Passionate about making disciples in the rural areas?
is for you:
In September 2025, a national gathering at Bury St Edmunds Cathedral...
Hosted by the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, we shared learnings from across England including including the "Growing in God in the Countryside" project and other rural Strategic Development Funded (SDF) initiatives. You can find resources and presentations from the conference HERE
Shall we have another LoveRural Conference in 2026 - and of so where? Let us know by email HERE
Sally is passionate about rural mission. She was a rural parish priest for over 20 years in Worcestershire, Powys and Norfolk before becoming Archdeacon for Rural Mission in 2019. For the last 7 years she has been Director of the "Growing in God in the Countryside Project". She is currently the leader of the Lightwave Community CIO, a dispersed missional community meeting in small groups accross the rural county of Suffolk.
Mike is Bishop of Exeter , having been Suffragan Bishop in the equally rural diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich for 8 years until 2024. Mike has a national responsibility for Pioneer Ministry, represents the Church of England on the national Fresh Expressions Board and is one of the Bishops’ champions for the mixed ecology. Before becoming a bishop Mike was a Director of Mission & Ministry in Leicester diocese for a decade, having previously been a parish priest in a variety of settings.
Sarah is the Methodist Church's Rural Ministry and Mission Officer. She lives and works in Cumbria and is a member of Penrith Methodist Church and the Mountain Pilgrims Fresh Expressions Community. She serves with ecumenical colleagues on the Joint Public Issues Team and works closely with the Arthur Rank Centre. She seeks to help rural congregations reach out to their communities.
Bishop Richard has been the Bishop of Hereford for five years. Prior to ordination he had a career in agricultural consultancy. He is currently the Church of England Lead on rural issues in the House of Lords. He writes "Mission today often feels like a tension between national strategy and local practice. In this seminar we we’ll be mainly in listening mode seeking to reflect on local experiences of effective mission and how they might better inform the national picture."
Matt Jeffrey is the CEO of the Arthur Rank Centre based in Warwickshire. The Centre is at the forefront of supporting and resourcing rural churches and communities throughout the UK
Simon is lives on a farm in Clare, Suffolk where he is the minister of the Baptist Church. From 2011 until a couple of months ago, he was the CEO of the charity Rural Ministries. Here is developed the concept of Missional Listening as an antidote to cookie-cutter forms of churchplanting and evangelism.
John lives with his family in a small Buckinghamshire village where is is involved with local church and planting a fresh expression of Church. Ordained in the CofE, he is is the director of Myriad which has a vision to nurture thousands of diverse small ecclesial communities for mission, in relational partnership with dioceses and local church.
