13 January 2022
Bishops of the Anglican Communion are being invited to take part in a new series of Bishops’ discussions in 2022, as part of the journey to the Lambeth Conference.
‘Ministry in a Conflicted World’ will run online in February, March and April 2022, and consider formational habits that can shape leadership and ministry in a complex world.
“The Lambeth Conference theme is all about exploring what it means to be ‘God’s Church for God’s World’. The world we live in today is complex and divided. Bishops around the world are often leading and ministering in situations facing conflict, challenge or polarisation. Our hope and prayer for this new series is that it will provide bishops with a space to share and listen to one another, as they learn from each other’s contexts and the challenges they face.” Said The Right Reverend Anthony Poggo – Adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury on Anglican Communion Affairs.
The series will continue the ‘listening phase’ of the Lambeth Conference, which is focused on helping bishops pray, meet, and prepare for the full event in July 2022. During 2021, the Lambeth Conference team we ran a 6-month series of Bishops’ Conversations, where bishops studied the book of 1 Peter and started to tune in to some of the conference themes.
The course is being delivered by The Lambeth Conference in partnership with Difference – part of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s reconciliation ministry.
Through a range of Biblical reflections, films and discussion, the series will offer theological, strategic and practical input on three formational habits that can help to shape ministry and leadership. It will explore what it means to: Be Present, Be Curious and Reimagine.
The series includes video contributions from theologians and practitioners around the world whose ministry has been formed in particularly complex and divided situations.
– The Rev’d Canon Dr Joseph Zebedayo Bilal Kenyi, in Juba, South Sudan. Dr Bilal advises church and national leaders on mediation and is Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Episcopal University in Juba.
– The Rev’d Dr Manfred Deselaers, in Oświęcim, Poland. Fr Manfred leads the Programmes Department at the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in what was the city of Auschwitz.
– Pastor Ray Minniecon, in Sydney and Vorpal Mountains, Australia. Ray leads an Aboriginal congregation at St. John’s Anglican Church in New South Wales and is a community chaplain, working extensively with the stolen generation in Australia.
– The Rev’d René August, in the lands of The Khoi and the San Peoples, South Africa. Through varied ministries, René seeks to mitigate against the systemic causes of poverty, injustice and conflict in the world.
– The Right Rev’d Dinis Sengulane, in Maputo, Mozambique. Bishop Dinis is former Bishop of Lebombo, who had a leading role in bringing together opposing groups in Mozambique’s civil war for talks that resulted in the 1992 General Peace Accord.
– The Right Rev’d Dr Eleanor Sanderson, in Wellington, New Zealand. Bishop Eleanor is Assistant Bishop of Wellington, leading the Diocese’s 3-Dimensional Ministry discipleship programme, and is Fellow in Public Theology at the Centre for Anglican Communion Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary and Research Associate at Victoria University of Wellington.
Bishops are invited to register for three sessions of The Ministry in a Conflicted World series, which will run on the dates below:
- 1or 3 February 2022 - Session 1
- 1 or 3 March 2022 - Session 2
- 5 or 7 April 2022 - Session 3
All Anglican Bishops are invited to take part in the series and can register through the Lambeth Conference team. Bishops that haven't yet registered for the Lambeth Conference that would like to take part, can email the Lambeth Conference Team for registration details.
For more information about the series visit: https://bit.ly/ministryworld or email the Lambeth conference team: info@lambethconference.org
ENDS
For more information contact: Janet Miles - Head of Communications, Lambeth Conference.Janet.miles@lambethconference.org / 07595 205 540
Notes to editors
The Lambeth Conference is a gathering of Anglican bishops, scheduled for 27 July – 8th August 2022. Bishops meet for prayer, Bible study and dialogue on church and world affairs. The event will run in Canterbury, in the United Kingdom.
Ministry in a conflicted worldwill be run by the Lambeth Conference in partnership with Difference - part of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Reconciliation Ministry.
The team behind Differencehas designed this formational series specifically for the bishops of the Anglican Communion, drawing on the three habits that are central to the Differencecourse.
Differenceis a tool to support discipleship and mission, mobilising congregations to cross divides, navigate disagreement and pursue just and flourishing relationships. Through a focus on formation and the character of Jesus, church groups around the world have seen change in individual relationships, connections with their community and interactions with wider systems and structures. The Difference course can be run by any church or small group leader. It provides a shared language and framework that enables churches to come together to face the issues most important to their communities and move forward with confidence.
Full bios of the contributors to the Ministry in a conflicted world:
The Rev’d Canon Dr Joseph Zebedayo Bilal Kenyi
Dr Bilal has studied and ministered extensively in South Sudan and the UK and is now Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic and Finance Affairs at the Episcopal University South Sudan. He is also a member of the Episcopal Church Mediation Team – which advises church and political leaders on conflict resolution nationally – and a member of the Anglican Consultative Council. Alongside gaining a PhD in Social Science in London School of Theology, Brunel University UK, Dr Bilal has been Vicar of St. James Parish Church Juba, Diocesan Secretary of Juba Diocese, Head Anglican Chaplain for Her Majesty’s Prison Service in Bristol UK, and board member and trainer for the Episcopal Church of South Sudan’s Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Commission.
The Rev’d Dr Manfred Deselaers
Fr Manfred is a Roman Catholic priest from Germany. Since the 1990s, he has lived in the city of Oświęcim [formerly Auschwitz] in Poland. He now works at the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświęcim where he leads the Programmes Department. In Cracow he lectured about “Theology afterAuschwitz” following completion of his PhD thesis on God and the Evil in the Light of the Biography and Statements of Rudolf Hoess, the Commander of Auschwitz. He was a member of the International Auschwitz Council from 2006 to 2018.
Pastor Ray Minniecon
Ray is a descendant of the Kabi Kabi nation, the Gureng Gureng nation of South-East Queensland, and the South Sea Islander people, with deep and abiding connections to the people of Ambrym Island. He is leader of an Aboriginal congregation, Scarred Tree Indigenous Ministries, at St. John’s Anglican Church, Glebe, New South Wales, and Director of Bunji Consultancies. Ray has started and mentored numerous organisations working with indigenous men and youth, maintaining a strong focus on restoring health and opportunities to the stolen generation of Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their homes under past government policies. He is also Founder of ‘NAIITS Indigenous University’, an Indigenous learning community.
The Rev’d René August
René lives in the lands of The Khoi and the San Peoples, in a country now known as South Africa, in a city now known as Cape Town. She longs to see the reign of God become a more visible sign of God’s love for all creation. As a strategist, thought leader, disciple maker, speaker, author, co-conspirator, trainer, reconciler and friend, and a peacebuilding specialist at Tearfund, René seeks to mitigate against the systemic causes of poverty, injustice and conflict in the world.
The Right Rev’d Dinis Sengulane
Bishop Dinis was Bishop of Lebombo 1976-2014, and had a leading role in bringing together opposing groups in Mozambique’s civil war for talks that resulted in the 1992 General Peace Accord. He is Founder and Patron of ‘Guns into Ploughshares’, which saw 1 million instruments of violence handed over and turned into tools for farming, tailoring or art. He is now Founder and Head of the foundation “Life in its fullness” and remains a parish priest and an Eminent Person in the APRM Panel linked to the Commission of Peace and Security of the Africa Union.
The Right Rev’d Dr Eleanor Sanderson
Bishop Eleanor has been Assistant Bishop of Wellington since June 2017: the first female bishop in the Diocese and the fourth in in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia. Eleanor (Ellie) leads the Diocese’s 3-Dimensional Ministry discipleship programme and maintains a dynamic academic portfolio, as Fellow in Public Theology at the Centre for Anglican Communion Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary and Research Associate at Victoria University of Wellington. Prior to ordination, she served in a wide range of academic and not-for-profit development organisations, gaining a PhD in Geography from Victoria University of Wellington and a Masters in Theology from the University of Otago. Since ordination, she has ministered as Vicar of the Parish of St Alban’s, Eastbourne, Chaplain to Wellesley College, and the Diocesan Canon Theologian.