Conference 2025
MCN Conference 2025 will be held in Sunderland and Hexham and bookings are now open.
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Programme Outline (subject to change!)
Please check back here for updates
Conference Title :
Pretty & Gritty : Major Church Ministry in Context
Conference Chaplain :
Very Rev Dr Frances Ward
Frankie is a theologian, researcher and writer, preacher, speaker and teacher. From 2010–2017 she was the Dean of St Edmundsbury in Suffolk, and before that a Residentiary Canon at Bradford Cathedral, engaged in inter-faith work with Muslim women.
Her 2019 book Full of Character: A Christian Approach to Education for the Digital Age (Jessica Kingsley Publications 2019) explores the education needed in a world of increasing automation for young people to flourish in their humanity, drawing on Christian theology. James Woodward writes that it’s ‘a gem of a book’: “The text will stimulate you into thinking differently about the nature of character and what shapes or mis-shapes it. It will invite you into a wider horizon of understanding about human flourishing and deserves to be engaged with seriously so that we can mine our hearts and minds in exploring a theology of education that commits itself to changed practice.” Holy Attention: Preaching in Today’s Church, co-edited with Richard Sudworth was published by SCM Press (2019).
(With thanks to Benefice of Workington website for this summary)
Wednesday 24 September
4.00pm : Tea & Registration : Sunderland Minster
5.00pm : Evening Prayer : Sunderland Minster
6.00pm : Dinner
8.00pm : Lord Mayor’s Reception : Lord Mayor’s Parlour : City Hall
The Lord Mayor, Cllr Ethesham Haque, Sunderland's first Lord Mayor of Asian descent, will be hosting us, and Sharon Appelby, CEO of Sunderland BID (Business Improvement District) will be sharing a few words about Sunderland's vision for the future.
Thursday 25 September
7.30am : Breakfast : Holiday Inn
8.30am : Morning Prayer : Sunderland Minster
9.00am : The Sunderland Story : Sunderland Minster : Canon Clare MacLaren, Provost
10.30am : Travel to Hexham
12.00noon : Sandwich lunch in Great Hall, Hexham Abbey
1.00pm : The Hexham Story : Great Hall, Hexham Abbey : Rev David Glover, Rector.
3.00pm : Workshops will be run twice allowing delegates to choose two of:
* Governance resilience
* Business development and commerciality
* Dialogue between civic voice and parish voice
* Common ground and sacred space (heritage / pilgrimage / spirituality)
* Guided tour of the abbey
5.00pm : Evening Prayer
5.30pm : Return to Sunderland
7.30pm : Conference Dinner : The Engine Room
Friday 26 September
7.30am : Breakfast and check out
8.30am : Morning Prayer : Sunderland Minster
9.00am : Major Churches Network AGM : Sunderland Minster
9.30am : “Martyn’s Law” : David Knight, Head of Church Buildings.
10.30am : Carbon Net Zero : panel discussion : Sunderland Minster
12.15pm : Closing Eucharist : Sunderland Minster
1.00pm : Take-out lunch provided to eat on your journey home or with others in the minster.
Cost
Early bird price of £295 until end of June
Full price of £325 from July
Booking
Click here to book