Liverpool Hope University will host the 2022 National Deacon Assembly from Friday 2nd September - Sunday 4th September 2022.
Exploring the theme of ‘50 years and counting. Permanent Diaconate – past, present… future’, the event will bring together members from across the globe.
It marks the renewal of the permanent diaconate as an active, permanent order of ministry, and looks forward in a changing world to how the diaconate will continue to be “a driving force for the Church’s service or diakonia toward the local Christian communities and a sign or sacrament of the Lord Christ Himself” (Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Ad Pascendum, Introduction).
Three keynote speakers will be featured at the conference:
- Mgr Professor Paul McPartlan - Diocese of Westminster - Carl J Peter Professor of Systematic Theology & Ecumenism at Catholic University of America.
- Deacon Gerald Dupont - Archdiocese of Galveston, Houston - President of International Diaconate Centre, National Assoc of Deacon Directors USA
- Rev Professor John Morrill - Emeritus Prof of History at Cambridge - Deacon of Diocese of East Anglia, lecturer in Church History & Pastoral Theology
Sir John Battle, former Labour MP, Chair of Leeds Diocese Justice & Peace Commission, Knight Commander with Star of the Order of St Gregory the Great, will speak at a Gala dinner taking place as part of the event, while Archbishop Malcolm McMahon OP, Archbishop of Liverpool, will also be in attendance.
A series of interactive workshops discussing Safeguarding, Climate Crisis, Ecumenism, Lay Ministries, Ministry Research, Synodal Pathway, and Marriage Enrichment for Clergy REFOCCUS, will invite discussion and forward thinking among attendees.
The event is produced as part of the Ministry Research Project based at Liverpool Hope.