It has taken longer than we expected to work through the 30,000 words of information, opinion and viewpoints that you offered. But we now have a plan. And a commitment to you. And we want you to hold us to our commitment as we work to make it easier for you.
In January we reported the findings of the survey work. Having considered all of the comments carefully we now give our commitment to you. We won’t be doing everything. We are working towards our shared diocesan vision to see a bigger church making a bigger difference more people know Jesus more justice in the world.
Our focus is to make sure we achieve this. So those areas which may be good but don’t make it easier for us to achieve the vision cannot be a priority has taken longer than we expected to work through the 30,000 words of information, opinion and viewpoints that you offered. But we now have a plan. And a commitment to you. And we want you to hold us to our commitment as we work to make it easier for you.
You told us - we're responding
The survey asked for a range of ways in which you needed support to help become a bigger church making a bigger difference. A large part of what you asked was around providing clear information. So we are going to be clear about what you told us, how we are responding and how you can help us further. To make it simpler we are working towards 10 main themes
You told us | How we’re responding | By when |
You want us to be clear about what you can expect from us and what we need from you You want to know what reports and statistics we need |
1) We will publish our commitment to our diocese with a clear document setting out what we expect from you and what you will get from us 2) We will set out a clear document detailing what we require; the information needed from the national church and what is a statutory requirement 3) We will produce a flow chart for when we need key information from parishes and clergy |
Sept 2018 Sept 2018 Nov 2018 |
You want to understand good practice | We will provide more case studies and stories of good practice aiming to point people in the direction of things that work We need stories – you are the people doing great work day in day out and we need you to tell us so we can tell others. |
From September 2018 |
You want us to provide better housing support – particularly with maintenance and repairs | We have contacted clergy and wardens with information about how clergy housing can work for the future. In 2018 we are undertaking a fundamental re-think as to how we best provide and resource clergy housing into the future. We will produce quarterly reports on clergy housing |
Already done Starting in January 2019 |
Clergy and laity want to feel more supported | We will review our professional and spiritual care to clergy and others as part of an overall look at leadership development and support |
Starting in January 2019 |
You want policies, procedures and guides to helpful information | 1) We will produce a series of guides and policies as part of a refreshment of our 'making it easier' approach 2) We will collate, publish and clearly link to useful external sites that support church life |
First stage launch at Diocesan synod Oct 2018 Ongoing process into 2019 July 2018 |
You want to have support on areas of discipleship |
The Bishop’s Rule of Life and related content is our main vehicle for supporting our diocesan worshipping communities in discipleship | Launched in June 2018 with further resources being planned for advent |
You want to have support on engaging with children and young people | We will be using our baptism project and working on our approach to the child friendly church as our main vehicles for engaging in this area. We will also be clearly signposting other resources that can be useful to parishes. |
We will provide more information about both and how churches can benefit from this in late 2018/early 2019 |
You want us to be better and our website, digital and social media communications | We will revamp our approach through 1) Setting up a user group to help us understand what you want 2) Developing a programme of work 3) Making changes |
October 2018 By February 2019 Starting from March 2019 |
You want help to grow as a church | We are clear on how we want to encourage churches to grow. This is through 1. Bringing One Friend into your worshipping community 2. Doing ten things to help others think about the kingdom of God 3. Sign up to our Rule of Life as a disciple of Christ 4. Think about what new congregations and worshipping communities you can promote. We will be producing resources, case studies and support for churches in this area |
Sept 2018 |