4 March 2024
The Church of England Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) has awarded £2.2m in capacity funding to enable missional work with deaneries and parishes across Essex and East London.
Introduced in 2023, the SMMIB distributes and monitors funds made available by the Church Commissioners and the Archbishops’ Council to help churches reach more people with the good news of the Gospel.
With support from the Bishop’s Council and Bishop’s Leadership Team, Chelmsford Diocese’s capacity funding application drew on the values outlined in Travelling Well Together seeking to build our capacity to work alongside our deaneries and parishes. The capacity funding will enable us to prayerfully discern together in creative partnership, plans for future missional investment applications to the SMMIB from each Episcopal Area in the Diocese of Chelmsford.
Commenting on the funding announcement, the Bishop of Chelmsford the Rt Rev Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani said:
“I’m very grateful to the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board for their considerable investment. I’m also grateful to our Dean of Mission, Ministry and Education, the Rev Rob Merchant and members of his team for their work on this application which uses the approach we have developed in Travelling Well Together. This funding will not be used to support top-down diocesan initiatives, but will instead enable and empower local church leaders in our deaneries, with diocesan support, to identify missional opportunities which can be funded in the future.”
The Dean of Mission, Ministry and Education, the Rev Rob Merchant said:
“The funding from the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board will enable us to work closely with deaneries and parishes at a local level to understand where there are opportunities to sustain and create enduring missional presence in our local communities. These may be new missional opportunities as well as opportunities to build on some of the great work already taking place in our diocese; including work with children, families and young people and in estates ministry where there is particular need given the growing number of people living on estates in our diocese. This is just the first stage in what will be a long-term change in approach to supporting and funding local mission in our diocese, drawing on the Travelling Well Together approach of local discernment as opposed to top down initiatives. We are very grateful to the SMMIB for providing this first stage of funding.”