Presidential Address October 2010 Diocesan Synod

The Bishop of St Alban’s Presidential Address

Diocesan Synod, 9 October 2010

This morning I want to do three things in this Presidential Address:

  • I am going to reflect on our diocese, using some facts and figures, as well as my own impressions.
  • Secondly, I want to comment on the concerns that were raised with me as I toured the deaneries during my first year in the diocese.
  • Thirdly, I am going to talk about the future and in particular our new diocesan vision and how we are going to launch and implement it.

1. The Diocese of St Albans

St Albans is a diocese with huge resources and massive potential, not least because of the people. We have the seventh largest population of the 43 dioceses of the Church of England. The population is around one and three quarter million and it is growing, by possibly up to another quarter of a million people in the next twenty years. It is also significant that there is a higher proportion of professional people than in many other dioceses, partly because London is so near and many people commute. We are also blessed with being an ethnically mixed population in some parts of the diocese which enriches our life.

1.1.1 Ministry

  1. We have the seventh largest number of stipendiary clergy out of the 43 dioceses of

the Church of England. We also have 97 active non-stipendiary ministers (the fifth largest number out of the 43 dioceses). Put those two groups together and you will see that we have a lot more clergy than most other dioceses. We are still sufficiently wealthy that, compared with most dioceses in the Midlands and the North, the traditional model of a parish with a church and a priest, along with a Reader and other lay ministers, is still possible in many urban and suburban areas (although it is different in rural areas). Having said that, despite the painstaking work undertaken by Michael Sansom and his colleagues over the years, we are a diocese which has generally imported ordinands rather than exported them.

  1. We have a very strong group of 292 active Readers (that’s 12th out of 43).
  2. Although we give thanks for the large numbers of stipendiary clergy, non stipendiary

clergy and Readers, it is significant to note that our total numbers in each category is slightly declining and more seriously that our average age in each category is increasing.

  1. When I arrived I was very struck by the strong academic tradition seen in the

excellent Continuing Ministerial Education for clergy and Readers, in particular the Study Days which are very well attended and the separate programme for Readers .

1.1.2 Mission

  1. We are a diocese with an impressively strong record of social involvement in

terms of the extraordinary wide range of work undertaken by the parishes as well as the Board for Church and Society. There are some outstanding social projects and charities operating across the diocese.

  1. My impression is that we are not so strong on evangelism. For example, most

dioceses have been running the Mission Shaped Ministry Course for several years and have put many people through it. In my previous area, all the clergy accompanied with groups of laity had been on the ‘Leading Your Church into Growth’ Course, and the majority of benefices used some sort of process evangelism course, such as Alpha, Emmaus, Christianity Explored, on a regular basis. For the past ten years each church in the Diocese of London has been required to have a structured course on discipleship and this is thought to be one of the main contributory factors why the diocese has been growing numerically.

  1. We have not really exploited the full benefits from our companion dioceses and

overseas links. Whilst there are lots of individual initiatives there does not seem to be the same level of work at a diocesan level or at parish level as in some other dioceses.

1.1.3 Diocesan Identity

  1. I do not think that we have a very strong sense of diocesan identity. London,

Birmingham or Liverpool, for example, all cluster around a city. The Diocese of Carlisle finds its identity as the Lake District. However, we are a diocese based on two adjacent counties, with no obvious centre (the largest centre of population is Luton). The Cathedral town is at one end of the larger of the two counties, which means that some people in Bedfordshire feel they are not as much a part of the diocese as those who live in Hertfordshire. Some parts of the diocese look to London, other parts to Cambridge or Milton Keynes, rather than to St Albans.

  1. We do not have so much diversity of churchmanship as many other dioceses. For

example, we have fewer churches which describe themselves as either Forward in Faith or Reform or New Wine or Modern Church. Some may see this fact as strength, others as a regrettable weakness. I am not drawing any conclusions, only noting it as a fact.

1.1.4 Finance

Compared with our neighbouring dioceses, our levels of giving provide real opportunity for increase. For example, whilst our planned giving is above the national average in cash terms (we come in at about 10th out of 43), as a percentage of income given by church members we are well below the national average (we are 35th out of 43). Dioceses like Birmingham and Sheffield, which are far poorer, have higher levels of actual and proportional giving than we do. We have the lowest level of proportional giving of all of the dioceses in the SE of England. One of the very striking statistics is that if our giving in the diocese was at the national average of proportional giving our parishes would have an extra £3.2m of income.

1.1.5 Ecumenism

I was very struck when I came here by the number of people who spoke spontaneously and positively about ecumenism. There is a life and an energy about ecumenical working here in some parts of the diocese which has been really encouraging.

1.1.6 Social diversity

Many people presume that this is predominantly an urban diocese. It is, in fact a very mixed diocese. There are significant rural areas – both traditional rural and commuter rural. There are a wide diversity of urban areas, with large housing estates and inner city centres. There are huge tracts of suburbia which vary from small houses to whole roads of large gated mansions.

2. Reflections on my visits

The Diocese of St Albans has many strengths. During the year I have visited Clergy Chapters and Deanery Synods. Approximately 320 clergy and Readers have attended the Chapter meetings and over 600 people have attended the Deanery Synod meetings so far. What were the issues that were raised with me?

The discussions with the clergy and Readers were influenced by the bible study on John chapter fifteen. There was an acknowledgment that the role of Christian leaders has changed drastically over recent decades, as has many people’s respect for the Church. There was much discussion about how to rise to the challenges facing us, not least with a more militant secularism around, and also whether we have to stop doing some things that used to work in the past but are not so important today. There was talk of how to nurture and nourish our own spiritual lives as leaders and how to offer and receive an appropriate level of support so that we do not burn out. There was a great deal of honest talking and my impression was that overall morale is high.

A wide range on concerns were raised in the Deanery Synods, but there were four areas which occurred most frequently:

2.1.1. Youth and children

How do we attract children and teenagers today and how do we retain them? How do we address the ‘danger area’ of transition from Sunday school/junior church to the youth group, which is the point at which we lose many young folks?

2.1.2. Church and society

A concern that the Church is not engaging with the big issues of today arose on a number occasions. This was expressed both through interest in the General Election and worries about the economic recession, but also in terms of issues that impact locally such as environment, crime and more recently by talk of the Big Society, initiated by the Coalition Government. Concerns about the alcohol and drug culture arose quite frequently. Some expressed worries that by not taking overt stands, the Church could be perceived as condoning the status quo of our society. The sheer busyness of life and specific matters such as long working hours and competing leisure and social demands on families at weekends arose on a few occasions. Some sought flexibility in Service times, whilst others felt that a more vigorous and confident promotion of what was already offered was the way forward.

2.1.3. Mission

There was quite a bit of discussion about mission in the narrower sense of evangelism, including concern about the new atheists and the aggressive secularists as mentioned by the Pope on his visit last month.

2.1.4. Diocesan Finances

There were a number of questions about finance not least the increasing burden on churches with regard to parish share, building maintenance and running costs. However, many of these would be solved if we were able to increase the level of giving, as a proportion of each person’s disposable income, to the national average.

3. Looking to the Future

3.1.1. Discern and share God’s Vision

For the past year I have been highlighting what I believe are the three main priorities facing us:

  1. Going deeper into God,
  2. Transforming Communities
  3. Making New Disciples

These were the subject of my sermon thirteen months ago when I came to the diocese. They were the subject of my deanery visits and of my first three presidential addresses. Many of you will have been involved in the previous Diocesan Synod when we worked away at a title. Your ideas were taken to the Bishop’s Council who came up with the name Living God’s Love.

During today’s Synod you will be invited to adopt formally this title and the three themes as our new diocesan Vision. However, it is one thing to have a title and some themes but how will they be implemented? Earlier in the year I asked the Archdeacon of Hertford to form a working party to look at Mission Action Planning as a tool to help each church, school and chaplaincy work away at these themes. The recommendations of the working party are also on today’s agenda and I hope you will adopt them enthusiastically.

All of this is so that we can Live God’s Love using the three themes. However, there are at least two other areas that we will need to grasp if we are going to deliver it. Both of these are about getting the organization of the diocese on a firm and sustainable footing. In many dioceses huge amounts of time and energy are spent on cutting posts and pastoral reorganization. Some pastoral reorganization will continue but with a specific focus.

We have large areas of new housing being built and we have to plan for new churches. We will have to re-direct some of our staffing into them.

There are also some parts of the diocese which have been relatively over-staffed for a long time and when there are retirements there will need to be some adjustments in staffing levels. It is also important that we think about how and where we deploy our resources in ways which are the most effective for today’s world. Having said that, I believe we need to challenge the assumption that we have to go on and on cutting posts. If we are going to stop the cuts we will have to attend to two things.

3.1.2 Vocation

There is an important question for us all as re-discovering and re-affirming our vocation. We tend to use the word vocation in its narrower sense of vocation to the priesthood. But all God’s people are called and have a vocation. As we look to the future we need Christians who are called to be teachers, politicians, to work in health and finance and industry. But we also need more vocations to the sacred ministry. I have already mentioned that for nine of the last ten years we have been a net importer of ordinands. This has to change if we want to grow as a diocese. When did someone from your parish last offer themselves to the discernment and selection process for ordained ministry?

We are thankful to God for all the vocations we have received but the average age continues to increase. We continue to be blessed by those coming forward for ordination of all ages. But what is striking is that few of them are younger. The average age of those priested last year in our diocese was fifty. We want older people to continue to come forward but we also need younger ones. This has to be a major cause of prayer and action, that more people will offer themselves for the process of discernment for recognised and authorised ministries

3.1.3 Finance

There are three aspects to this:

a. We must continue to scrutinize the budgets as hard as we can to minimize any waste and to focus our resources to the key areas which are the parishes.

b. We need to see a steady and sustained increase in the level of giving. I have already spoken about the relatively low levels of giving as a proportion of disposable income across the diocese.

c. The financial position has been made worse because last year we only collected in 93% - 94% of the parish share. Unless that rate increases then we will have no way of stopping the decline and we will have further cuts and fewer clergy. Now you may say to me that there is no way we can improve the collection rate, in which case I have to respond with two things. First, many other dioceses collect a much higher proportion of the parish share. Second, if we cannot improve the collection rate there is no way that I can pull a magic curate out of the biretta to be your next parish priest. We are all in this together. Let me remind you no one is making a profit out of the parish share. Well over 80% of it goes back immediately to pay for your parish priest.

4. Let me then spell out the next steps:

4.1.1 During Advent I am inviting people to go deeper into God by signing up for our ‘Advent Challenge’. Like last year’s Lent Challenge you can sign up for a daily text or email (or you can ask someone to download it from the website so that you have it in hard copy). You will receive a bible verse each day on an Advent theme. I ask you to join with me in pausing, reflecting and praying. It is called Me, You, the World and God. You can find out more about it on http://www.livinggodslove.org/. Please sign up for it and encourage a friend to sign up as well.

4.1.2 On Saturday 15th January in the Cathedral we are going to have the official launch of Living God’s Love. I am inviting each church, chaplaincy and church school to send representatives. If you agree to the recommendation from the Bishop’s Council that we adopt Mission Action Planning, then we will commission seventy people (based on Luke chapter ten where Jesus sends out the seventy) who will help us with our task.

4.1.3 Bishop Richard and I have written a Lent Course, called Living God’s Love, which will give us a chance to reflect in bible study groups on the three priorities of Going deeper into God, Transforming Communities and Making New Disciples. This will be available on the diocesan website shortly.

4.1.4 Building on the success of last year, I invite you to share in the Lent Challenge 2, which will also be based on these three priorities.

4.1.5 Finally, I am asking each church to avoid having any meetings during the two weeks of Passiontide next year and instead use the time for prayer and to meditate on the Cross.

In conclusion let me return to the name of our vision: Living God’s Love. This puts God right at the centre of who we are, who we want to be and what we want to do. Lest it be thought that this is little more than a warm, fluffy idea, let us not forget that the love of God is cross shaped. This is the sort of love that lays down its life, not just for our brothers and sisters but also for our enemies; this is the sort of love that goes the extra mile; it is the love that takes us to a cross. If we are going to embrace this seriously it will be costly, it will demand sacrifice and it will change us. But it will also allow us to strengthen our mission and ministry as we work and pray for the coming of God’s Kingdom here in our Diocese of St Albans.

+Alan St Albans

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