At Greenbelt 2018 we encouraged festival-goers to seriously re-think what modern dgay mission looks like, to look at the world from a different perspective (with a competitive upside down jigsaw challenge) and consider whether they would like to take part in one of USPG’s short-term placements with a world church partner.
We also had Filippino priest Revd Chris Ablon with us, sharing about the churches radical mission of peace which is landing Filippino Bishops in prison as they stand with the most oppressed in their communities.
We provided a template letter to write to the IFI to support their call for Bishop Carlo to be cleared of all charges. Our own Revd Evie Vernon O’Brien also took a very prominent and creative role in this year’s Communion service which focused on the Windrush which you can watch on Greenbelt's YouTube
The USPG hosted panel discussion was on White Saviour Complex Narratives. Rebecca Boardman, Anthony Reddie and Evie Vernon were the speakers with Richard Bartlett Chairing. They asked the questions: Have missionaries had their day? Do they carry too many vestiges of imperialism, colonialism and conforming ‘others’ to a western culture? Does this simply perpetuate the ‘White Saviour’ complex or might there still be a space for the missional movement of people in the 21st century?