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 In April over 200 delegates from the UK, USA and Canada met together for the Generosity+MISSION International Christian Stewardship Conference held in Ipswich. This was the first joint conference held between TENS(the Episcopal Network of Stewardship) and the stewardship officers of the Church of England.
The line-up of speakers was impressive to say the least - the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, the former Archbishop of British Columbia and the Yukon, Douglas Hambidge, Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina, the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt. Revd. John Packer, as well as the first lady Bishop of America, Cate Waynick from Indianapolis.
It was a good, worthwhile conference.
So what could we learn from the conference?
- Giving is a joyful, exciting act - yes, even the giving of our finances!
- Giving is an absolute privilege; giving our finances back to God through His church.
- When we give realistically we are not just meeting the monthly bills for the church building but we are able to reach out to a lost, wounded and very frightened world through our mission and ministry.
Bishop Cate said “We do not decide to be stewards, we are created to be stewards”. “It is a given and what we decide is how we are going to exercise that stewardship. We exercise stewardship over every aspect of our lives. We have to be faithful stewards of our relationships, time, skills and gifts, the earth, money, even the good news.”
The Most Revd. Douglas Hambidge reminded us all that “we need to recognise and fully understand that the giving of our tithes and offerings in the context of the liturgy is an act of worship”.
Mary Smith
Diocesan Stewardship and Funding Officer | 
