Encounter Program

Support Anglicans from our Partners as they visit Australia to learn from – and teach – us about the similarities and differences in our approaches to mission.

Now that air travel has come back to life and Australians can travel overseas, we are able once again to receive Encounter visitors to this country. It’s a great feeling.

ABM’s Encounter Program is a way in which specially selected candidates from our overseas Partners can come to Australia for up to three months and work on agreed personal educational goals while being attached to one or two parishes or church entities during their stay. This allows them to learn about things that will be useful for them when they return to their own churches, and it allows Australian Anglicans to learn more about our Partners and the contexts they come from.

Recently, discussions have been had with the Rt Rev’d Reginald Makele, who is the Bishop of the New Guinea Islands in Papua New Guinea. His diocese covers islands such as New Britain, New Ireland, Manus, and Bougainville. He will be nominating a candidate to ABM and we expect that he will be able to travel to Australia in the second half of 2024. At the time of writing, we expect that he will spend at least some time, if not all, in South Australia. This is wonderful news because it has been a long time since we have been able to have a visitor from PNG and even longer since we have had one from the Diocese of the New Guinea Islands. Bishop Reg came to Australia himself as an Encounter Visitor some time ago to the Diocese of Newcastle. He is enthusiastic about the benefits that such visits can bring to those who are selected to come to this country. And he knows firsthand how transformative it has been to his own ministry.

Donations to this project help ABM to pay for flights to and from the visitor’s country. They also support the stipend that ABM pays to visitors during their time in Australia so that they can buy any incidentals they need during their visit. We ask Australian parishes to host visitors and we are always glad to hear from parishes who are willing to host visitors. It’s a great way of encountering Anglicans from other parts of the world and learning from them about how the Church in their part of the Anglican world is similar to but different from ours. 

A donation to this project will enable ABM to facilitate the hosting of our first Encounter Visitor since the pandemic period.