'Any mission agency's role is to represent the community of God with a human face. USPG's mission is to show the human face of God to our world, that struggles with poverty and injustice,' said the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan Williams, at a commissioning service in London on Monday to commission the Rt Revd Michael Doe as the new General Secretary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel).

Bishop Michael brings to USPG wide experience of civic and church life, working in local, national and international contexts. His ministry has varied from parish work in two Urban Priority Areas, being Youth Secretary of the British Council of Churches, and a Social Responsibility post while a Canon of Portsmouth Cathedral. For the past ten years he has been Bishop of Swindon in the Diocese of Bristol, and recently came to the end of a four-year term chairing the Enabling Group of Churches Together in England.

Bishop Michael said of the role of USPG: 'Organisations like USPG have a vital role to play in building bridges between churches in different parts of the world, often responding to very different cultures and challenges.'

Douglas Yates, Chairman of USPG, said: 'We are delighted to have appointed to USPG someone with such wide experience. We feel sure he will build on the work of our former General Secretary - Bishop Mano Rumalshah, now Bishop of Peshawar, in Pakistan - and lead the Society in its vital work of serving the Anglican Communion, in playing an effective part in God's mission and in seeking increased support from the church here.'

Bishop Michael has already visited USPG partners in North India, Ghana and Nigeria. Comparing his recent visits to ECUSA, in New York, and the first-ever Conference of Africa Anglican Bishops, Bishop Michael said he is very aware of the stresses and strains which currently beset the Anglican Communion.

'The church is called to be catholic' he says. 'As Anglicans we treasure the inheritance of our faith, but we also seek to proclaim it afresh in each generation. For us, catholicity is about holding together different perspectives and living together in inter-dependence. Much that is happening in our church and around the Anglican Communion today endangers this calling. I long for a church which is inclusive, respects difference, and witnesses to reconciliation.'

USPG is an Anglican mission agency with a successful 300-year track record of enabling people to grow spiritually, to thrive physically and to have a voice in an unjust world. We do this alongside churches and communities around the world, providing the resources - people, money and ideas - that they define as necessary to meet local needs.