Dr. Elizabeth Perry

My Motivation

The Anglican Alliance connects and equips the world-wide Anglican family to work for a world free of poverty, inequality and injustice, and to safeguard creation.

My own moment of transfiguration happened in early 1998 when I learnt about poor country debt from two people whose countries were at the sharp end. Something inside me caught fire at such injustice. I got involved in campaigning, increasingly understanding the connections between issues: debt, trade, the environment and more.

In his mission statement in Luke 4, Jesus says, “I have come to bring good news to the poor, release to the oppressed.” In John 10 he says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” I am drawn by Jesus’ passionate engagement with the world, the way he seeks the marginalised and puts them centre-stage, and the way he confronts the oppressive powers of his time. Jesus constantly uses the natural world to spin his stories of the Kingdom. Nature is where I feel closest to God too; I am constantly astonished by it.

My Network / Contexts

I am in the UK, living in rural Wiltshire and working in London.

The Anglican Alliance is global. Through our regional facilitators, the relationships within the Anglican Communion and our links to other churches and organisations, we connect with many people and situations across the world. Our priorities are:

  • Responding to the most vulnerable: working to end modern slavery and human trafficking, to raise the rights of migrants and refugees, and to support people affected by disasters and conflict.
  • Promoting equality: supporting the empowerment of women and youth, including sustainable-livelihoods and gender-based and sexual violence.
  • Building a sustainable world: advocating for climate justice, sharing strategies to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, sharing skills on food security, and promoting sustainable development.