Presidential Address to Diocesan Synod on 14 June 2008

Where God has placed us

The agenda for this Synod focuses heavily on sorting out our own affairs so that we may be more effective servants of the Gospel in this society in this age.  We seek God’s wisdom and direction for the future shape of the diocese, its ministry, its financial situation, its social duty and our general stewardship of the many gifts God has given to us.

As you look at your Bishop you may get a reflection of the predominant image of the centre of the church in this diocese.  White, male and well over 60!  I am sure there are some of our generation who are confused and even bewildered by the challenge of the emerging culture of our time.  You may or may not agree with me that your Bishop is neither confused nor bewildered.  He is, however, very concerned that we take the steps needed to enable a wider range of talent and culture to share in the shaping of the life and mission of the church for the future.

Not only has God placed us in the most vibrant, diverse and developing diocese in the Church of England, but we find ourselves in the midst of a growing generation of people who require the inherited institutions of our national life to demonstrate that they can still serve and meet the aspirations of a different generation.  People’s expectations are for an open, egalitarian and relaxed culture.

We should be encouraged.  Come to the Ordination of Deacons on June 29th and meet a balanced group of women and men, a significant minority ethnic presence, younger candidates from younger cultures and people of different social class who have all felt the call of God to the ministry of the Church.  This Synod, the Bishop’s Council and the new Mission and Pastoral Committee need to reflect this range of human life and experience.

There are two unchanging truths behind this mission imperative.  The first and most obvious is the Gospel itself.  The call of Jesus leaves us no choice.  We are called to follow Jesus.  We are called to imitate Jesus.  The calling and the imitation lead us to cross vital bridges into the other - the people and the communities whose life experience and whose cultural history are other than ours.  One of the joys of my ministry is the privilege of seeing this happening right across the diocese.  It is a joy to see clergy and people, parishes and networks thinking and praying new ways of living the Gospel in our world.  The order – the formal culture – of our church needs to reflect that Gospel imperative more richly than it does at present.

Second, we have a constitutional duty as the Church of England to serve all the people.  As I have said elsewhere, unlike the Post Office, we cannot shut up shop and go to where the trade is better.  We are called to be present among the people whoever and wherever they choose to be.  It is task we share with all Christian communities and in friendship with people of other faiths.  But it is a particular responsibility on the shoulders of the Church of England.  The Establishment has no other meaning apart from that duty to serve the people in the name of Jesus Christ.  An example of this is the new Act of Parliament opening up the doors of our churches to couples who wish to be married in church.  I hope we are going to make full use of this privilege in ministry.

That latter example illustrates how things have to change if we are to remain true to the unchanging Gospel of Christ and our sense of obligation to serve the people in our care.  These matters are at the heart of the proposals in front of Synod to begin to reshape our pastoral order and to strengthen our ministry in public life.

If we are to be more flexible, more collaborative and more immediately responsive we have to face up to the things that make that difficult.

Let us take ministry

• In a diocese as large and diverse as ours we need to have available to us every form of authorised ministry in the Church of England.  That is why we need ordained local ministry.  There are a number of contexts where this will strengthen our capacity to minister effectively to the people.  With our new training arrangements and stronger Parish Development Teams we have the means to carry this forward.  I am anxious about quoting past experience but the Bishop in my former diocese – one third the size of ours - ordained more people last year than we did here.  That is almost exclusively due to an excellent local scheme.  If we use every form of ministry we can we must do so not to fill gaps or as temporary arrangements because we cannot think of anything better but rather because we think it the best way forward into the future.  That must be true for local ministry, House for Duty, SSM, Lay Ministries...
• Are people called to any form of ministry deployable?  It may look good for half a dozen licensed Readers to process into church on a Sunday but what about the needs of the neighbouring communities struggling to fulfil their ministry in new communities, in socially demanding communities etc?  If Readers are ready for this thought we may well have to consider stronger systems of support and in service training.
• What about those many lay people with real gifts who might share in the preaching and teaching ministry of the church – can we structure our training programmes to meet this need?  I know we can.
• If we are the strengthen the ministry of the whole of the church are those of us in Holy Orders ready to give more space and even authority to those who share in the ministry with us?

For the sake of the Gospel we look for your encouragement to press on with these sorts of initiatives.

Pastoral Order matters

My experience is that we need to be in collaborative mode between the parishes and church communities in local communities and the diocese.  The Deanery Vision work gives me enormous encouragement to think we can work in this way.  We can produce some guidelines to help all of us face the issues - you will have some imaginative ideas about how to reshape ourselves for the future.  We cannot have clergy running round multi parish benefices keeping endless PCC’s alive and exhausting themselves trying to ensure sacramental worship in every place.  Can we offer some guidance and can you think how to do it better?  Neither can we have PCC’s and clergy tied up trying to keep buildings alive that have long past their sell buy date.  How can we professional and trusted support to give you a better understanding of what the place of these buildings might be in the future pattern of ministry?

What is viable in terms of size of benefice, stipendiary ministry and future need?  Avoiding the ‘one size fits all’ rigidity we nevertheless need some help and guidance.  Mission themes and factual information brought together.    The diocese needs to provide a framework of guidance that enables the church in the community to think afresh about how it is to be ordered for the future.  Our task is to release resources and to undo unnecessary burdens on clergy and congregations.

The new Mission and Pastoral Committee is going to have to put its mind to such guidance and keep an oversight so that we do not collapse into ad hoc decisions designed to stave off difficult decisions.

Finally, I want to break a rule I set myself and talk about money.  I have always believed that if we do the right things and set our face in the right direction the resources will follow.  God will supply both the people and the finance to do what God directs us towards.

Nevertheless, if we are facing change in patterns of ministry and the shape of our pastoral order we cannot exclude thinking and praying about the financial resources.  It is clear to me that, although we have been doing a lot better and many have risen to the challenge facing us in our deficit, we are still not viable.  We cannot go on spending money we have not got.   Neither can we go on asking those who meet their obligations to carry the burden of those who do not.  Too many parishes have got into a culture of thinking its OK not to meet the Share.  We are not moving that culture out fast enough.  It is not just parishes in demanding social contexts.  We have parishes with large congregations and in well off areas that are not meeting their share and are, therefore, dependent on others to sustain their ministry.  Harwich Deanery meets 100% of its Share – not one of the wealthiest in the diocese.  We must now make that the expectation of us all across the diocese.

For that we need:-

• Every parish and benefice to have a clear Stewardship strategy using the diocesan Strategy
• Every parish and benefice not able to meet its Share to have an agreed programme to get them up to speed – and all parishes feel so much stronger in their ministry when they do
• A growing confidence that encourages a culture of real generosity and rewards that generosity.

Since Ministry costs are what the budget is all about – not some black hole of centralising bureaucracy – the only alternative would be to cut our ministry costs faster and further than has thus far been planned.  I believe our journey of improvement in all of this has not reached the end.  We need your help to demonstrate that this is true.

Let me finish as I began.  Our obligation, in the love of God in Christ, is to serve the people of this great diocese and to contribute to the emerging life of the whole Church of God in Christ.  As the Report out this week ‘Moral, But No Compass’ produced by the Von Hugel Institute suggests the parishes and churches of the Church of England are bedrock to the welfare and well-being of the people.  For the sake of the Kingdom of God we must pray for faith and for courage in meeting the challenge.

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