot-scrapers.


The Quaker Meeting House in Lord Street, Hoddesdon, is truly a Georgian architectural gem (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The Quaker Meeting House is truly a Georgian gem, for it was built a year before the death of George IV in 1830.

At the other end of Lord Street, at No 197, is the King William IV. But, while William IV reigned from 1830 to 1837, the King William IV on Lord Street is a much earlier building, predating even William III.

Some of us ended us ended up there last night – including conference delegates form England, both parts of Ireland, and some with mission and church experience in places as far apart as India, Japan, Brazil, South Africa and Chile.

The pub is a 17th century timber-frame building, with modern brick and roughcast walls, and an old tile roof. It is a two-storey, four-bay building with a four-window range, and the windows have replacement sashes.


The earliest parts of the William IV have chamfered and stopped floor beams and a central chimney breast with wooden lintel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Despite the brick cladding and the carpets that cover the wooden floors, the earliest parts of the inn comprise the two west bays to the left of the first photograph at the top of this posting. These two bays have chamfered and stopped floor beams and a central chimney breast with wooden lintel.

The east bays, seen on the right-hand side of that top photograph, now house the pool room and the gents’ lavatories, but were once two separate cottages.

The two chimney stacks, on the east and the west, were remade in the 19th century of yellow stock brick, but the external east stack has a lower half in 17th century red brick. There are later lean-to additions to the rear and to the west of the pub.

And some of us even enjoyed the fact that this was almost a normal English summer’s evening, worth sitting outside to enjoy the balmy atmosphere of the end of the day.

Taking Us forward into the future with a rebranding

A walk in the woods at High Leigh today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

At the end of USPG’s day conference in High Leigh, Hoddesdon, the Council of USPG met this evening to deal with the formal business of the oldest Anglican mission society, and to look forward to the future of the society.

Much of the focus was on the proposed rebranding of USPG and rhe new tagline:

Us.
every person
every community
a full life

The Church of Ireland has two representatives on the council – the Revd Lynne Gibson, curate of Dundela in Belfast, and myself.

The council reviewed the work of the society for the past year, receiving the reports of the trustees, and reports on the society’s activities and finances.

This was the last council meeting for Canon Linda Ali, the outgoing chair, although she hopes to remain a member of council .

The new chair of the trustees from next Sunday [1 July 2012] is the Revd Canon Christopher Chivers, Vicar of John Keble Church, Mill Hill, in the Diocese of London. He is a former Canon Precentor of both Saint George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, and Westminster Abbey, London, and a former Canon Chancellor of Blackburn Cathedral. He is a published composer whose choral works have been sung by the choirs of King’s College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, Blackburn, Bristol, Cape Town and Gloucester Cathedrals, as well as by the choirs of Gonville and Caius College and Queens’ College, Cambridge, and New College, Magdalen College, Lincoln College and Saint Peter’s College, Oxford.

As well as saying farewell to Linda Ali as chair of the trustees, we also said farewell to three trustees, Monica Bolley, Richard Barrett and the Revd Roger Antell, whose terms of office had come to an end, and we elected five new trustees:

● John Chilver, an accountant and former USPG mission companion in Tanzania and Belize
● The Revd Joabe Cavalcanti, Vicar of Saint Barnabas, Mitcham (Diocese of Southwark).and a former USPG staff member
● Simon Gill, who has worked for the Department for international Development, and who has worked in Tanzania, Lesotho, Laos and Kenya.
● Rosemary Kempsell, who has been worldwide president of the Mothers’ Union for the past five years
● Jacky Humphreys, a barrister working in family law and a member of the General Synod of the Church of England.

The council also elected two new Honorary Vice-Presidents: Bishop Michael Doe, who was General Secretary from 2004 to 2011, and Bishop Royden Screech, who was a trustee from 2005 to 2011.

The council members also debated the proposed rebranding of USPG, with concerns focussed on the perceived lack of an explicit Christian identity in the new name and tag line. A launch date is planned in November.

Dr Evie Vernon reminded us that we began as SPG, and pointed out that many may have had problems with an acronym like EEPS, which had been a major part of our discussions today. As she told us: “Change is difficult but change is inevitable”

Canon Brian Stevenson (Rochester Diocese) said we needed shock therapy and to revitalise the society. “And we should do it together as Us.”

Earlier in the meeting, the company secretary Michael Hart, reported the sale of the former College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham, which has been a lengthy and complicated process over the past six weeks. The sale was completed eight weeks ago when the college was sold to al-Mahdi Institute.

‘Visually the most striking timber-framed inn in the district’

The White Swan on the High Street in Hoddesdon … rated by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “visually the most striking timber-framed inn in the district” (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

I took a short break from the USPG Conference in High Leigh this afternoon, and went for a stroll in the surrounding countryside before walking down Lord Street into Hoddesdon, to buy the Guardian in a little newsagent shop on the High Street and to read the paper next door over a glass of wine in the White Swan.

At the end of the 16th century, Hoddesdon had at least 30 inns, apart from alehouses and taverns that did not provide accommodation. A document from the 1590s names five of those inns: the Lyon, the Bell, the Chequers, the George and the Swanne.

Of those five, the Bell, the Chequers and the George no longer exist, the Swanne is now the White Swan, and the Lyon is now the Salisbury Arms, three or four doors further along the High Street.

In 1977, the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described the White Swan as “visually the most striking timber-framed inn in the district.”

Most of the building dates from the late 16th century, although part of the rear wing was added in the 19th century.

The White Swan was originally owned by the Sharnbrooke family, who owned other properties in Hoddesdon and Hailey. In 1600, it passed by marriage to John Bayley, and it has had a continuous story ever since.

The name of the pub was changed to the White Swan in the 20th century – although its National Heritage entry as a listed building describes it as “The Swan Inn.”

The White Swan is a mainly 16th century timber-framed building of five to six bays. It is plastered on the ground floor, and has an exposed half-timbered and plastered upper floor. The roof is Welsh and Westmoreland slate at the front roof, mostly old tile at the rear. The building has an L-plan, with a two-block rear wing on the south side, which is 16th and 17th on the east side and 19th century, single storey, weather-boarded on the west side.

A view of the White Swan from the car park at the rear (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The six-window front elevation has a central, canted window bay on two wooden Tuscan columns with six four-light casements and along sign beam.

The closely-studded upper floor has some diagonal braces, the south side is jettied on moulded bressumer, the north side on bull-nosed joists.

The first floor sash windows are late 19th century, and there is a multi-pane shop front on the north side.

Inside, the building has chamfered and stopped floor beams and joists, the second bay from south with V-profile moulded beams.

The White Swan is the only pub in Hoddesdon listed as a grade 2* building, and with its beautiful and elegant Tudor architecture it fully deserves this status.

‘Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God’

The stories of returned volunteers provided a iwndow in the world church at the USPG conference in High Leigh this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

Today’s programme at the USPG conference in High Leigh is organised as a stand-alone one-day conference focussing on the Experience Exchange Programme (EEPS).

We are gathered in the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, this week and today we are taking a close look at USPG’s self-funding volunteer programme, which has provided opportunities for over 400 volunteers for over half a century.

The conference theme is “Face to Face” and once again we heard about “Face to Face” encounters that have been enriching for the whole church. Their stories this morning gave us a window into the world church. Perhaps some people today were surprised that not all of the “EEPs” (EEP volunteers) are young, nor are they all Anglicans.

USPG’s EEP co-ordinator, Canon Habib Nader, talked about “very exciting times.” The programme allows volunteers to experience being part of a bigger global family and to come back and share that story with meaning.

He told us there have been over 300 EEPs since 1988 – including 200 Anglicans, 90 Methodists and 22 “others.” He said 84 came from a vicarage or manse, 130 were gap year or pre-university students, 180 were post-university, experiencing a “mature gap year,” and there are 38 Greenbelt Festival recruits.

What happens when they return? Habib told us that 91 former EEPs are now full-time church workers, in ordained, in mission, in key NGO positions, and so on; 245 attended the ‘Reunion 2008’ – and 25 married fellow EEPs. He also thanked the wonderful hosts who have accepted EEPs over the year.

From the Church of South India, Sister Kasthuri Manickam spoke of her work at the Women’s Workers’ Training Centre in Nagalapuram, India, and the experience of EEP volunteers. From South Africa, Canon Rob Penrith of Saint John’s Church, Port Elizabeth, spoke of his experience of seven EEPs working in his parish since 1998, including musicians, looking after young people who need help with homework and extra care. He said it was about “Face-to-Face” encounters and transformation.

Helen Ledger spoke of her experience as an EEP volunteer for nine months – six in Nagalapuram and three in Sri Lanka – working on women’s issues and training development workers.

Catriona Macdonald, who had been a nurse and a music teacher, did a Celta course before going to India.

Hannah Silcock told how she first came across the EEPS programme at Greenbelt, when she was a16-year-old looking for a gap-year opportunity two years later. When she was 18, she spent six months in South Africa. She spoke of how throughout those years a guiding thought has been the prophetic question: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6: 8). She is now a student in Birmingham University, studying theology and philosophy.

Faye Woolard, who is now working with a mental health NGO, was an EEP volunteer in South Africa. She said the transition on her return to England was difficult, but she back with great hope, faith is a challenge, found the transition on her return to England.

Gerry Lynch from Saint George’s Church, Belfast, spoke from the floor about his experience as an EEP volunteer in South Africa.

‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again’

Christ with the Samaritan woman at the well … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Saffron Walden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford
The USPG conference in High Leigh opened this morning with the Eucharist according to the rite of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, celebrated at 7.30 by the Revd Dr Ian Rock, Principal of Codrington College, Barbados.

After breakfast, we had a Bible study with the Right Revd Jacob Ayeebo, Bishop of Tamale (Ghana), who introduced the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. This passage continued the “Face-to-Face” theme of the conference, but also led to some further conversations about the proposed new branding for USPG:
Us.
every person
every community
a full life

John 4: 1-30

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptising more disciples than John’ – although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptised – he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.


“Where do you get that living water?” ... walking by the lake at High Leigh this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Questions to discuss

We were asked to discuss the following questions:

Why was it that Jesus had to pass through Samaria? What social boundaries and biases did Jesus overcome in his encounter – face to face with the woman?

Compare and contrast the type of water that the woman is thinking of (verses 11, 15) and the type of water that Jesus is talking about (verses 11-15)?

What does Jesus mean by living water?

How can Jesus’ “Living Water” satisfy our needs and why do some choose to drink from other wells?

If we ran into Jesus at the well, what would he confront us about?

How is Jesus’ statement in verse 16 a turning point in the conversation?

What did Jesus mean by the statement ‘You have had five husbands and he who is with you now is not your husband?

What does it mean that she recognised him as a prophet (verses 19-25)?

How does the text help and encourage us to pray?

What are the key lessons in this encounter?

In this face-to-face encounter, is there any promise for us to claim?

‘We have an amazing story to tell ... we are ready to do something big’

Telling the amazing story of USPG FOR Us (from left): Zoe Bunter, Mike Brooks and Leanne Werner (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

The USPG conference got underway on Monday afternoon [25 June 2012] in the High Leigh Conference Centre on the fringes of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire.

After an early flight from Dublin, I had spent the morning in Saffron Walden in Essex. My initial plan was to photograph some of the wonderful 16th and 17th century timber framed shops, pubs and houses in this wonderful example of an English market town, and ended up being invited to take part in the Eucharist in Saint Mary’s Church, which is the largest church in Essex, celebrated by the Assistant Curate, the Revd Anne Howson.

I spent the rest of the morning strolling through the streets of Saffron Walden, and as the sun warmed and the temperatures rose, it was a beautiful day for architectural photography – the Old Sun Inn, the Eight Bells, the Cross Keys, the Market Place, the Castle Ruins, Castle Street, the Close, the Gardens, and the Rows.

But Saffron Walden is so charming and enchanting that the story is worth telling in full another day. From there, I caught the bus to Bishop’s Stortford, where I hopped on a train to Broxbourne, and after a shirt taxi journey was at High Leigh just in time for lunch.


Saint Mary’s Church, Saffron Walden ... but that’s another story for another day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

A major consideration this afternoon was the rebranding of USPG. I have been a supporter of USPG for decades, but I am conscious that the full name, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, is not only a mouthful for some and a tongue-twister for many, but it demands work in terms of bridging a credibility gap.

Canon Edgar Ruddock spoke in frank terms of the commercial value of Brand, and how there is a critically important interface between the world church and church on these islands. As a mission agency we must not to be seen as something we might have been – or were imagined as being – 50 or more years ago. We need to keep in step with a growing and changing church context in these islands.

The Revd Canon Christopher Chivers, the incoming chair of USPG’s trustees, said the present process is not about who we are, but about how we are and about how we relate: “We have an amazing story to tell.”

We need to communicate about our work, which is fantastic, but the name is part of whole brand. He asked how it can be captivating and exciting, and asked whether we are reaching a whole generation in the Church and beyond the Church.


There’s a vacuum in the Church that only USPG can fill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The CEO of USPG, Ms Janette O’Neill, spoke of a vacuum in the churches and the voluntary sector. Although there are plenty of places to give money, none of those agencies offer an opportunity for people to join in partnership and the engagement. “We are ready to do something big,” she said.

Zoe Bunter, Director for Donor Engagement, said any vision for the future is not just about looking at where we are today. Brand is part of any organisation and gives out messages about us and who we really are.

But she admitted our current brand is a barrier to many people. The onus is now on us to communicate effectively, it is not on people out there to get in touch with us. Speaking of the need to attract new supporters, she pointed out a survey shows 67 pc of current USPG supporters over age of 61.

Name is one of first messages people receive about us, she said. .For those who do not know about the work and history of USPG, the name is a barrier. Propagation of the Gospel sounds outdated, old-fashioned, colonial, insensitive and intolerant. Whether others are right or wrong, these are the perspectives, and by the time it comes to explaining work, we are on the back foot and defensive.

The change that name does not mean we devalue the past. But we can build on the rich history we have. However, the name USPG does it say who we are today and what we are doing.

We say a short film putting all that in context, pointing out that USPG, which was founded in 1702, is older than the UK, but throughout its history has been ahead of its time, fighting slavery and leprosy, supporting the role of women in the church and in mission, challenging racism, and working beyond colonies and empire.

But today we work differently.

The trustees are proposing a new name and a new tagline:

Us.
every person
every community
a full life

The panel discussion that followed included Bishop Andrew Proud, trustee Monica Bolley, Zoe Bunter, Janette O’Neill and Canon Edgar Ruddock.

There was an interesting debate, with questions about where Christ is in the name or strap-line, and one suggestion that it could be completed as: “a full life in Christ.”

Earlier in the afternoon, we were welcomed by Canon Linda Ali, the outgoing chair of the Council of USPG, who spoke of USPG as family that is a global family.

Three of the overseas trustees, Bishop Edward Malecdan from the Philippines, Bishop Jacob Ayeebo from Ghana, and the Revd Dr Ian Rock from Codrington College, Barbados, Caribbean, spoke of their formative links with USPG.

As Edgar Ruddock said at the opening of the conference, the sun is shining as usual at the start of Wimbledon week. I hope the sun keeps shining for the rest of this week in the Hertfordshire countryside.

Our other speakers today included the Revd Dr David Evans and Lisungo Nkhoma, national co-ordinator for the Hands on Health programme in Malawi. We heard reports from Bangladesh, Barbados, Ghana, Malawi, Myanmar, Pakistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and of course from Birmingham and from Ireland. And our day ended with worship led by the singer-songwriter Garth Hewitt, who spoke of his passion for justice in Palestine and Southern Africa.


The High Leigh Conference Centre on the fringes of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, the venue for this year’s USPG conference (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

‘Face to Face’ with USPG in High Leigh

The High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon … the venue for this year’s USPG conference, ‘Face to Face’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Patrick Comerford

I am back in England again for the Annual Conference of USPG, which begins this afternoon [25 June 2012], and which continues until lunchtime on Wednesday [27 June 2012].

‘Face to Face’ is the theme for this year’s USPG conference, which is taking place in the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in the Lea Valley, Hertfordshire, near Hertford (6.4 km), Bishop’s Stortford (18 km), Stansted Airport and Cambridge.
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Throughout the week, the conference provides an opportunity to meet leaders and programme organisers from Anglican Churches around the world and to learn about new ways of engaging with mission that can be taken back to parishes and dioceses.

This afternoon, in two sessions, we have an opportunity to review the work of USPG since our conference in High Leigh last year, and to hear how USPG is reaching out to new friends. Later this evening we meet international guests and hear their stories.

The guests at this week’s conference include:

● Sister Kasthuri Manickam, the centre superintendent for the Women Workers’ Training Centre in Nagalapuram, South India;
● The Revd Canon Rob Penrith, the Rector of Saint John’s Church in Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Tomorrow morning [Tuesday] begins with the Eucharist celebrated according to the West Indies rite by the Revd Dr Ian Rock, Principal of Codrington College in Barbados. Later in the morning, there will be opportunities in the workshops to hear from Sister Kasthuri Manickam and Canon Rob Penrith about how people of all ages can benefit from USPG’s Experience Exchange Programme (EEP), which puts volunteers of all ages on placement with the world church.

The EEP volunteers who are going to share their experiences include Helen Ledger and Catriona Macdonald, who have been in South Africa, and Faye Woollard and Hannah Silcock, who have been in India.

For about 50 years, the EEP programme has given over 400 volunteers what is often a life-changing experience. Volunteers have taught in schools, worked on health projects, supported vocation training and agricultural initiatives, work on youth projects, and much more.

Other overseas visitors to the conference include Bishop Jacob Ayeebo from Ghana and Archbishop Edward Malecdan from the Philippines. The Bishop of Guyana and friends from Malawi and Zambia are also expected, along with students and staff from the Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies in Birmingham.

Tomorrow’s [Tuesday’s] programme is also designed so that it can be enjoyed as a Special Day Conference. After the meeting of the Council of USPG and dinner, the evening programme will feature worship and celebration with the singer-songwriter and human rights activist Garth Hewitt, and what promises to be “a special evening of songs and thought-provoking chat.”

On Wednesday morning, we are due to discuss proposed changes in USPG. Janette O’Neill has been in office for just over a year as General Secretary, and is reporting on a more stable year in the life of USPG, explaining the development of the new programmes and letting us know about plans for future work.

Bishop Michael Burrows of Cashel and Ossory, who is a Trustee of USPG and chair of the boards of USPG Ireland and USPG Northern Ireland, is to preside at the closing Eucharist later on Wednesday morning, using the Eucharistic rite of the Church of Ireland.

During the conference, there shall be farewells too to Linda Ali, who steps down as chair of the Trustees of USPG, although she remains a member of council. The new chair is the Revd Canon Christopher Chivers, Vicar of John Keble Church, Mill Hill, in the Diocese of London. He is a former as Canon Precentor of both Saint George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, Precentor of Westminster Abbey, London, and Canon Chancellor of Blackburn Cathedral. He is a published composer whose choral works have been sung by the choirs of King’s College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, Blackburn, Bristol, Cape Town and Gloucester Cathedrals, as well as by the choirs of Gonville and Caius College and Queens’ College, Cambridge, and New College, Magdalen College, Lincoln College and Saint Peter’s College, Oxford.

And at some stage, I might get a chance for a walk in the beautiful Hertfordshire countryside, and drop in to see friends in Cambridge before my flight back to Dublin on Wednesday night.

Canon Patrick Comerford is a member of the council of USPG and a director of USPG Ireland and USPG Northern Ireland.

A hint of summer in the bishop’s garden in Kilkenny

The Robing Room, a neo-classical garden pavilion in the the grounds of the former Bishop’s Palace in Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

I spent most of today [Monday, 21 May 2012] in Kilkenny at meetings of the boards of USPG Ireland and USPG Northern Ireland. Part of the work today included preparing for next month’s meeting of the USPG council and the annual conference of USPG in Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, near Cambridge and Saffron Walden.

The meetings were chaired by Bishop Michael Burrows, and we met in the Bishop’s House, behind the former Bishop’s Palace, now used as the offices of the Heritage Council.

The former Bishop’s Palace, the Robing Room and Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The Georgian façade of the former Bishop’s Palace hides a complex series of building phases, beginning with a medieval hall and tower from the mid-14th century, with substantial alterations in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries.

As we headed off to lunch in Shimla on Dean Street, we strolled through the grounds of the former palace, and it was a delight to see how the mid-18th century Robing Room in has been restored in recent years.

The Robing Room is one of the hidden treasures of Kilkenny. It is said to hold secrets from a much older past, and was first built to connect the Bishop’s Palace with Saint Canice’s Cathedral.

As part of the recent restoration work, extensive archaeological excavations have been carried out at the Robing Room over the past two years by the local archaeologist Cóilín O Drisceoil of Kilkenny Archaeology.

The Robing Room is a little-known neo-classical garden pavilion, hidden within the mediaeval and early modern ecclesiastical buildings in the Cathedral Close. It stands in a corner of the grounds of the former Palace of the Bishops of Ossory.

The Robing Room was probably built around 1758 as part of an elaborate processional colonnade that linked the palace with the entrance to the north transept of the cathedral, 25 metres to the south.

However, evidence for the exact date at which when it was built is far from clear. Is there documentary and archaeological evidence to support for the belief that it was built by Bishop Richard Pococke with the colonnade ca 1758? Or was it built during the substantial remodelling of the palace by Bishop Este (1735-1740)? The earliest written account we have of the Robing Room being used as a bishop’s vestry is as recent as 1963. So, O Drisceoil asks, what was the primary function of this building? And how did it change over time?

Was an earlier building incorporated into the Robing Room? If so, what was its age? Is there evidence that it related to the Irishtown town wall or the ‘Paradise’ house of the 16th century?

A building appears on the site on Rocque’s map of Kilkenny in 1758, which helps to narrow down the date of that building to between 1739, when the precinct wall was built, and 1758. However, the building on Rocque’s map is a rectangular structure and not the ovoid building that I was admiring today.

A letter from Bishop William Newcome in 1755 shows that the Robing Room was used in his time as a summer-house within an ornamental garden setting, and that it was linked to the Colonnade.

A few years after the building was completed, the ground-storey was demolished and replaced with the ovoid neo-classical pavilion I was looking at today. Lavishly built for its time, the Robing Room even featured heated benches that were heated from an under-floor flue fire system.

This building cannot be attributed with certainty to Bishop Pococke, but Cóilín O Drisceoil says the evidence points to him for two chief reasons: the new building included a connection to the Colonnade, which Pococke had built around 1758, and the industrial entrepreneur William Colles designed and executed the Colonnade and stone from his Marble Mill was used in the Robing Room.

O Drisceoil points out that Pococke is the only Bishop of Ossory in the mid-18th century who had strong links with Colles. He speculates that the destruction of the earlier summer-house may have coincided with the bishop’s well-documented switch from the use of Gothic architecture to Palladian in his cathedral.

A map drawn in 1871 shows the Robing Room in some detail and indicates there was a covered walkway across Church Lane to the cathedral churchyard.

But what was the building originally used for?

Despite its name, there is no evidence was found that it was ever used as a robing room – the first mention of this in print dates from only in 1963. An account from 1775 specifically refers to it as a “summer-house.” As a summer house it formed an integral part of a Georgian garden layout, a designed landscape and vista that was created around the Palace.

And in the palace grounds in Kilkenny today, as the sun came out on our way to lunch, there was a hint that summer is on the way.

A hint of summer in the garden of the Bishop’s House, behind the former Bishop’s Palace in Kilkenny this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)