Speaking at the USPG Conference ahead of the football World Cup which begins on June 11th, the Most Revd Alba Sally Sue Hernández Garcia – the Archbishop of Mexico (co-hosts of the World Cup alongside Canada and the U.S.A) – voiced her thoughts on the security situation in Mexico surrounding the tournament.
The archbishop commented: “The situation is very difficult, with challenges including the presence of drug cartels, forced disappearances, violence against girls and women, the exclusion of indigenous communities, and armed attacks to seize territory from communities that have been displaced from their lands, among others. While the World Cup will generate passion and some economic activity, there will be no profound changes or answers to the true needs of the Mexican people.”
Her comments came during USPG’s ‘For Christ is our Peace’ conference which re-examined the Church’s role as an agent of ‘Just Peace’ in the modern world. The conference provided an opportunity for delegates to reflect theologically and practically on the relationship between justice, peace, and conflict through a variety of keynote addresses, workshops, and panel sessions.
The Revd Canon Dr Duncan Dormor, General Secretary at USPG, said: “As we get caught up in football fever at the World Cup in North America this summer, we must remember the lives being impacted by the situation in Mexico. It is almost always the poor who suffer the most, and it is within these communities that the Anglican Church of Mexico is standing up, speaking out, and taking action to address issues of deep injustice, conflict, and violence.”
The director of the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice in Dublin, Dr Jude Lal Fernando, also addressed delegates at the conference, highlighting that security concerns are increasingly being prioritised over the basic needs of communities, in an era where hundreds of millions still live in extreme poverty. “When space for peace and dialogue decreases, the space for violence and oppression increases, especially for women and children.”
The Rt Revd Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, the bishop of Willesden, led the Bible studies at the conference, commenting: “Peacebuilding is a dual movement, one that starts internally as a spiritual practice and then manifests in how we inhabit Christ faithfully. Not just as a programme but as a lived reality. I love the courage of USPG to both imagine a future that does not retreat from the challenges of yesterday and then to wrestle in the present with these challenges.”
Dormor continued: “This has been a profound and moving few days. We have heard of the work of Christian individuals and communities who have put themselves in positions of peril which takes great courage, and challenges each one of us. The world is changing. We must ask ourselves not ‘what does peace look like?’ but ‘what does a just peace look like?’. We must deepen our understanding and empathy for one another because we all part of the same body and the same world.”
USPG’s 2027 conference will take place at High Leigh Christian Conference Centre from the 22nd-24th June.