PASTORAL CARE IN
ZONES OF FREEDOM: 1701 TO 2020 By Dr Alison Searle and Emily Vine, University of Leeds. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) has an enormous archive documenting its long history and operations as an incorporated company involved in global mission. When it was established in 1701, the only form of communication between the Society’s headquarters in London, and the various missionaries it employed in the Caribbean and North America, was by handwritten letters.
Our project examines letters from the first twenty years of the Society’s existence. We focus on what they reveal about the Society’s early practices, the ways in which caregiving and oversight were established and administered remotely, and the diverse experiences of early missionaries in a range of contexts. These missionaries sought to provide care to a diverse range of potential and sometimes conflicting congregations (British immigrants and Indigenous people) and to receive care (from the Society, local patrons, and fellow missionaries). Pastoral care, what it involves, and who should administer it to whom remains integral to the global operations of USPG in 2020.
In the wake of Covid-19, practices of remote caregiving to vulnerable and precarious communities as well as how those providing care are resourced and sustained in a crisis have become urgent questions. Exploring pastoral care as a theme, our research creates a dialogue between USPG as a contemporary organisation and its archive. We reflect on SPG’s initial formation as an Anglican mission organisation. Specifically we are interested how its early formation, working across the -Atlantic, shapes and informs its current work and caregiving as a global partner within the Anglican Communion.
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