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An invitation from Bishop Guli
Since the early days of the Church, Christians have lived with change. Indeed, without change the life of the Church would likely stagnate. So in every generation, the people of God are called prayerfully to discern how we are to respond to new challenges and opportunities; how we are to be God’s people in our own particular time and place and how we are to use the resources God has generously provided, so that we might be a missional presence in the communities we serve.
As it always has been, so it is for us in the Diocese of Chelmsford now and in the years ahead. We are an extraordinary family of churches serving an extraordinarily diverse array of local communities. There are signs of great hope and opportunity as well as significant challenges to face.
In autumn 2026, we will begin a conversation about how we respond to some of these opportunities and challenges. In keeping with Travelling Well Together and our shared diocesan values, our conversation will be open to everyone who is involved in our church communities. It won’t be an easy conversation, and there are difficult questions to address. But it’s a conversation we must hold with hope and expectation rather than fear, reminding ourselves that if we are faithful, God will provide us with the necessary resources. This doesn’t mean God will provide us with the resources we need to keep things as they are or as we want them to be, but that if we prayerfully discern God’s will for the Church in our Diocese we can move forward in faith, knowing that there will be an abundance of resource for those things that God is calling us to do.
So ahead of our conversation, and to prepare our hearts and minds for it well, I want to invite you to join me in 100 days of prayer starting on Ash Wednesday, 18 February 2026, as we begin to discern together what God is beckoning us towards in the Diocese of Chelmsford, in this coming season.
About Travelling Well Together - Sustaining Ministry
In autumn 2026, we will begin a conversation about how we can be an enduring missional presence in Essex and East London in the times and context in which God has placed us.
This section explains how that conversation will take place and how it will be shaped by our diocesan direction of travel and shared values – Travelling Well Together.
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Introducing Travelling Well Together
In 2023, after a period of listening and discernment that began when Bishop Guli became Bishop of Chelmsford, the Bishop’s Leadership Team began to articulate a new direction of travel for our diocese under the title of Travelling Well Together:
- Our purpose is to love God and to love our neighbour, to worship faithfully and empowered by the Holy Spirit, witness to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ as we serve the extraordinarily diverse array of local communities in Essex and East London.
- Our approach is to enable and empower parishes and worshipping communities to discern how they are to be God’s people in their own very different local contexts as part of one diocesan family.
- Underpinning our approach is an invitation to a way of being articulated by shared diocesan values which might shape how we travel well together, support each other and provide mutual accountability.
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How Travelling Well Together has begun to shape our diocesan life
Since 2023, Travelling Well Together has begun to shape our diocesan life, in particular by helping us to address areas of significant challenge and change. Examples include the Parish Share Consultation, which took place at the same time as Travelling Well Together was being developed, our Church Buildings Support Conversation, a new approach to ministerial wellbeing, conversations about the Prayers of Love and Faith and the development of missional plans in each Episcopal Area to be supported by the national Church’s Diocesan Investment Programme. You can read more about these examples on page 10 of our Travelling Well Together booklet.
In each case Travelling Well Together has helped us to:
- Move beyond a top down approach and towards prayerful, local discernment and participative change; praying, listening, and working together with those who are most involved and affected locally
- Recognise that how we face challenges together is as important as the outcome. Many challenges remain, but by focusing on how we Travel Well Together, we can better discern what God is calling us towards.
- Be faithful, creative, courageous and open to the unexpected and surprising.
100 Days of Prayer, 18 February to 29 May 2026
Bishop Guli is inviting people from across the Diocese of Chelmsford to join 100 days of prayer ahead of a conversation about how we Sustain Ministry in the Diocese of Chelmsford, that will begin in autumn 2026.
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Find out more
Everyone is invited to pray individually, in small groups or in church communities over these 100 days beginning on 18 February 2026.
A collection of prayer resources, bible passages and videos, will be made available on this website to support you in your prayers. These will also be shared throughout the 100 days on our diocesan social media channels.
We’ll also be sharing prayers from churches, chaplaincies and schools across our diocese and there will be an opportunity to share those prayers with us from this autumn.
Lent Course – for use during or after Lent
One of the resources that will be shared for the 100 Days of Prayer is a Lent Course. The course can be used in groups or by individuals during Lent, or at any time after Lent as part of the 100 Days of Prayer.
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Find out more
The Lent Course’s presiding scripture is the Emmaus journey (Luke 24.13-35), a road that is both a road of uncertainty and loss (those travelling it are mourning Jesus’s death) and a resurrection road (He is walking alongside them all the time).
The course will be designed to run across 6 sessions.
Early in the New Year, we will share an outline of the course content, suggestions about how to structure sessions and session plans.
Between the middle and end of January, we will share written and video reflections for the course.
Course resources will be shared on this web page and advertised via The View.
100 Days of Listening - 6 September to 15 December 2026
After a pause for reflection, in autumn 2026 we will begin a conversation about how we can be an enduring missional presence in Essex and East London in the times and context in which God has placed us.
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Find out more
This will be a wide-ranging conversation, addressing the challenges of smaller congregations, reduced financial income, fewer ordinands, clergy wellbeing as well as the changed nature of the communities we serve and the significant missional opportunities that are present in Essex and East London. You can read more about some of these challenges and opportunities in the Sustaining Ministry paper that was presented to the March 2025 meeting of Diocesan Synod.
In an approach developed by a team of clergy and lay people from across the Diocese, the Sustaining Ministry conversation will be shaped by Travelling Well Together. There will be:
- A focus on prayer, local discernment and participative change
- Encouragement to be open to what God is calling us towards with the resources he has provided – to think creatively and courageously and to ask brave questions about difficult situations where anxiety may be present.
- An emphasis on using existing structures for conversation, such as deaneries, rather than creating new structures
- Efforts to reach beyond those who normally take part in similar conversations, to involve a broader representation of people from our church communities
- Data and information to equip those who participate in conversations
- Time for participants to explore issues with the necessary depth and creativity and prayerfully discern together
