Territorial Appointments Conference 2026: Discerning the territory’s needs

Lieut-Colonel David Shakespeare encourages us to pray for the Territorial Appointments Conference this week.

The Territorial Appointments Conference begins this Sunday (11 January) at William Booth College, when Territorial Leaders Commissioners Jenine and Paul Main will lead delegates in gathered worship.

Later in the day, senior members of the Officer and Territorial Envoy Department and the Mission Service will meet with divisional leaders to continue to discern the needs of the territory and understand how appointed leadership can help strengthen and advance the Army’s work and impact in the UK and Ireland Territory at this time.

The conference runs until 15 January and the week is part of a much bigger conversation about what leadership within The Salvation Army in the 21st century looks like, and how best to deploy covenanted leaders so they flourish and are fruitful in their ministry and can strengthen the ways in which the Army fulfils its mission in local settings in increasingly diverse contexts.

Over the past few months there have been careful conversations with officers and territorial envoys, which include consideration of children’s educational and emotional needs and wider family or health concerns. Local leadership teams have also contributed helpfully about ongoing ways of service and future initiatives. This documented consultation process is part of the wider listening exercise and has enabled a strategic and greater collaborative approach to divisional planning.

There have also been conversations with officers who are returning to the territory after service in other parts of the worldwide Salvation Army so that they are supported during their adjustment to living and serving in their home territory once again. This includes considering some of the ways that life in the UK and Ireland has changed in the past five years. There have been significant changes within The Salvation Army over this time as we seek to discern how best to live out our values as we love God and love others.

The Territorial Appointments Conference is not a decision-making group: after discussion and discernment, it makes recommendations to the Territorial Appointments Board, where proposed appointments are reviewed and ratified. This group is chaired by Commissioner Jenine. 

Prayer and worship are important elements of the conference. Lieut-Colonel Judith Payne, the conference chaplain, will remind delegates of the truth that ‘all I have needed thy hand hath provided’ (SASB 26), as we acknowledge that God has given us all we need in order to do his will.

In November 2025 a powerful new call to prayer was launched by the Candidates Unit to pray for future leaders of The Salvation Army. Everyone has been encouraged to set an alarm for 9.38am every day and join with others throughout the territory to pray to God to ‘send out workers’ (Matthew 9:38).

Over the coming days, include the Territorial Appointments Conference in your thinking and praying, asking that wisdom and discernment are given so that the appointments process is part of God sending his covenanted people to places where they can do his will.

Reflect and respond

• Read through the lyrics of ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’ (SASB 26). Meditate on God’s faithful provision and pray for discernment in using what he has provided to do his will.
• Reflect on Joshua 3:5 and pray for confidence and trust in God to do wonders among us in this territory.
• Join in the 9.38 prayer initiative every morning! Find out more at salvationist.org.uk/prayer-initiative-938.