ODDI WRTH YR ESGOB...
FROM THE BISHOP...
On this page you can read an edited version of Bishop Gregory's letter to the clergy of the diocese.
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Archive
June 2009
Ad Clerum * Feast of S Justin Martyr
1st June 2009
“Llefara, Arglwydd, canys y mae dy was yn gwrando.”
“Speak, Lord, for your Servant is listening”
(1 Samuel 3.10)
Thank You
I seem to be saying “Thank You” rather a lot these days, but there is no harm at all in that - and there is a lot to say thank you for. At the moment, I would like to say an especial thank you to all those who have found the time and energy in various ways to greet the family on arrival at Esgobty. We live in the midst of boxes, and will for a time yet, but the steady stream of cards and gifts - homemade cakes and the like - make us feel that we’re on to a good thing!
Feedback and Ad clerums
I’m grateful to all of you who are giving me feedback. It seems to me that the essence of ministry is mutual communication, and such feedback is essential for me as I seek to get the measure of this new ministry. I think I intend to move to a bi-monthly pattern of Ad Clerums - January, March, May, July, September and November - you can’t want the bishop to be writing all the time. I have also taken a decision about their publication on the website. An Ad Clerum is what it says in the Latinate title - To the Clergy - and that gives it a confidential flavour. The practice has been to publish them in their entirety on the website, and there is good reason for this: an Ad Clerum will often contain information which is useful for all the diocese to know. It will give news of the bishop’s ministry and be a means of communication in which all can share. But equally, there will be things which are said confidentially to the clergy. I have decided therefore that an edited version will appear in future on the website, and that I will omit those matters about our shared ministry which are more properly treated with sensitivity.
Diocesan Business
The Standing Committee met on 18th May in Welshpool. This, for some reason, seemed to reduce the attendance, but it was good to have my first committee meeting, and people didn’t seem too aggressive. There are a couple of items of business that arose at that meeting, however, to which I would like to draw general attention.
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Deanery Conference Review
As you will know, this review is looking at the role and place of the Deanery Conference in our shared life. The review group only received 7 out of 18 from their questionnaires, although this may be because some deaneries haven’t yet had a suitable meeting at which to compile their response. I must confess to a little disappointment at the low rate of return however; it points to the importance of offering feedback once again. Our work as a diocese needs to be corporate. Our mission needs to be one which captures the enthusiasm of every member of the Body of Christ in this part of the world - and I’m conscious of the ecumenical implications of saying this as well. This means that I am looking for a participatory diocese, in which people can and do contribute, and in which they will know that their opinions count and make a difference.
The big question that the Review Group is asking is: How can we determine the role of the Deanery Conference before we have really determined the role of the Deanery in our life and mission? We need therefore to be doing some thinking about why our deaneries exist. The next step - the review group have indicated - will be to seek a meeting with the bishop, and get his views, but in the meantime, do contribute to the discernment process. Archdeacon John is the Chair of the group, and will - I am confident - be keen to hear from you.
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Archiepiscopal See
In Spring 2010, Governing Body will probably be given the opportunity to revisit the question of whether the Church in Wales should have a permanent home for the Archbishop of Wales. This is not a new question, but it has become a pressing one again with the growth of Welsh Assembly Government, and the amount of international work that the Archbishop has to undertake. When Archbishop Barry retires, should a new pattern be adopted? There is a consultation paper (which has been published on the Church in Wales provincial website and can be downloaded (pdf 117k) from http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/resources/clerics/docs/C03.pdf), and a summary has been produced by Canon Jonathan Williams (of the Diocese of Monmouth), which I attach with his permission (see Links). The report proposes, if I have got it right, the establishment of a permanent home for the archbishopric in Llandaff, with procedures for the election of a “Bishop in Llandaff”, who will rank as a full diocesan bishop for the purposes of the Constitution when it comes to his election and participation in Governing Body and so on, and who will effectively minister as the bishop for the diocese.
I understand that the Bench of Bishops will be considering the matter at their meeting at the end of the year, and feedback (This is becoming a bit of a theme!) is being sought from the dioceses on their opinions. This is being canvassed in different ways in the different dioceses. Llandaff is holding a special Diocesan Conference, Monmouth has remitted discussions to the Deanery Conferences (So that’s what they’re for …), and so on. In St Asaph, we’re going to hold a special meeting which anyone can attend on 28th September at 7.30pm at the Cathedral. You may choose to attend because the decision will have an impact on the witness and work of the Province in the fullness of time, and we’ve got to give a coherent answer as the diocesan response to the powers that be.
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Diocesan Conference
The Diocesan Conference will be held on Sunday 21st June at the cathedral at 2.30pm. The main speaker this year will be … the Bishop, who will be setting out something of his vision for his ministry, and a number of respondents, who have been invited by the Standing Committee, to give an appraisal of what the bishop has to say. Again, this is a vital opportunity for common discernment. I haven’t asked the archdeacons what attendance among the clergy is like, but I hope that you will all wish to be there. Who knows how the Holy Spirit might move the assembly, and what might happen if you’re not there to give a word of common sense?
The reports for Diocesan Conference will be published and sent out before 5th June. I am in a dilemma about these. On the one hand, people don’t like ploughing through acres of paper which tell them things that they thought that they already knew. On the other hand, these pages will contain an account of the stewardship of our combined ministry, and of the work and witness which is exercised on our behalf by the various diocesan officers, which makes impressive reading, and contains the seeds of our future life and vision. How do we treat these reports with the respect they deserve, and in a way which gets the ownership that such ministries need if they are to flourish? I have to be honest, I think they were given only cursory attention at the Standing Committee, and it doesn’t look as if they are given much more at the Diocesan Conference. I will be looking for ways in which to honour and nurture the work which is being done, and generate ownership and vision.
In the meantime, do read and respond to the reports when you get them - to me, to the archdeacons, to the officers responsible.
Church Reordering
My first parish visit was to celebrate the completion of the re-ordering of St Mary’s Broughton on 24th May. I have to say that I was impressed. This small Church has undertaken a massive work to turn the back half of the nave into community facilities - a coffee shop, loos, meeting and prayer rooms over two floors, complete with spiral staircase and lift. My congratulations to Mike Douglas and to all his parishioners on bringing this work to completion. They have been helped in all this by Robin Wolley, the cathedral architect. In particular, they have been left with a worship space which is warm, welcoming and intimate, well appointed and well lit.
I believe that the work in St Mary’s is a model of what we should be doing in our Church buildings. What has been done there is a particular response to particular needs of course. I know that there are a number of re-ordering projects going on in the diocese, and that I will be sharing in the celebration of these or getting to see them in due course. This is only the one that I happen to have visited. And St. Mary’s has funds from the sale of their church hall that made this particular work possible.
However, a place which facilitates worship which is uplifting, transcendent and physically comfortable is another essential element in our witness and evangelism, and the work here and elsewhere is something that will have to be repeated until every Church in the diocese is a place which to enter is a joy. I wonder whether there is a way to exemplify and share best practice - CME, Alan? - in the meantime, my thanks to St. Mary’s for an uplifting first Sunday in the parishes.
Ave atque Vale
I am sure that we will be holding Tudor and Philip in our thoughts and prayers. Tudor Hughes will add Holt to his pastoral responsibilities on 3rd June and Philip Clarke is taking on the role of House for Duty Priest in Charge of Caerwys & Bodfari on 3rd September.
Martyrdom
1st June is the feast day of Justin Martyr, one of the earliest Christian teachers and martyrs. Justin reminds us that martyrdom is witness to Jesus Christ, not only in the readiness to lay down our lives, in the ultimate analysis, on behalf of the faith we have found in him, but also martyrdom in the sense of witness by the commitment, wholeness and holiness of our lives and by being able to give an account of our faith which is attractive and inspiring to the world. It will be my prayer for us all that something of the spirit of Justin will be freshly awoken in our lives this month.
In Christ,
