One Million Conversations #TimetoTalk

The excellent Time to Change campaign, which focuses on ending the stigma around mental health, has hit on a simple and superb idea. 6th February (Thursday next week) is Time To Talk day, with the aim of 1 million conversations around the country about mental health. Here's a bit of the blurb:

As part of our national advertising campaign, we want to get more people talking about mental health than ever before. We're aiming to spark one million conversations. And we need your help to get there!

Sometimes it's the little things we do that make a big difference to someone who's experiencing a mental health problem - like having a chat over a cuppa, sending a text or inviting someone out. So, on Time to Talk Day we’re encouraging people to do just that.

This can involve school, workplace, a local cafe or the kitchen table, and there are various resources, posters etc. which you can get from the site. There was even an ad for it on Dave last night. 

We have a national problem at the level both of resources, and of understanding. 'Care in the community' is a lottery depending on how many friends you have and how courageous individuals can be in talking about what's going on inside their heads. Many do a great but draining job of hiding their sufferings. Meanwhile, despite fine words from the government, mental health services are being cut. 

In this context, one conversation doesn't sound like much, but it might be a lifesaver.

The Complaints Queue

It occurred to me during a talk I heard to day at (ironically) the Bishops Palace in Wells, that I do far too much moaning and not enough thanking. Early candidate for a Lent discipline this year is to spend 40 days being grateful, rather than adding to the complaints queue.

Or I may just settle for quitting alcohol, social media, cake and unhealthy snacks, and take up running on a daily basis. It'll probably be easier.

Thankyou to David Wells for an inspiring and challenging day today.

St James Church Yeovil - New Website

Our new church website has just gone live, some nice feedback so far, but please have a look and let me know what you think. Or just have a look:

http://www.stjamesyeovil.org.uk/

Is the Bishop of Bath and Wells a person, or a tourist attraction?

update 10th Feb. Two important pieces
Stephen Lynas, Bishops Chaplain in Wells on why Diocesan reps are now taking this to General Synod this week
A Statement from the Church Commissioners released today, which claims they did consult, and sets out more of their reasoning.

update: another piece on the evolving pickle, the Bishop of Taunton calling for more consultation, and there'll be a question at General Synod. I despair, our membership is in freefall, and the main topic of conversation in the Diocese is whether the Bishop gets to live in a palace or a £900k property.

The saga of the Bishops Palace takes another turn. There was a public meeting yesterday in Wells to protest at the decision that the new Bishop of Bath and Wells should not live in the Palace, but in a 'normal' residence. The BBC report also mentions a statement by the Diocese itself, to the effect that they weren't properly consulted, don't support the decision, and haven't heard a persuasive case for moving the Bishops residence.

I blogged about this a couple of weeks back, noting that having a front garden which the general public were free to wander around probably wasn't great for work-life balance. To me, the fact that all this is news makes the case very powerfully for moving the Bishop out of the Palace. If your personal living arrangements are considered the stuff of press articles, public meetings and campaigns by the local MP, then how on earth is a Bishop supposed to carve out time away from it all to remain sane and properly rested? How on earth is the Bishops family supposed to feel when the location of their own front door is something that everyone feels they have a right to comment on?

Even though it's a Palace, it's possible that living under the shadow of Wells Cathedral, with tourists wandering round outside your house on a daily basis, might be considered a rather strange and oppressive working environment. Yes if you're a parish priest  you need to live in the parish to be most effective, but that doesn't apply to bishops, they have the whole county to play with. And if your work/life triangle consists of a Palace, the House of Lords, and the House of Bishops, how exactly are you supposed to stay in touch with reality? Spending nearly £3/4m on a house seems excessive, (especially as it's only a temporary residence!), but I would rather have a church where the living arrangements of clergy, including bishops, are no longer public property, and we recognise that clergy are people too, who don't wear their dog collars 24/7.

The Church Commissioners may be consulting too little and too late, but speaking from the wilds of Yeovil, I find it slightly embarrassing to have our senior clergyman living in a palace (and called a 'Lord', for that matter). Nobody should have to live in a visitor attraction, which is what the Bishops Palace in Wells now is. The Bishop of Bath and Wells is not some National Trust guide-in-a-period-costume stuck in the corner to add a touch of humanity and authenticity.

I'll repeat myself: if the Bishops living arrangements are seen as public property, then that is neither right nor healthy, and that will only be resolved if he lives away from the Palace.

Update: here's the statement from the senior staff of the Diocese in opposition to the move. Strange, it's dated Friday but I'm sure it wasn't on the website at the weekend. I'm assuming these representations have already been made to the Church Commissioners. It's a difficult line to tread, with the issue now being a matter of open debate, but conducting your disputes in public is never a great idea, if it can be avoided (he says on his blog #hypocrite).

The Pressure to Die

"Many people ask me, several times a week... if I ever contemplate (assisted suicide). It makes one feel like I should be contemplating it for the sake of the health service, for my family watching what I'm going through. I'm afraid that it will extend into the social conscience that people will almost expect assisted dying.... a (new) law will pressurise people."

story here.

If this is happening when assisted suicide is still illegal (though increasingly allowed through the legal system), then it will only get worse if it is legalised.

Even those who support euthanasia agree that it is a 'slippery slope', 12 years after legalising it, Belgium has now extended euthanasia to children. The Belgian experience has seen assisted dying extended to people who aren't terminally ill, and with the change in law has come a change in culture. Once you cross a line, it becomes very difficult to draw new ones that have the same moral force.

Social Media Guidlines

The sagacious Steve Tilley has written some social media guidelines for the Diocese of Bath and Wells. You can see the whole document here, but I didn't get much further than page 1:

The immediacy of social media is one of its benefits – we can respond quickly to questions, correct misunderstandings, give our perspective about a breaking story in the news media. Responding quickly doesn’t mean doing so without due consideration. 
Before posting always think: 
 Is this my story to share? 
 Would I want my mum to read this? 
 Would I want God to read this? 
 Would I want this on the front page of a newspaper? 

what are your social media rules of thumb?

update: if you ignore the headlines, and the picture of a severe looking vicar, media reporting has been fairly balanced: Telegraph, Independent

Church Growth Infographic - CofE Research

The Church Growth Research Programme has created this handy infographic, summarising the results released this week from their research. Sorry about the overlap into the sidebar, I tried to resize it but couldn't. The original is here, if this one is undreadable!!

Good blog post at useful in parts, who was there on the day.

Church Growth Research Findings published today

The Faith in Research conference today will showcase the findings of the CofE's 'Church Growth Research Programme'. Looking again at the strands of the research, I wonder if some of this was behind Justin Welbys new year comments on growing churches. If quality of local leadership is found to be a key factor in church growth, then the dots are fairly easy to join.

There is the inevitable hashtag, so you can follow the conference via #FIRChurchGrowth, or the Church Growth R&D twitter account.

update: and here's the report of findings.

Researchers have concluded that, while there is no single recipe, there are common ingredients strongly associated* with growth in churches of any size, place or context. 

•  Good leadership
•  A clear mission and purpose
•  Willingness to self-reflect, to change and adapt according to context
•  Involvement of lay members
•  Being intentional in prioritising growth
•  Being intentional in chosen style of worship
•  Being intentional in nurturing disciples
• All of the above are linked to growing churches

I get the feeling Justin Welby knew all this when he was speaking on New Years Eve.....

nice little graphic on the Fresh Expressions research:

and a fairly lengthy press release from the CofE here.