We fly from London Heathrow at 11.40 am (British Airways flight BA0730), arriving in Geneva airport. From here will transfer by coach to our accommodation, Cret-Berard, a remote Christian centre in the Swiss mountains, in serene and beautiful countryside. After our evening meal we will introduce ourselves and have an informal introductory talk by Professor Stephens. 
Professor Peter Stephens read Modern Languages and then Theology at Cambridge University. He later did research on Luther in the University of Lund (Sweden) and on Martin Bucer in the University of Strasbourg (France) and Münster (Germany). He has published a number of books and many articles on the theology of the continental reformers (especially Bucer, Bullinger, and Zwingli).
He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1960 and his ministry has been both in circuit and theological education including the University of Aberdeen where he was Professor of Church History and Dean of the Faculty of Divinity. As President of the British Conference he made pastoral visits to the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, and addressed the Quadrennial Conference of the Bishops of the four world-wide Methodist Episcopal Churches.
Over the years he has served the church and community in various ways – as a member of International Commissions of the World Methodist Council with the Lutheran World Federation, the Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church, as Founder and First President of the Society for Reformation.
Since being President of the British Conference, he has served as a minister wherever there has been a need, and that included being Chairman and General Superintendent of the Gambia in 2003-2004. In 2010 hereturned to us as President of the Conference and Bishop.
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