Registration is ongoing for the 2023 Global Mission Conference to be held at St. Mark’s Church in Tampa, Florida, from noon on Wednesday, May 3, to noon on Friday, May 5.  Sponsored by GEMN, the conference will focus on “Mission: Journey into Healing.” 

Mission activists and Global Mission Advocates are also encouraged to consider arriving a day early for the Mission Formation Program, which will be held in tandem with the conference from noon on Tuesday, May 2, to noon on Wednesday, May 3.  The program provides background in biblical mission, mission history, mission theology, cultural dynamics, and organizational strategies.

Register for one or both events here, where accommodations, the conference schedule, and a Networking Form can be accessed.  An online option for plenary sessions is included.

Three plenary speakers have been named.  Presenting a theological overview of healing in the mission of God will be the Rev. Dr. Alberto Moreno, Latino missioner in the Diocese of Oklahoma and vicar of Espiritu Santo Episcopal Church in Tulsa.  Moreno’s theological analysis includes insights from psychology, anthropology and pastoral practice.  He holds a D.Min. from Virginia Seminary and an M.A. in theology from the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome.  Originally from Mexico, Moreno earlier ministered in the Diocese of Northwest Texas.

Ms. Rebecca vander Meulen, executive director of the J. C. Flowers Foundation in New York City, will address healing in medical mission and public health from her long experience of working with HIV/AIDS, malaria and asset-based community development in southern Africa, particularly in Mozambique.  A graduate of Calvin College, vander Meulen holds a master’s degree in public health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emery University.

Addressing healing amid the legacies of racism and colonialism will be the Rev. Canon Walter Brownridge, canon for cultural transformation in the Diocese of Vermont.  As an Episcopal Church missionary, Brownridge ministered out of St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, during the second decade after the establishment of Black majority rule.  He co-edited and contributed to the Anglican Theological Review’s 2022 tribute volume in honor of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and was a contributor to the 2020 award-winning anthology, Preaching Black Lives (Matter). A General Seminary graduate, Brownridge holds an M.A. from the University of San Diego and a J.D. from Georgetown University.

In addition to the plenary speakers’ themes, panels will address healing mission relationships as the pandemic fades, healing amid poverty, healing from trauma, and the healing of the missioner as a “wounded healer.”  There will be networking opportunities healthcare missioners, newly appointed diocesan Global Mission Advocates, people serving Haiti, and other interest groups.

This is the first in-person Global Mission Conference since 2019.  The 2020 conference was canceled because of the pandemic, and the 2021 conference on creation care and the 2022 conference on women in mission were held exclusively online.

The purpose of GEMN is to gather, inspire and equip people to participate in God’s global mission.  Its core values are humility, inclusion and companionship.