21 June 2025
The Presidential Address to the 21 June 2025 meeting of the Chelmsford Diocesan Synod by the Rt Rev'd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford.
Good morning. It’s good, once again, to be here with you in the Cathedral. Our agenda today includes an opportunity to reflect together as part of the informal consultations initiated by the national Living in Love and Faith programme board. I am pleased to welcome the Revd Ruth Adams who will be facilitating that agenda item, and I am grateful to you all for engaging with the pre-reading material that was sent out with our Synod papers for today. You may be aware that there is change taking place regarding how the Living in Love and Faith process will be taken forward now that +Leicester has stepped down as lead bishop. I don’t know what that is going to look like, but the efforts of the LLF Working Group continues, and the time we will give to Living in Love Faith today is part of a wider process of diocesan consultations that will inform reports to the House of Bishops and General Synod in due course.
It is right that in this season of Trinity we reflect again on how the God, who has been revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, calls us to live in relationship with one another as the body of Christ, with all the complexity that brings. I am grateful for the reminder from Job in today’s morning prayer, that “with God are wisdom and strength, he has counsel and understanding.” Let us pray for God’s counsel and understanding today and always.
And as we seek counsel and understanding, we know that God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit continues to reveal himself to all people, young and old, and calls us to participate in his mission to make his love known. And that call for us to participate in God’s purpose is as urgent and as present today as it ever has been.
In July, from the 7th to the 13th specifically, parishes and dioceses across the Church of England are being encouraged to “Recognise” all those who are involved in ministry with children, young people and their families, and to thank them for the gift of their ministry. The love of God made known in Christ Jesus is a gift for all ages. And today I want to ‘recognise’ the ministry of those who are in paid or voluntary roles serving children, young people and their families in churches, schools and chaplaincies all over Chelmsford Diocese.
To all of you present here today (and any who may be listening to this), who minister in this area, I want to offer you my most sincere thanks. Your ministry is seen and valued. Thank you for planting and nurturing the precious gift of faith in Jesus Christ in the lives of children and young people in the communities you serve.
Nationally, the Church of England has set the goal of doubling the number of children and young people in our churches and worshipping communities, enabling more children and young people to encounter the love of God. As you know, I’m not so interested on setting outcomes based solely on numerical figures. But let me be very clear, I am very much in favour of supporting work with children and young people, of thinking intentionally in this area, of exploring new ways of engaging young minds, providing space for them to enter in, to find belonging, to ask questions, to explore faith and develop a living relationship with Jesus.
So the goal of connecting with more young people is an admirable one and, of course, it has been set at a challenging time. As the Church of England, we are facing important questions about the way in which we will walk together in the coming years; and as a diocese, like every other diocese, we are living in a time when resources and people are being stretched so thin that we have difficult decisions to make about how to continue being an enduring missional presence in each of our parish communities. Furthermore, the nationally formulated Statistics for Mission are telling us we have grown smaller as a church, and this is true. As we face up to our past and come to terms with our present reality, it can feel like we are being assailed from every side.
But, rather than anxiously mourning our overall decline, let us listen to the voice of God in this season, and let us embrace the opportunities which reducing numbers might offer us; opportunities to renew our life of prayer and discern afresh God's calling upon us. For there are so many people out there who are searching for meaning and we have a story to share which has the power, gently, to break into their lives, planting seeds of new hope. And, moreover, as I travel around the diocese and hear the stories from colleagues and parishes about fewer resources and being stretched thinner, I also hear stories of hope and new life; stories about more young people being confirmed; more young people turning up at our churches, often unable to articulate why they are there, but searching for something to contrast the emptiness of all that society urges them to chase after; longing for deep encounter, and willing to learn more about the Christian faith.
And I meet some of these young people myself. Just last Saturday I was in Nottingham for a gathering of around 150 Persian Christians representing churches from 17 dioceses in the Church of England – many of them young men and women, converts exploring Christianity and eager to understand more; it was a remarkable occasion, brimming with hope and potential, and deeply humbling. Then, on the train back home, there was a young man sitting across the aisle from me. About an hour into the journey, he leaned over and we struck up a conversation. It turned out his name was Damian. I listened as he told me a bit about himself and what was troubling him and we then lapsed back into silence. About 20 minutes later he suddenly turned to me again and asked if I would pray for him, which I did, then and there, as the train rumbled on towards London. Afterwards he thanked me and said it had lifted his spirits. I was deeply touched by this encounter and will remember it for a long time, and will continue to pray for God’s blessing upon Damian and his future.
Just as many parishes are blessed to have people working and volunteering with children and young people, so we are blessed as a diocese. Let me remind you about some of the things that are going on. In particular, I want to acknowledge the work of our Mustard Seed Team of children and youth advisers (Emma Anderton, Ann Sharpe, Belinda Ramsay, and Matt Williamson); and our Education Team (led by Carrie Prior) serving our 140 school communities; and our recently appointed Estates Youth Missional Lead (Alan Moss) who is a resource for parishes serving estate communities.
Over the last 18 months, 20 people from parishes in different parts of the diocese, who are passionate about learning more about how better to share God’s love with children and young people, have completed the Catalyst course at Ridley Hall, alongside 200 other people from across the Church of England. And another Catalyst cohort, enabled and supported by our Mustard Seed Team will, be starting over the coming months. In the Colchester Area, and later this year in the Bradwell Area too, Launchpad, a coaching and enabling resource developed by Youthscape is being offered to incumbents who long to see more children and young people encounter the transforming love of God in Christ in parish communities where this has been more challenging.
Over the last two years our Mustard Seed and Education Teams have been working together on a project called ‘Prayerfully Learning Together’, working with 7 parishes and schools, alongside specialist schools-ministry organisations to explore how prayer can enable children and families to learn more about faith, and connect with their parish church. Our Year 6 leavers services, a recent innovation from our Education team, held here in the Cathedral a couple of weeks ago, brought together over 500 children from our diocesan schools, across 4 services, with prayer stations, reflective activities, and worship. Meanwhile, the Bradwell Schools Pilgrimage has had to add a 5th day this year due to the demand from schools wanting to bring children to learn about pilgrimage and faith. And all of that ministry to children and young people is only a snapshot of the remarkable hard work that parishes, and our diocesan teams, are carrying out every single day. There is much to be thankful for and much that will bear fruit if we are patient and persevere in our shared call to make the love of God known to each generation.
In these days of challenging questions, it sometimes seems that our unity as the body of Christ is threatened. The reality of resources being stretched and people under pressure means we are experiencing the death of what we have known. And yet, as we contemplate the future in these uncertain times, the urgency of Christ’s call to the disciples, and to us, to remain faithful and go out into the world and make disciples of all people, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has not diminished. The light of Christ that has come into the world has not been overcome by the darkness and it will not be snuffed out by our institutional anxieties.
It may not be easy, but in Christ and by the power of the Spirit, it is possible to be hopeful and to see glimmers of light, and shoots of new life – with the prophet Ezekiel, to notice the tiny trickle of water coming out from beneath the place of worship when it so easily could have been missed. We each hold a precious gift which we are called to pass on from generation to generation; that gift is the story of our faith in Jesus Christ. The story of how his love has sustained and carried us in good times and bad. And all these stories are a rich treasury of hope to be shared joyfully and generously with all whom we encounter and especially with children and young people. Age is no barrier to speaking of or receiving the love of God in Christ. There is no one too young to be a catalyst of God’s love and there is no retirement from discipleship in the Kingdom of God. The hope of Christ that we carry within us should fill our hearts with joy and it should be shared throughout the whole of our lives.
Friends, in these days of anxiety, challenge and discord, let us not be distracted from the main thing, which is the call of Jesus that echoes down generations of faithful saints to make his love known through every encounter, to each and every generation. Let us be a people brimming full of the joy and hope that comes from the good news of Jesus Christ. Joy that knows God is faithful. Hope that trusts his love endures for ever and believes the faith we carry will be made known throughout all time and in every generation; in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
+Guli Francis-Dehqani
