Episcopal Relief & Development officer heading to USPG: Anglicans in World Mission
Episcopal News Service. February 23, 2011 [022311-03]
Episcopal Relief & Development Senior Program Officer Janette O'Neill will on May 1 become general secretary/chief executive of USPG: Anglicans in World Mission.
O'Neill, who has worked extensively in the Anglican Church in many parts of Africa, will succeed Bishop Michael Doe, the current general secretary, who is retiring.
London-based USPG works in direct partnership with Anglican churches in more than 50 countries, supporting their efforts in health care, education, leadership training and action for social justice, according to the organization's website. USPG stands for the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and was founded in 1701 by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to send priests to the American colonies to provide English colonists with access to the worship of the Church of England, according to a timeline here.
"Following a highly competitive recruitment process, Janette emerged as an outstanding individual to lead the restructured USPG into a new phase of its life as an Anglican mission society," Canon Linda Ali, chair of the USPG trustees, said in a press release. "Janette has an excellent academic background with an extensive track record of church mission programs, supporting the life and work of Anglican churches around the world. She is already well-known and highly respected throughout the Anglican Communion. Janette will be a great asset to USPG during these challenging times."
O'Neill earned a degree in history from the University of Wales and lived in Lesotho in Southern Africa from 1987 to 1996, according to a biography that accompanied the release. She worked first for Save the Children Fund (UK) and then joined the Anglican Church in Lesotho to lead the development office. In 1998, after completing a research project into the sustainability of health institutions owned by the Anglican Church in Lesotho, O’Neill earned an MBA from Warwick University (UK).
She joined Episcopal Relief & Development in 2000, where she helped advise the organization as it shifted from traditional grant-making to a focused partnership model of supporting Anglican churches in their development work, the USPG release said. This included helping to set policy and devise strategy for HIV and AIDs programming in Africa, and spearheading a policy for capacity-building and transformational development at provincial and national level.
She also designed the first phase of the agency's NetsforLife malaria-control program that educates church communities across 17 national churches in Africa on the causes and preventive treatments for malaria, the release said. In its first phase, the effort reached more than three million people. Most recently, O'Neill has been responsible for the development of an integrated strategy for Episcopal Relief & Development in post-conflict and fragile states, including Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Liberia.
"I look forward to making and renewing relationships with USPG's partners around the Anglican Communion, and to meeting its many faithful supporters in the dioceses and parishes here," O'Neill said in the release.
Doe said that O'Neill's appointment completes a restructuring of USPG begun last year. "All the staff are looking forward to working with Janette as USPG faces the future with renewed purpose and confidence," he said.