Last updated 1st April 2026

2026 Diocesan Conference

We are getting closer to the Diocesan Conference 2026 - also our centenary year as a Diocese.

Bishop Jill, who is Conference Lead and Rev Damian Platt, who is Conference Planning Group Chair, have written again to clergy in our parishes with further information and details of how to book; including a link to the conference brochure which is now finalised and gives you a full view of the exciting line-up planned across the four days. 

• The Conference Brochure can be viewed by clicking here. 
• The full text of the letter can be found below and bookmark this page for future updates.

Note that residential places are available for every licensed clergy person, along with the opportunity for one lay leader from every parish or chaplaincy, who will be selected by the Vicar to attend. 

Dear Friends,

Conference 2026 – Brochure and bookings

We are pleased to introduce the brochure for our four-yearly Diocesan Conference. Join us for long summer days at the leafy campus of Liverpool Hope University, 6-9th July in our Centenary year. You can view it here. 

Our prayer is that our conference will refresh you, heart, soul, mind and strength, and refresh our family relationships across our Diocese – deepening old wells of friendship and building new channels.

Found by Jesus is our theme, based around the books of Luke-Acts drawing on an exciting line up – homegrown and international. All the fun of the festival, with red carpet centenary party on the final night.

Residential places are available for every licensed clergy person and one lay leader from every parish/chaplaincy; honouring the significant place of lay leadership in our diocese. If you haven’t done already, book soon as places are limited. Bookings are accepted via the Fruitful App.

As Diocesan conferences are rare opportunities, please do all you can to avoid turning up solo. There will be plenty of networking opportunities for lay leaders as well. 

Our preference is for people to attend for the whole conference, however if your lay leader can only make one of the full days they are welcome to select this option on the App. In this instance the parish or chaplaincy might want to invite a second lay leader for the other day. Any queries please contact Canon Jean Duerden at conference@blackburn.anglican.org

Liverpool Hope is a new location for us, closer to home, chosen so we can welcome additional day visitors on 7th or 8th July, and so we extend this offer to include all our School heads, all staff at Clayton House, our Cathedral and Bishop’s House. Keynotes will be available by live stream with bespoke hosting, so we can extend the widest possible welcome.

We look forward to seeing you there

Rt Revd Dr Jill Duff

Canon Damian Platt, Conference Working Group Chair

Further information

• As in 2022 and 2018, our conference is a time of refreshment. Time away with God and our diocesan family. Our theme is Found by Jesus, delving into the books of Luke and Acts. 
• It is from these two books that the conference theme of being Found by Jesus is drawn. As this old hymn says, “we were lost, but Jesus found us, burst the bonds of death that found us, wrapped the robe of grace around us, and the heirs of glory crowned us” (John Henry Sammis, 1910).
• The year of the conference coincides with our celebration of 100 years as a Diocese, with much to give thanks to God for. We will have four days together in the beautiful surroundings and brilliant facilities of the 500-seater Chapel and other buildings which form part of the 37-acre Hope Park Campus at Liverpool Hope University.
• One of the great things about the venue for the conference is the travelling time – the very most the journey will be is 1 ½ hours but for many across the Diocese the journey is less than an hour. Far enough to get away from it all but not too far to exhaust us before we even arrive!
• The conference planning team is working hard to deliver a finely tuned conference programme. There is high-quality input from theologians and practitioners from near and far, worship to represent the breadth of our traditions, workshops to inspire, as well as time to feast, laugh, play, be filled and simply ‘to be'. 
• View the conference brochure here.

Ronnie Semley, last updated April 2026