OUR ministers learnt more about the worldwide Church from the mission agency who we’ll be supporting as part of the Bishop’s Lent Appeal.

More than 100 clergy and Readers heard from a series of speakers from the mission agency USPG as part of a Bishop’s Study Day that took place in our cathedral.

They heard from Canon Dr Duncan Dormor, USPG’s general secretary, who has recently been made a Canon Theologian of Portsmouth Cathedral, as well his colleagues, Canon Dr Peniel Rajkumar and Carol Miller.

USPG is the Anglican mission agency that partners with churches and communities worldwide. Generous worshippers from our diocese will help raise funds for them as part of the Bishop’s Lent Appeal for 2025.

Duncan gave an overview of the Anglican Communion, which is composed of 42 autonomous Provinces across most of the world, many of which have been influenced by historic missionary endeavours. He suggested we should recognise the imperialistic origins of today’s global Church, but described Anglicanism today as more like “locally-produced goods created for a local market”.

He described the vision of USPG as ‘Unity and Mission’, interested in liberative mission, incarnational mission and mission to the marginalised, based on Jesus as a healer and teacher. That means partnering with local churches to energise transformative mission. You can read his presentation here.

Canon Dr Peniel Rajkumar, USPG Theologian and Director of Global Mission, talked about mission theologies in a global context, suggesting that theology is often understood as something that western countries offer to the rest of the world. In fact, the face of Christianity is changing, with 67 per cent of Christians now living in the Global South.

He suggested five specific themes that would inform an approach to theology that was based on perspectives from the Global South:

• Respect for other religions;
• Rootedness in culture and context;
• Rediscovery of identity and liberation in Christ;
• Resisting empires, past and present; and
• Renewing, repairing and reconciling God’s world.

He said that people on the margins should not be seen as objects of mission, but as agents of mission, and that we should work alongside marginalised communities with justice at the heart of our mission. You can see his presentation here.