The Beckly Social Services Lecture is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2026 and the special conference marking this important moment will be delivered by Roland Fernandes, the General Secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM) and the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), who is also member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges, and Universities (IAMSCU). The event is being held in person during the Methodist Conference in Telford and transmitted virtually. The title of Fernandes’s lecture is “Together towards life in a world of division” and will consider the current reality of political polarization, aggressive discourses, and the expansion of inequality, exclusion, and injustice while also considering the alternatives offered by recent theological positions that affirm the primacy of life.
Roland Fernandes is the General Secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM), General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), and the United Methodist Commission on Relief (UMCOR), the humanitarian agency of The United Methodist Church. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges, and Universities (IAMSCU) and its Executive Committee, and is a member of the Board of Directors of several Methodist-related educational institutions, including American University and Meharry Medical Colleges (United States) and Africa University (Zimbabwe). Besides his leadership positions in the educational field, Fernandes holds many positions related to worldwide mission, relief, and development.
The Beckly Social Services Lecture was established in 1926 by John Henry Beckly, a lay Wesleyan Methodist who founded the Beckly Trust to sponsor yearly conferences and lectures on the importance of connecting social questions and possible theological answers. The original charter of the Beckly Trust states that “the function of the Lectureship shall be to set forth the social implications of Christianity and to further the development of a Christian sociology and the expressions of the Christian attitude in reference to social, industrial, economic and international subjects.” The 100th Beckly Social Services Lecture is being held on Monday, June 29 at 18:45-20:15 (1:45-3:15 pm ET). For more information, visit the website https://jpit.uk/beckly-lecture. To register for the lecture, visit the Beckly Lecture 2026 site.