These webpages contain everything you need to know about our time together and details of the various talks and events you can sign up to.
We’d love to see your highlights from the conference! Tag us in your posts @oxforddiocese on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Keynotes will be recorded and available to view on demand at youtube.com/oxforddiocese
Jump to: General information | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday
Welcome from Bishop Steven
Dear Friends,
Thank you for making our clergy conference a priority and for giving up the time to be here. Thank you for the ministry you offer, day by day and week by week, in hundreds of communities across the Thames Valley.
We meet once more in a time of turmoil in the world when we need, more than ever, deep roots, God’s grace and love. We meet after what has been a time of turmoil in the life of the Church of England, when we have needed to lament and repent and seek fresh grace.
We come together to focus on the profound truths of ministry in God’s Church. Each of us has been chosen, called and commissioned by God to be bearers of hope and of good news in this generation and this place. We are called, by the grace of God, to work together for God’s kingdom and God’s Church. Our plenary speakers and our workshop leaders will help us to explore what these three themes might mean in such challenging times.
Paradoxically, we also meet in a season of hope for the Church, when there are signs of new life and grace in many different contexts. In our Bible readings we will focus on another, and different time of life and grace in the early Church as we explore the three great, profound conversion stories in Acts 8, 9 and 10 and what these might mean for our own ministries.
We will be reminded all the way through the conference, and most of all in our worship, that the mission to which we are called is God’s mission, and God is at work in God’s world. As ever, nothing is compulsory in our time together, so navigate the conference programme in the way that best nourishes you, and take time for deep connection with one another and with Jesus, our Lord.
Thank you for being here, and may God bless this time in the life of our diocese.
Jump to: General information | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday
General information
Once you’ve registered, take a moment to familiarise yourself with the layout of the site. A site map can be found in your conference folder. You’ll be able to access your room from 3pm onwards using the key card given to you at registration.
Our opening Eucharist takes place at 11:30am in the Derbyshire Hall, with gathering worship from 11:20am. Lunch is provided in the dining rooms from 1pm.
We’re pleased to welcome St Andrew’s Bookshop to the conference. Be sure to visit them in the Lounge from 1pm on Tuesday through to 11:15am on Thursday.
A small number of people have rooms at the nearby Travelodge (SatNav DE55 1HJ). If this is you, you'll have been told in the joining instructions sent to you week commencing 28 April.
In the event of a non-medical emergency, please call 0787 655 3882 or speak to a member of the conference planning team (red lanyards).
The chaplains at our conference are Bishop David Jennings and Sr Elizabeth Jane. They are available for prayer, counsel and accompaniment or to hear confessions (if asked). They are available either by approaching one of them wherever they happen to be, or meeting by arrangement in one of the designated chaplain’s rooms (Quiet Room 1, between rooms 334-336 and Quiet room 2, between rooms 356-357). The Chapel is also available for most of our conference as a quiet prayer space.
The bar offers a wide range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks as well as snacks. Card payment only. Fairtrade tea, coffee and other hot drinks are available free of charge from the Lounge throughout the conference.
You have free use of an indoor gym equipped with running, cycling, and rowing machines and weights. The sports hall is also available for football, badminton, and basketball. Croquet equipment is by the main house lawn.
Conference Prayer
Father, you chose Philip to run beside a chariot;
Jesus, you called Ananias to radical welcome and forgiveness;
Holy Spirit, you commissioned Peter to cross boundaries of race and culture.
Grant us grace as we meet together,
Inspire our contemplation,
Rekindle our compassion,
And restore our courage to bear joyful witness to your love.
Make us, in these days, a more Christ-like Church for the sake of your world,
Through Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord. Amen.