Bishop's Address to DIOCESAN CONFERENCE 2008
I have spent most of this week in Bangor where we were going through the process of electing a new diocesan bishop. We heard wonderful statements about the role of a bishop – to be a successor of the apostles, the focus of unity, a guardian and teacher of the faith, an encourager in mission and much more. And I firmly believe that a bishop is each of those things, but in the end a diocesan bishop has a diocese to run. His parishes expect to have the care of a priest and the stipendiary priests expect to be paid at the end of the month.
The United Kingdom – perhaps even the world – is going through a financial crisis and the reality for any organisation is that you have to pay your way, or increase your income, or cut your costs - and a diocese is no different.
You will hear later this afternoon that our finances come from two major sources – the block grant of about £1m which is pure subsidy - which could make any English diocesan bishop green with envy – and we have the parish share. You will also hear that for the first time we have a deficit budget although we had forecast it and made provision, so there is no need for panic – but there is need for concern.
When you look at the ages of most of our congregations and the level of giving; when you hear that parishes are struggling to pay their parish share we know that we have a choice – to increase our giving, increase our congregations or reduce the number of clergy below our planned levels.
For the past five years apart from doing the day to day job of bishoping, I have been working with my staff team to put all our efforts into growing the church in this diocese. We have slowed down decline and seen an increase in vocations. We have some fresh expression initiatives and a strategy for growth and I want to outline what we are doing to face the challenge of reducing to 65 incumbents by 2013 and to prepare the church for the challenges of the future.
Firstly, we recognise that the leadership of our clergy and lay ministers is important. We have introduced servant leadership training and now regular ministry reviews. We have conferences for our area deans and for our licensed clergy – the next one will be in France next year. We arrange quality training and make provision for sabbatical and study leave. This year, I am spending two months in the parishes being alongside the clergy to share the cure that is both theirs and mine.
We have responded to the request for lay training and Judi Hattaway and others are hoping that we can soon introduce a discipleship course that will be delivered in several places throughout the diocese, and because renewal can only take place when our hearts are turned to God, we have provided courses in guided prayer and spiritual direction.
The appointment of a full time Director of Training has resulted in an increase in vocations and an interest from people exploring vocation. Canon Ambrose Mason has been visiting clergy chapters with the document Ministry 21 to consult the clergy about the future patterns of ministry in the diocese.
We are encouraging new ventures in mission. We have a new church plant on a housing estate led by a Reader which is growing from strength to strength. We have the LAB, a church for young people in Newport. We have just appointed the first official chaplain at the university in Newport (paid for by the university) and tomorrow I shall be blessing a vicarage on a large housing estate where five young Christians are living in community and seeking to reach out to those in the area. And I know that John Leach is working with various parish clergy to explore mission initiatives.
We have encouraged people to take part in pilgrimages as a reminder that we are a pilgrim people and it was wonderful to spend time with some of you in the Holy Land earlier this year. Parishes are engaged in MAPping (developing their Mission Action Plans) with varying degrees of enthusiasm and success, and we need to look to encourage realistic levels of financial giving – the highest level of giving per person per week is in the Deanery of Blainau Gwent, the poorest area in the diocese.
In addition, we are reviewing our ministry to children and young people to build on the good things that are happening, and I have been encouraging people to engage more deeply with the scriptures and I have committed every weekday evening in Lent to share the delights and depths of St John’s gospel with you. My own staff team has also been MAPping to decide our priorities in serving the needs of the diocese.
I tell you all this, not to blow my own trumpet, but to try to show that we are working our socks off to serve the parishes. Sometimes there is a sense of 'them and us' – those in the parishes and the diocese (which usually means me). I understand all that because I have been a parish priest for most of my ministry, but the bishop and his team exist to serve the parishes and to encourage new ways of being the church.
Today, we are to hear about an initiative to welcome people back to church – to welcome back those who once went to church but lapsed, as well as those who might wish to go to church for the first time. It has proved very successful in many places and, given the right preparation and approach, should prove very effective in this diocese. I am aware that our communities are full of people who used to go to church or chapel and who might be looking for an opportunity – an invitation – to be welcomed back into a Christian community. I only hope that when they do go back they will find a welcoming, loving, gospel-centred and Christ-centred community with good worship and teaching and that they will not simply rediscover why they stopped going to church in the first place. If ‘Welcome back to Church Sunday’ is to work, it needs to be done well and with cooperation between clergy and laity.
And so it gives me great pleasure to welcome Michael Harvey who has much experience of the ‘Welcome back to Church Sunday’ initiative and he is going to explain to us how it works and how parishes in Monmouth could do it.....
[There will be news of the plans for Back to Church Sunday in our diocese meanwhile, you can look at http://www.backtochurch.co.uk/]