Item 4
Dio Synod
05.02.11
MAKING CHURCH IN TODAY’S WORLD: NEW PATTERNS OF SUSTAINABLE MINISTRY FOR THE DIOCESE OF SALISBURY
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to outline a proposal for a pilot project to set up models of shared leadership, structuring of lay ministries and the forming of radical Christian Community. It draws on the experiences in the Diocese of Evreux and in this Diocese.
The paper is divided into three parts:
Part 1 examines the Salisbury context wherethe impact of the past 30 years decline in stipendiary clergy numbers and the response to this, for example in the increase of non-stipendiary ministries has been especially felt in rural areas. It looks at examples of initiatives that have already been done and where shared leadership already happens.
Part 2 examines the Evreux context and describes the establishment of more viable local units, called ‘Paroisse 2000’ as not only a practical response to the decreasing number of priests but a deliberate and radical move away from a more traditional monarchical priesthood to a pattern of shared ministry and mission to the world.
Part 3 outlines the proposed pilot project, which will look at how the principles which underpin Paroisses 2000 can inform practice in Salisbury Diocese in structuring lay ministries and shared leadership. As well as the key components of the pilot and the theological principles, this part of the paper describes the range of participants and how learning will be shared between them, how training and development needs that are identified can inform LDMC and howthe project will be supported through a redefinition of an existing ½ time post (Co-ordinator for Local Ministry’) which will be part of LDMT but embedded in one of the pilot contexts.
It concludes with a Synod motion to endorse the setting up of this project and of the half time post.
PART 1
THE SALISBURY CONTEXT
Over the last 30 years numbers of stipendiary clergy have steadily declined and evidence is that numbers will continue to decline for the foreseeable future. In Salisbury Diocese the impact of this has been felt most keenly so far in rural areas with the ever increasing number of parishes grouped together in benefices served by a single stipendiary incumbent or very large rural teams with a small core of stipendiary clergy. In the past 17 years we have seen the growth of Associate Priests, Lay Pastoral Assistants, together with the steady numbers of Licensed Lay Ministers and the development of a variety of other forms of ministries. This growth in varieties of ministries has been used to attempt to bolster current patterns of rural ministry. This has had only limited success and has not always made best use of those offering for this wide variety of ministries in either rural or urban contexts.
i)A questionnaire in 2008 exploring clergy wellbeing revealed that clergy serving in multi-parish rural benefices, who been ordained less than 10 years, experience a certain amount of ‘negative’ wellbeing. Following the survey, this group (nearly 30) were invited to an informal discussionso that the issues lying behind these responses could start to be more fully understood. A wide range of themes emerged from this conversation. However, what was almost universal was an increasing sense of separation between the passion and vision that brought people into ministry and what they often find themselves doing. A number of multi-parish benefices still appear to have an underdeveloped sense of a corporate life together, often leaving clergy feeling pulled in several directions and increasingly trying to meet competing demands. With stipendiary numbers decreasing, it is even more imperative that rural benefices in particular are helped to move into a more sustainable pattern of a life together, in which not only clergy but communities can thrive.
ii)At the same time, deanery plans have greatly facilitated creative and dynamic conversations between different benefices and deaneries. As a result there is now an increasing momentum towards building mission through a shared strategic approach to mobilising the ministry of the whole church, lay and ordained. It’s in this sharing of vision and ministry that the outward looking dynamic of the diocesan aims are starting to take root and that the Learning for Discipleship and Ministry Team have had a significant role in encouraging ministry for mission.
iii)Examples of support the diocese has initiated for ministry and mission in the last three years include:
i)New training patterns for authorised ministry
ii)new licensing arrangements for Licensed Lay Ministry and associate priests,
iii)Learning for Discipleship
iv)Deanery planning through Pastoral Committees
v)Re-discovering our parish churches pilot
vi)Mission projects and pioneer ministry
vii)Thanksgiving Sunday
viii)Back to Church Sunday
ix)the Ministry deployment strategy
x)Well-being; Fully Alive, Inspired to go!
xi)New training formats for churchwardens and other PCC officers.
xii)Pilgrimage weeks
iv)Understanding who our ministers are is a diocesan priority, which hinges on:
- Creating an integrated pattern of learning for all the baptised
- Building confident Christian disciples
- Identifying and releasing the unique gifts and skills of all God’s people
- Clarifying the different ways God is calling us to serve Him
- Clarifying the distinctive and complementary vocations of those who are ordained nationally deployable, ordained locally deployable, authorised and licensed lay ministries and of all the baptised
- Developing radical Christian communities and the leadership qualities to nurture and energise such communities
Some Case Studies
The Dorchester Teamby Harold Stephens Team Rector
Dorchester has a large ministry team ably backed-up with lay leadership in all of our churches. The Team Ministry now includes the town of Dorchester and also several villages.
The exercise of leadership in the Team is best identified as collaborative. The avoidance of “top-down” models or of “each to their own” has been a core feature. Sharing a common vision by regular consultations has shown we are doing many of the same things to share ministry and mission. At the same time the individual churches sustain their unique ethos and congregations. Each church or groups of churches has designated clergy and LLMs based there.
The core feature is the Team staff meeting is that it is hosted in different homes and chaired by different people in rotation. The agenda is open with no topics withheld and they are all discussed. The spirit of the meeting is consensus, mutual support and seeking what makes sense to further our contribution to the spiritual and social life of our communities. LLMs now join clergy for some of these meetings. One meeting per month is held in the evening so non-stipendiary (associate) clergy in employment can attend.
The main role of Team Rector is to encourage and to make space for things to happen. Our shared inclusive theology as “parish” rather than “denomination” is important to us – part of our common vision and shared mission.
Making Rural Ministry Live
by Rev’d Vanda Perrett, Team Rector of the Bourne Valley and Rural Dean of Alderbury. I offer two examples of strategies (but not the theological rationale due to space) for working with a multi-church team, neither are perfect or wholly worked out, but they show a way to think about how we engage in rural ministry to bring life and energy not only to the church but also the ministers too.
ClusteringPewsey and Swanborough to Nov 2005
As the Team Vicar of 6 parishes in a 12 parish team and Deanery School Coordinator in 11 schools I needed to find a way to make the dual role sustainable and life-giving. It became obvious that the parishes found it hard to relate to a large team, and that the members of each parish required a broad range of ministry and resources, but lacked a critical mass to make anything outside of Sunday worship take off.
My vision was to group or cluster parishes according to the social networks that already existed, for example those who were in one primary school catchment area. The aim was to encourage them to see what they could do better together and what they would do better apart. The clusters were each of three parishes who made a commitment to hold Sunday services at times which did not compete with each other. For example one might have 8am BCP or 6pm Evensong, the next 9.15am Matins or HC and the last 10.45am Family Communion or Family Service. These services rotated around the three parishes each month in an established pattern. The Sunday worship was a small part in the overarching plan, but needed solving to free the minds to think beyond Sunday.
We were to have joint PCC meetings at least three times annually, the first part was to be a joint meeting then refreshments served, and in the second half each PCC met in a corner of the hall for their specific needs with the clergy booked into 15 minute slots with each PCC in turn. Each parish was asked how they would choose to use their share of their clergy time during the week, leading PCC, visiting or Bible studies for example.
The parishes were encouraged to hold a common diary so events and fund raising could be coordinated. Parishes were encouraged to see their own unique selling point and focus on this ministry to make it outstanding. Among our churches one focused on healing ministry, another on BCP etc. The parishes shared their experiences; if one had a faculty expert they offered advice to others etc. The Lay Pastoral Assistants worked together with the parishes and clergy to provide support, prayer and pastoral care especially through the occasional offices.
We looked across boundaries of parish into clusters. Here the number of people was not so large that people felt no connection with the other parishes, so people were happier and able to grow in faith and in knowledge because we could offer a wider range of activities. I left the team before this was well established, and it has grown in a different way to the way I envisaged, however relationships were being built to give a greater degree of trust between parishes, and greater confidence in their ability not just to “keep the ship afloat” but to thrive.
Knowing and Celebrating – a Ministry of HospitalityBourne Valley Team from 2006
This is a team of six parishes on the outskirts of Salisbury which asked for a new team rector to make the team work: what a challenge! The team did not appear to know each other, LPAs and Churchwardens had not met, even when appointing a new Team Rector. The parishes were divided between two clergy and the understanding of ‘team’ was to provide support during clergy holidays and the famous Good Friday walk.
My priority was to get folk together and encourage them to make connections across the parish boundaries. I started by hosting a series of suppers for different folk across the team, for example organists and LPAs etc, and hosting a series of Lent Lunches at the Rectory – they wanted to meet the new rector and see the house, so I used this to encourage attendance.
One of the structures that changed straight away was to appoint a person who managed all the fees for the occasional offices across the team, releasing a huge amount of time for me! My first experience of a team service was attended by 13 people, so we moved the team services to the three larger churches with good facilities and then advertised them, starting the team Sunday with bacon sandwich breakfasts and Fairly Traded tea and coffee and juice, and followed by coffee and cake. We now have 40-50 at team services.
We introduced a team prayer diary, a team pew sheet that goes out weekly, and we run confirmation classes, bible study, prayer groups, Toddler Group and Youth Group as team events. Each parish is encouraged to find out its specialty: one is BCP, another has a brilliant Sunday School, another has begun a Quiet Day ministry, another healing.
Confirmations happen in the Cathedral so no one has to fight for the “honour of the Confirmation!” Special team events are held in the three smaller churches that suit their size. The major change has been in how we share licensed ministry across the team. Each of the three LLM(R)s has a pastoral charge with the LPAs for specific areas and we strive to use the clergy and all ministers across the whole team according to their gifts. We have had some big one-off events that have made the team think together: a Sudanese Youth Worker, an Arts Festival, and the closure of a church building. LPAs meet as a team group regularly. We have just started meeting together in the three northern parishes as one PCC twice each year; in the future I can see this working well as one parish but we are trialling how this feels before getting into the long legal paperwork. Our aim is to celebrate the diversity and pray for unity. We don’t want parishes that are carbon copies of each other.
We have worked hard to get to know each other, to celebrate each other’s gifts and to be hospitable to each other too. Communication is key, not just letting folk know what is happening but telling them what has happened too, sharing good news and times when the risk of trying something new does not work quite as we hoped. Treating folk as adults and asking them to help the clergy shape the use of their time in the parish has been really important. Sharing honestly at the team council has made a huge difference to morale and friendship. We are well on the way to feeling more confident in what team can mean and what we gain from being team together, but we have really only just begun.
PART 2
A MODEL FROM THE DIOCESE OF EVREUX
The second part of this paper consists of reflections from a visit in October 2010 to the Diocese of Evreux made by Ven Paul Taylor, Ven John Wraw, Gillian Wraw and Canon Harold Stephens.
Changing Ministry in the Diocese of Evreux
The diocese of Evreux is similar to Salisbury with a mixture of small towns and villages. However, it is even more sparsely populated with about two thirds of the Salisbury population (about 520,000 and 750,000 respectively) in an area 10% larger. There are far fewer priests than in Salisbury: 48 are active [1] and 36 retired (the numbers have greatly reduced over the last 25 years or so – the total in 1984 was 235 and 176 in 1994). There are also 25 permanent deacons (many of whom are married) who tend to work in prisons, hospitals and other specific areas of specific pastoral need.
In 1996, along with other French dioceses, Evreux launched a radical campaign to reorganise the diocese and create more viable local units, called ‘Paroisse 2000’. This was not only a practical response to the decreasing number of priests but a deliberate and radical move towards the ministry and mission of the whole church (a direct response to Vatican II). ‘Paroisse 2000’ was the beginning of a move away from a more traditional monarchical priesthood to a pattern of shared ministry and mission to the world. In this new scheme individual parishes were clustered into 7 secteurs and 30 new paroisses. It is not unusual for rural paroisses to contain 20 or so villages (the largest number is over 40), however urban paroisses also include surrounding villages. Each paroisse has a parish priest.
EAP and EAL
A key part of this pastoral reorganization was the establishment of collaborative ministry teams in every new paroisse – EAP and EAL. The Equipe d’Animation Pastorale is the coordinating pastoral team for the whole paroisse and has from three to five members, including the parish priest, with the actual work being carried out by several local teams known as Equipes d’Animation Locales. This enables ministry to be coordinated, resourced and supported across the whole paroisse, whilst preserving the particularity of communities and ensuring local presence.
Both teams are appointed for three years (renewable for a further three years), which ensures that no one gets stuck in one particular role and that there is always new blood coming through. The EAP members are appointed by the Bishop in consultation with the local people and the EAL members are appointed by the local community and the EAP. EAP members are also members of various EAL ministry groups. These groups include: social justice; baptism preparation; marriage preparation; care of the sick; funeral and bereavement ministry; and catechism. Finance and much of the administration is coordinated in the context of the EAP. The parish priest is a member of the EAP and tries to participate in as much of the work of the EALs as possible.