Our hopes for this conference

Our message at this conference was one of reconciliation; that ‘God through Christ reconciled the world to himself’ (Colossians 1: 15-20), the theme of Margot Hodson's homily on the first day of the conference and of Richard Bauckham's theological reflection on the second day.

With environmental issues that affect the stability and integrity of God’s earth, this conference was designed to challenge and equip the church for its mission to carry the gospel hope of Jesus Christ to our communities and God’s world, as we build on Coventry’s international reputation as a place committed to a ministry of reconciliation.

We invited participants to join us in responding to the gospel message of hope and reconciliation which can transform our congregations, schools and churches to be places that are united in a desire to re-build the broken places of the world.

Our aim was to:

  • Understand the gospel challenge of reconciliation in a world where there are conflicting demands on the world’s limited resources, looking both to the future and learning lessons from the past.
  • Respond to this crisis by providing a platform for discussion, debate, understanding and resolution, working together to find a way forward for those who seek to understand the nature and extent of the problems and those who seek to exercise their responsibilities as followers of Christ. 

  • Equip delegates theologically with a message of good news that will still have impact 40 years on and to inspire young people to become leaders in reconciling people to God’s creation.

We hoped that participants would come to the conference already well informed about the major problems facing our world as we did not intend to go over this ground with lectures, so we suggested Background Resources to help participants to come prepared. These are as relevant now, after the conference , as they were before.