Bishop's Visitation Charge 2007

General overview

I have to say that in reading through the Articles of Enquiry there are no big surprises.  What is evident is that some parishes are in good heart.  They say that their churches are growing – numerically or spiritually, or both.  They are engaging with the MAPping process, encouraging one another in ministry and planning for the future.  Others – and they are much in the minority -  have neither engaged with Hope for Monmouth nor the MAPping process. They have not embraced a Fairtrade policy and have little lay involvement in ministry and appear to have adopted a fortress like mentality.  Others, and this often applies to small rural parishes with small congregations, are in the situation where the spirit is willing but they do not have enough people to do the things they would wish.

For most of our parishes, there are concerns about fabric and money.  It is clear that in some cases, when the local congregation cannot maintain a building and grants are not available, that closure seems inevitable.  As a diocese we also have to recognise areas, (such as the site of the former Llanwern steelworks) where major housing developments are planned and there is a need for new communities to have places of worship.

Anglicanism claims to have a simple basic structure – everyone has a parish priest and every priest has a bishop.  We see ourselves as ministering to the wider community and not just our church members.  As Archbishop William Temple said, ‘The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members’ and the way that we exercise a ministry like that, is for us to pool and manage our resources.  The Parish Share is not to pay for your own parish priest but to contribute towards the cost of the ministry and mission of the diocese.  We are fortunate to have a block grant of nearly a million pounds a year from the RB to assist with that, but clearly in planning ahead we have to take into account the number of clergy available, what we can reasonably raise from the Parish Share and where we can most effectively employ our clergy in what is now a missionary church.