Church of England - Evangelism on the Agenda

It would seem an obvious thing for a church to prioritise evangelism. Jesus parting words were 'go and make disciples of all nations' (Matthew 28), and the outcome of Pentecost was that the first disciples would be witnesses to Jesus (not 'do' witness but be witnesses). After a serious finger burning exercise in the 'Decade of Evangelism', it's exciting to see the CofE picking the ball back up.

General Synod next week has a large chunk of time devoted to evangelism. I used to witter repeatedly about the failure of the national CofE to engage with mission, one reason this blog is a bit quieter than usual (apart from having 2 1/2 years without a full time colleague) is that I've less to complain about.

As well as debates on Estates evangelism, and growing faith in families and schools, Synod is also going to be asked to approve GS 2118. Calm down now, I know you're excited. If approved, the national parliament of the CofE will be signing up to 4 headline commitments
1. That every worshipping community makes evangelism a priority
2. That every parish gets involved in 'Thy Kingdom Come', a (now global) prayer initiative focused on seeing more people come to faith
3. That every diocese helps all their members to find more confidence in sharing and living the good news of Jesus in daily life
4. That the church be held to account for 1-3, plus a cluster of other recommendations (see below).

Readers of this blog from other church streams may be slapping their foreheads repeatedly at this point. Surely evangelism as a priority is a no brainer? Well a) not if you're Anglican and b) not if you're British. We've never been that comfortable talking about faith in public, and indeed when we do it puts a substantial number of people off.

There are several key ideas underpinning the report
 - The integration of evangelism and discipleship. I remember the stir caused by William Abrahams 'The Logic of Evangelism' in the 1980s, reminding evangelicals that we are called to make discples, not converts. The report therefore sees evangelism as an integral part of discipleship, not a separate activity.
 - The work of LICC and others in exploring 7 day a week discipleship
 - The word 'confidence', which keeps recurring - as a church, and as individuals, many of us lack the confidence to share our story, or even invite people to a church event.

The report sets out 6 'operational priorities' for the next few years. These are going to be challenging, but exciting, if we take them seriously
a) Every person equipped to be a witness - 'mobilising the million' CofE members to be more confident in sharing their story and Jesus' story, and developing a culture of invitation in the church

b) Every person released to live out the gospel 24/7 - which links up with the discipleship/setting God's people free agenda currently being rolled out nationally.

c) Every church prioritising children and young people in evangelism  - with the startling statistic that 65% of CofE churches have less than 5 members under 16, and half of these have none.

d) Every church a welcoming community, both as people and as places, and makes the most of 'life events' to connect with the community and build an ongoing relationship

e) Every church considers developing a new worshipping community. London diocese has traditionally led the way on strategic church planting, but it now looks like this will become a national expectation

f) Every leader trained and equipped to be competent to lead in evangelism and encouraging disciples. Though this is the last of the 6 priorities, this is the potential bottleneck. For many vicars, their gifts lie elsewhere than evangelism, and for many others, it's simply not on the radar. This will take quite a shift in culture, but it's a shift that's needed.

An appendix to the report picks up on specific areas - new estates, ethnic minorities, chaplancy and youth.

A few thoughts
1. There is a concern threaded through the report that this work will lose 'momentum' and not become embedded in CofE culture. This may have half an eye on the future leadership of the CofE - John Sentamu is retiring, and Justin Welby is 6 years into his stint as ABofC - most recent occupants of that role have managed about a decade.

2. Linked to 'confidence' is apologetics, which doesn't get a mention in the report. One of the things which gives Christians confidence in their faith is seeing that it answers key questions well and coherently. This work may be happening elsewhere, but it strikes me that the CofE needs to regain its nerve in the sufficiency of the Bible and its worldview to provide a framework for life, ethics, thinking, and spirituality.

3. 'Setting God's People Free', with its focus on everyday discipleship, does seem to be gaining traction, and has the potential to transform Dioceses and local churches. It's good to see the evangelism agenda linking up with this, but it will take excellent resources, prayer, and consistent leadership over many years to see these changes get to the 'average' churches. A small number of churches 'get' evangelism already,  small number will probably never get it, so it's good to see the report zeroing in on the thousands of 'average' CofE churches in the 20-60 membership range, and considering what this all looks like for them.

4. This is being driven/led from the top, to which I cry 'at last!' But at Diocesan level it needs to be broken down a bit, otherwise Dioceses could end up appointing a forest of advisors and facilitators. I've said it before and I'll say it again, anyone in a Diocesan post needs to be part-time in a parish, so that they remain grounded in the realities and responsibilities of parish life. Advisors in spirituality need to be leading their churches in prayer, advisors in evangelism need to be equipping their own local church to share faith with confidence etc. That gives credibility and context to the people promoting this stuff, and also prevents them 'going native' into a Diocesan culture which becomes separated from the coalface realities of parish life.

A Question for General Synod Candidates

I've just posted the following to the 'e-hustings' for our diocese, for the candidates for the new General Synod of the CofE

The Church of England is currently losing 10-15% of its adult members every decade, the figures for youth and children are worse. Projected full-time clergy numbers are 5,000, in a system designed to work with 3 times that number. What is the role of General Synod in a) promoting growth in parish churches and b) restructuring the national and local church before the CofE collapses under its own weight?

Background info
Attendance: recent, long-term
Clergy numbers.

Justin Welby is grasping more nettles than most of his predecessors put together, so I'm hopeful that we have the leadership in the CofE to engage with these issues. But we can't afford to faff about the way we did with women bishops. We have to have a Synod that makes engaging with these issues its top priority.

I'll be very interested to see what the answers are....

CofE Discussion papers and forums: a map of the blizzard

The blizzard of discussion papers from the CofE this week has been helpfully summarised over at Thinking Anglicans, I hope they don't mind a bit of cutting and pasting:
(updated Saturday, this is now a complete list of papers & links)

This first paper is “In Each Generation” : A programme for reform and renewal.

Paper 2 (Tuesday) is Developing Discipleship.
There is an accompanying blog and a video interview with the Bishop of Sheffield
There is an online forum to discuss this paper.

Paper 3 (Wednesday) is Report of the Simplification Task Group.
There is an accompanying blog and a video interview with the Bishop of Willesden.
There is an online forum to discuss this paper.

Paper 4 (Thursday) is Resourcing Ministerial Education in the Church of England.
There is an accompanying blog and a video interview with the Bishop of Sheffield.
There is an online forum to discuss this paper.

Paper 5 (Friday) is Resourcing the Future of the Church of England
There is an accompanying blog and a video interview with John Spence.
Paper 6 (Friday) is Church Commissioners and the work of the Task Groups.
There is a blog and a video interview with Andreas Whittam Smith.
There is an online forum to discuss the above two papers.

Useful in Parts has done a monster job of extracting the proposals from each of the discussion papers:

Simplification

Discipleship

Reform and Renewal

The Green Report
Resourcing Ministerial Education
Resourcing the Future

The online forums are a canny idea, there's always plenty of discussion on blogs about what the CofE is up to, but there hasn't been a CofE moderated forum for the same discussions. I'm also intrigued that at least one of the contributions links these papers to the next set of General Synod elections. The prime issue for the current Synod intake was women bishops, I think it's helpful to know the agenda that the next Synod will be working on. 

Green Shoots? Archbishops introduce CofE to the smell of coffee

The background to the Green report is now a bit clearer, thanks to a paper by the 2 CofE Archbishops just published, in advance of next months General Synod:

(task) groups were asked to explore specific aspects of the institutional life of the Church of England, where on the face of it, there appeared to be scope for significant change.

The work of these four groups - on the discernment and nurture of those called to posts of wide responsibility, on resourcing ministerial education, on the future deployment of our resources more generally and on simplification - is now being published. It will be the main focus for the February meeting of the General Synod.

I.e. the Green report is one of several exploring how the CofE can be reformed. 

It gets better...

Renewing and reforming aspects of our institutional life is a necessary but far from sufficient response to the challenges facing the Church of England. The recommendations of these four groups have to be seen in a much wider context, as a means not an end. They will be considered at the Synod in the light of a paper that explores what it means for all Christians, lay and ordained, to be a community of missionary disciples.

Rub your eyes people, the CofE is a community of missionary disciples. That's the words of our two Archbishops. 

And they are refreshingly realistic about the direction of the good ship Titanic, sorry, Church of England:

The urgency of the challenge facing us is not in doubt. Attendance at Church of England services has declined at an average of 1% per annum over recent decades and, in addition, the age profile of our membership has become significantly older than that of the population. Finances have been relatively stable, thanks to increased individual giving. This situation cannot, however, be expected to continue unless the decline in membership is reversed.

The age profile of our clergy has also been increasing. Around 40% of parish clergy are due to retire over the next decade or so. And while ordination rates have held up well over recent years they continue to be well below what would be needed to maintain current clergy numbers and meet diocesan ambitions.

You saw it here first folks. And here. In that latter post, just 3 years ago I wrote:

"I don't know what it will take to provoke the necessary sense of crisis, the deepening of conviction that we need to tackle this issue, so that the CofE overcomes its sniffiness about 'bums on pews' and recognises that there's a reason the New Testament talks about the number of people being saved on a regular basis. It's because each of those people matters to God, and each of those people is someone we're called to reach with the gospel. The CofE is largely failing in that task, and until we have reckoned with that, we call into question our claim to be called a church at all. Are we actually doing the task our Master has set us?"

and if I was blogging now, based on this paper, I wouldn't need to write it. Hallelujah.

There's also a warning shot about church buildings and how clergy are allocated:

The burden of church buildings weighs heavily and reorganisation at parish level is complicated by current procedures. The Sheffield formula allocation of priests is no longer generally observed, while the distribution of funds has no emphasis on growth, has no relationship to deprivation and involves no mutual accountability. There is no central investment in reaching out into the digital and social media world. If the Church of England is to return to growth, there is a compelling need to realign resources and work carefully to ensure that scarce funds are used to best effect.

which in the best traditions of failing to get the point, becomes the headline in the Telegraph report on the Archbishops' paper. 

Here's another interesting one, given how much is not done in this area simply because people are intimidated by the quantity of paperwork and the length of the legal process:

The Simplification report identifies specific legislative changes which are needed to remove hindrances to mission in relation to pastoral reorganisation and clergy deployment, to streamline processes and to tackle redundant paperwork. The recommendations take account of a widespread consultation process.

and here's where it's all going.... these reports provide a basis for developing and delivering a major programme of renewal and reform within the Church of England as a matter of urgency. What's most encouraging is that the reports on systems and structures are being looked at in the wider context of mission and discipleship, not as an end in themselves. 

No zombie General Synods, now that we not longer have to talk about women bishops, here at last is the CofE getting to grips with reality, and with itself. Hang on to your cassocks folks, it's going to be quite a ride. 

Women Bishops: The Morning After

Do you ever have those chats where the other person takes ages to get round to what they wanted to say in the first place? It's felt a bit like that as a vicar in the CofE over the last few years - we were going to get round to having women bishops (or 'bishops' as they're now called) eventually, but by 'eck it's taken a long time.

Self-indulgently long in fact.

I tweeted a couple of things on the #synod hashtag yesterday, which got 75 retweets/favourites between them, so must have struck a chord:

"Looking forward to the day when 85 people want to speak at #synod about evangelism" (85 people had indicated that they wanted to speak in the debate)

"Well done #synod, good call. Now back to that tedious old stuff about making disciples of all nations."

It's scandalous that we have taken up so much time, energy and angst over this - yes it's an important issue, but I don't see people queueing up to talk at General Synod about the main thing Jesus set the church up for in the first place, to make disciples of all nations (involving baptising new believers and teaching them the ways of Jesus). It doesn't matter whether a man, a woman or a goat is dressed in a purple shirt if we are not actually making disciples. Yes lets get this right, but lets also remember that it's not the main thing. 

Alongside this  - and this is where I get thrown out of the CofE completely - is whether we really understand what a bishop is in the first place. The CofE claims to have a 'threefold order of bishops, priests, and deacons'. It doesn't of course, it only has a twofold order of bishops and priests, Deacons used to be a holding pattern for women who were called to the priesthood but not allowed to go there by the church. Now it's something that priests do for a year before, through an episcopally-applied software upgrade, they're then allowed to bless people and run a church (I simplify, of course...). 

Several dioceses don't have permanent deacons: people who have a call to be a deacon in the church, and have been ordained specifically to that role. Which makes a bit of a nonsense of the 'threefold order' claim. In the meantime we take a word used for a member of the team leadership of a local church in the NT (overseer/episkopoi) and freight it with 2000 years worth of historical and theological baggage. The God and Politics blog summarises the early part of that history. It's always seemed a bit odd for evangelicals to be debating who should or shouldn't be a bishop, when our understanding and practice has such a slim biblical basis in the first place. 

But then, perhaps that's what God intended. The first batch of deacons hardly stuck to the job description: they were supposed to oversee the distribution of food, but we know of one who became a travelling evangelist (Philip) and another (Stephen) got himself killed after doing lots of miracles culminating in a showdown with the authorities. The labels and roles matter less than the authorisation, and the priority, in everything, to get the word out. 

In all this there are positive signs - the national priorities of the CofE now include growing the church, and reshaping ministry, so there are signs we're alive to the issues above. 

Final point: in the inevitable 'who will the first woman bishop be?' over the coming months, lets keep coming back not to the personalities or the politics, but to the mission of the church. Because if we aren't doing what Jesus set us up to do, then we are not truly the church. Female or male, I'm not that fussed who we have in leadership in the CofE as long as they have the same priorities as Jesus. 

General Synod on 'The Priority of Evangelism and Making New Disciples'. No, you're not dreaming.

Following this afternoons debate on 'Intentional Evangelism' (which prompted some wag on Twitter to ask what 'Unintentional Evangelism' might look like), the CofE General Synod passed this motion:

'That this Synod in the light of the priority of evangelism and making new disciples:

(a) support the formation of an Archbishops' Task Group on Evangelism with the terms of reference and timetable as set out in GS 1917 and urge that its members include:

(i)  staff of Anglican home mission agencies with expertise in helping local churches engage in effective evangelism and disciple-making, and

(ii)  those with a proven record in those disciplines at local level".'

(b) call upon the Task Group to make its first priority a new call to prayer;

(c) commend to the Task Group an initial programme for its work around the seven disciplines of evangelisation as set out in the same paper; and

(d) call upon every diocesan and deanery synod and every PCC to spend the bulk of one meeting annually and some part of every meeting focusing on sharing experiences and initiatives for making new disciples.'

(e) urge every local church in 2014 prayerfully to try tat least one new way, appropriate to their local context, of seeking to make new disciples of Jesus Christ.".'

Bits in italics are amendments added during the debate. 

One concern already voiced is that 'top-down' initiatives from the CofE rarely work, and that encouraging evangelism and disciple-making needs to happen from the bottom up. What the top can provide is accountability, encouragement, permission, and reshaping of structures. Sections d and e won't amount to very much unless bishops, archdeacons, clergy and church members all pick them up and run with them. But if they become standard practice, then they could make a huge difference. 

I'm encouraged by the fact that both Archbishops have made this a priority, both in Synod agenda terms, and in their own commitment to it - up to 6 meetings a year on the task group for up to 5 years. This is the kind of long-term leadership we need to bring about a change of culture and practices. It can't happen soon enough.

For snippets from the main background paper to this debate, have a look here.

And for a penetrating insight into Synod processes, try this. Really, try it. 

The Church of England, the Gospel, and the Future: my prayer for General Synod

The good news of Jesus Christ is not a human invention but the revelation of God’s grace to humankind

This gospel of Jesus Christ offers forgiveness for sin for those who are alienated from God and a renewed relationship with our creator and with one another. The gospel offers guidance for the lost, spiritual food for the hungry, healing for the broken in spirit, freedom for those who are captives, order and safety for those whose lives are in chaos, fruitful living for those whose lives are barren. The gospel offers the gift of life in all its fullness and fellowship in the life of God the Trinity both now and for all eternity. The gospel offers the rich gift of resurrection and life beyond death for, in Christ, the power of death itself has been vanquished and resurrection life is offered to all.

From this paper for General Synod, meeting in the next few days. Amidst all the women bishops stuff, the Synod actually kicks off with a paper and debate on Intentional Evangelism. The paper goes on to say:

The Church is compelled to proclaim the gospel with imagination and perseverance out of 
love for God, whose gospel this is, and out of love for the world. We have nothing more, and nothing less, to offer to the world around us than this pearl of inestimable value. The world around, at different times, may ridicule, scoff or reject the message. But the response of the world does not invalidate the gospel or excuse the Church from the call to proclaim it.

and states plainly what the CofE needs to do:

Evangelism is not something which will happen in the present climate on its own without a deliberate and intentional emphasis and strategy to guide us forward which is owned at every level across the Church of England. The lessons we have learned and are learning need to be shared, owned and developed in a clear and systematic way. We need the urgent investment of resources, time and energy into each of the different aspects of evangelism over the medium and long term. We need to be focussed in our prayers and in our resourcing of this aspect of our calling in the local church, in dioceses and in the national church. We need, in brief, to be intentional about evangelism in this next period of our life as the Church of England, not for a five or ten year period but for a generation or more in order to reverse the decline we have seen over the last century and to lay a foundation for the growth of the Church in this land in future generations. 

Yes, we need to get on with ordaining women to the episcopate, but we have only so much time and energy as a church, and this single issue is consuming far too much of it. Apologies to everyone campaigning for women bishops, but my prayer is that if there is anything at the coming General Synod which shapes the CofE for the future, it is this. GS1917. It is more important than who we ordain to the episcopate, and therefore deserves more time and energy than our debates over women bishops.

the paper itself recognises this:
the translation of this desire for a strategy into a meaningful and workable plan for the next period of our common life has still to be achieved. Motions in the General Synod about evangelism and the growth of the church are in danger of becoming bland. We seem to be at the point where evangelism cannot be taken forward by the embracing of one or two big new ideas but is more about an intentional shift across a whole range of disciplines. 

Headline motions about the growth of the church cannot by themselves prevent this agenda being squeezed by the seemingly more pressing calls to focus time and attention on questions of gender and ministry or human sexuality

There are 4 core proposals:
1.  an Archbishops’ Task Group on Evangelism which will enable national leadership and co-ordination in this area of Church life 
this is proposed in the motion, the group will include both Archbishops and will meet 4-6 times annually for at least the next 2 years. That's a significant commitment. The focus of its work will be prioritising evangelism and prayer within the CofE as a whole

2. Support for a national call to prayer around this agenda in the coming years. 

3. Support for a programme of action to be articulated by the Task Group around the Seven Disciplines of Evangelisation
sounds churchy, but have a look at the 7 Disciplines on page 14ff, evangelism, church planting, nurture, church growth, apologetics...

4. A call to every PCC and every diocesan and deanery Synod to take time annually to develop and focus on this agenda
I mean, what have we been doing if this isn't happening already?

But I'm hopeful that at last it is going to happen. Pray for the Church of England this week, that it will get its priorities right, and put its energies in the right place. I pray that this paper sets the tone for everything that follows, not just in this next week, but for the next generation.

update: some other synod previews here, one by the Bishops Chaplain from our diocese (which, in constrast to this post, is entirely about women bishops!), and this excellent post by Pete Broadbent looking at mission, ministry and reshaping the church.

Always a Woman: A Song for the Church of Wales

To celebrate the decision of the Church of Wales to have women bishops, here's one of the moments I remember most vividly from theological college in the 90s. St. Johns Nottingham was a bit of a hotbed of feminism at the time, and my good chum Simon penned this little ditty. Billy Joel as you've never heard him before. I'm not sure how he escaped with his life, to be honest.

Enjoy, if you can.....

General Synod blogs

Quite a few people are blogging from within about General Synod, which closes today. Here are a few of them:

(updated to include....) Bermondsey Vicar not a blog I'd come across before, but looks good, nicely written.

Nick Baines, Bishop of Bradford (who won't have a diocese much longer..)

Stephen Lynas, Bishops Chaplain from Bath & Wells Diocese

Jeremy Fletcher, Beverley Minster (I think that's a place, not the name of the first female CofE Bishop, though you never know)

Dave Walker, 1000 words in visual form.

The General Synod blog

Thinking Anglicans has lots of reports (mainly focusing on women bishops/sexuality. What do Anglicans think about every 7 seconds?)

Church of England Newspaper live blog, which reads like a Twitter feed. or tennis match text commentary.

Steve Croft, Bishop of Sheffield.

any more out there?

Background Reading for General #Synod

There's no point reading the mainstream press about General Synod, which starts tomorrow in York. If you get withdrawal symptoms, there's always the Church of England Headline Generator, which will give you just as much truth and significantly more amusement.

In the meantime, here's some background reading for Synod members who get bored of talking/listening/agreeing/disagreeing/brinkmanship about W***n B*****s.

Attendance stats: Diocesan tables for 2008-11 and 2001-11. In the light of the upbeat headlines around the stats published a couple of months ago, here's the gnarlier reality. If you're not from London diocese, make sure you're sitting down.

Diocesan Church Growth Strategies: index page of various blog posts from a recent conference on how Dioceses can facilitate the growth of the local church. Numerical and spiritual growth are now officially top of the agenda of the national church, and once we've stopped the self-indulgent talkfest over women bishops we might get on and give this agenda the time and effort it deserves.

Sneaking in a Radical Growth Strategy: After a full day of group therapy on you-know-what, there is 90 minutes on Saturday evening concerning whether the first female bishop will be asked to lead a diocese or switch off the lights as she leaves the building. If, like me, you despaired of the CofE ever facing up to the stats above, this is the most encouraging bit of Synod business in a long while.

Church Growth in the CofE: discussion paper  - a summary of GS Misc 1054, a document which, if taken seriously, would completely transform the CofE.

If you've been a regular visitor here in the last few weeks, you'll have seen most of these already, but there's still the General Synod blog, which lo! has sprung to life again. Dave Walkers cartoon will help you visualise the goings-on, if you desperately need to. and update Jeremy Fletcher blogging from the inside of the goldfish bowl.

General Synod: Sneaking in a radical growth strategy whilst everyone is looking at women bishops

I've been critical in the past for the absence of mission from the agenda of General Synod. Looking at some of the papers for sessions starting next week, I'm quietly encouraged.

The full agenda is here, and most of the Saturday is going to be spent in small groups trying to thrash out the women bishops issue (again). The day closes with a 90 minute debate on GS1895. Stay awake at the back there! This is a half-time review of the Church of Englands 3 priorities for the current 5 year cycle. They are:
 - contributing as the national Church to the common good;
- facilitating the growth of the Church;
- re-imagining the Church’s ministry.

Each of these will be the subject of a major General Synod debate in the next 12 months, with church growth kicking this off in November.

The paper makes it quite clear which of the 3 is considered to be top priority:

The opportunities for contributing to the common good at a time of considerable social and economic distress are enormous. But the Church of England’s capacity will be less than it would wish unless it can also make progress in reversing the long term decline in numbers and increase in the age profile of its membership. (p2)

(there is a)  ‘mistaken conflation of evangelism and evangelicalism…growth is an authentic priority for all the strands within Anglicansim and should be a practical priority for all’

from the conclusion: it is, rightly, the challenge of growth that is increasingly at the centre of the church’s agendas. As in New Testament days there is a sharp awareness of the challenge posed by an abundance of fields white to harvest and a relatively limited supply of labourers (p10)

Hidden away are some radical thoughts: in a section on vocations there is a growing sense that the current stress on the individual’s sense of vocation needs to be redressed to a greater extent by reference to the kind of clergy who are suited to the present mission challenge and especially to meet the need for greater diversity. I.e. the CofE is looking at rewriting the criteria for leadership selection to put mission leadership as a much higher priority. 

The paper outlines some of the work being done under each of the 3 headings, and adds in a paper by Steve Croft, bishop of Sheffield. It's worth a read, outlining some of the reasons why we don't talk about church growth in the CofE:

"The agendas of bishops meetings and other meetings are dominated by questions of gender and ministry and human sexuality leaving little quality space for deeper engagement with evangelization"...

tick

and suggests '7 disciplines of evangelisation', which is a really interesting section: watch this space on this one. It's classic Croft: take some practices and ideas which have been beyond the pale in Anglican circles and describe them in terms and ways which bring them into the fold. Thus 'ecclesial formation' (church growth) 'forming new ecclesial communities' (church planting). You may see a lot more of this quoted in the months and years to come. 

The Croft paper is also here, on his blog as Bishop of Sheffield. 

Finally, there is GS Misc 1054. Otherwise known as "Making new disciples: the Growth of the Church of England" I almost feel I need to repeat that title, just in case you thought you'd misread it first time round. It's a companion paper to the Quinquennium review above, and makes the theological and practical case for prioritising church growth in the CofE. It recognises that decline can't go on for much longer without the parish system ceasing to function, and that traditional Anglican outreach to the 'church fringe' is no longer enough. It's the kind of honest appraisal of where we're at as a church that I've been wittering on about for some time. 

Some outlines of a national and diocesan church growth strategy are proposed, down to very basic stuff such as actually talking about it. I've just received the Bath and Wells annual review for 2012, there is not a single mention anywhere of diocesan membership or attendance. Amid all the lists of achievements and met targets, you'd be forgiven for thinking we were growing and thriving and didn't need to do much differently. We aren't, and we do.  

There is some key stuff in the paper - e.g. on recruiting and equipping clergy who in turn can train their lay members as evangelists and agents of outreach, on mission action planning as a growth tool, on benchmarks of good practice in basic things like welcoming newcomers, and identifying the 'levers for growth' available to diocesan and national structures. It's well worth a read.

A few short extracts:

these quinquennial goals give us a clear framework of spiritual growth - numerical growth - kingdom growth; all of which need to be held inextricably together. A vibrant Church which grows new disciples will have more energy to transform the world through the power of God’s love. This holistic vision of growth is focused on the Kingdom of God, not just on church attendance. Yet without a regular flow of new disciples, the Church will be less and less able to fulfil its calling to be an agent of God’s transformation in the world.

There will be great danger, however, if our  motivation for making new disciples is a desire to preserve the Church of England, or ‘to keep the show on the road’

The urgent missionary task facing the Church is to make new disciples for Jesus Christ who will seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. The priority of growing the number of new believers is not for the sake of the Church itself, but to enable the Church to fulfil God’s mission to be a sign, agent and foretaste of his Kingdom, where ultimately every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Turning around the decline in the number of new disciples is a massive task for the Church: far too big a task to be delegated to a small task group; way beyond what the National Church Institutions can achieve; more profound than a General Synod debate or two can fix. It will only happen if people at every level in the Church are enabled to catch the vision, pray passionately and work together. 

amen to that.

Update: Justin Welby has just appointed an adviser on Evangelism and Witness. Judging by this, and what the Archbishop has already said, I think we can say he takes all of the above very seriously.

CofE press office overdrive - burying bishops expenses?

There's an end of term torrent of press releases from the Church of England media centre, including a response to the latest Energy Bill from the government. Each of the other ones is noteworthy, for different reasons:

The House of Bishops has recognised that it needs a bit of outside assistance in drafting decent women bishops legislation for the July synod. I'm glad it's also resisted the calls of WATCH to delay until after the next set of Synod elections (another 3 years), which seems a bizarre request designed to prolong the discomfort in the short term and steamroller traditionalists in the long term. A new working group will start meeting in January to help get something workable together. IIt's a mixture of men and women, lay and ordained, including the lay theologian Paula Gooder and Philip Giddings, current chair of the house of laity at General Synod...

.... though he may not be for much longer. A 'public meeting' of the House of Laity has been called for January, with one item on the agenda. That item is a motion of no confidence in Dr Giddings as chair of the house of laity, citing his speech at the November debate as the reason. I don't know if this legally has to be a public meeting, but I can't really see why it shouldn't happen behind closed doors. There's a danger of it becoming a public trial, and yet another public airing of divisive views. (update, Peter Ould isn't impressed with the reasoning for the motion)

Finally the 2011 figures for Bishops Office and Working costs have been published. These amounted to £17m, a jump of over £1m on last year, most of which is accounted for by increased legal fees. The reason for this (reading between the lines) is the additional cost of the Clergy Discipline Measure, as legal advice for this isn't already covered by the other legal expenses of a Diocese. Full details are here, where you can see what's happened in your own Diocese. Here in Bath and Wells, costs have jumped 10%, whilst next door in Bristol they've gone down. I'm assuming there's a back story to places like Southwark, where costs have risen 40% in a year.

More concerning is the fact that, in 2006, this figure was £11.3m. That's a 50% rise in 5 years. How is budgetary control exercised here? As a local priest, every day I meet the people who pay the bills, and am part of a church that has to balance the books month by month, year by year. That's a big incentive to make sure I use resources wisely. No such financial discipline exists for bishops, the money does not run out, there is not the same context to provide that accountability and discipline. And whilst clergy numbers have dropped significantly in 5 years, we still have 113, the same number, in the purple.

There is mention in the full details of a new 'block grant' system of allocating funds for bishops expenses. Will that mean that, in future, if all the money is spent then there's no more? This will increase by 4% year on year, which is significantly ahead of inflation, and this seems overly generous given the huge increases of recent years.

I'm sure there are local factors wherever these expenses have risen, but the aggregate of 44 local factors over 5 years points to a lack of budgetary control and accountability. Perhaps bishops should be funded out of their dioceses, with budgets accountable to diocesan synods as they are for the rest of diocesan functions? The changes may be an attempt to address the spiralling costs, but the document doesn't mention them, instead the reasoning is 'greater flexibility' for bishops. There already seems to be too much flexibility in the bottom line.

Now What?

I assume that from now on, every Reform church will be paying its parish share in full, and there'll be no more talk about opting out from Diocesan structures. No representation without taxation. After the vote today, it would be outrageous for Reform parishes then to opt into and out of church structures as they saw fit. Having played a full part in the legislative process, and hobbled the CofE's witness in the process (check Twitter if you doubt this), to then withold support would be deeply unjust. It would be like kicking someone in the shins, and then fining them for limping.

Had I the key, and were I in the vicinity of Church House, I would lock General Synod in there until they found a way to sort this out. It's clear that some of the processes before today have been badly flawed, so much as I'd like to I can't just blame the lobby groups. (update: a vicar on our local news in Somerset was making the same point - he argued that Synod could have found a motion that would have commanded enough votes, and managed to accomodate people like himself who were opposed.)

In the end it comes down to whether we trust each other. Traditionalists want stronger guarantees, but the stronger the wording is, the more it betrays the fact that Christians don't trust each other to act like Christians, and are resorting to law to regulate their relationship rather than grace. If that's where we've come to, I can't see how those Christians can share communion, or claim to be in fellowship with one another. We belong to the same institution, but how much more is there to it than that?

What's Wrong with This Agenda?

Thinking Anglicans have kindly published the agenda for Novembers General Synod:

GENERAL SYNOD: NOVEMBER 2012
Timetable
Monday 19 November
2.15pm – 7 pm
Worship and formal business
Report by the Business Committee
Anglican Consultative Council meeting: presentation and questions
Anglican Communion Covenant: Report on the Reference to Dioceses
Questions
[brief evening worship]
Tuesday 20 November
9.15 am – 1 pm
9.15 am Holy Communion
10.30 am Legislative Business:
Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure and Draft Amending Canon No.30
2.30 pm – 7 pm
Legislative Business:
Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of women) Measure and Draft Amending Canon No.30 – continued
[brief evening worship]
Wednesday 21 November
9.30 am – 1 pm
Worship
Diocesan Synod Motion: Southwell and Nottingham: Amendment to Canon B 12 and Regulations
Private Member’s Motion: John Freeman: Living Wage
Dates of groups of sessions in 2013
2.30 – 5.30pm
Farewells
Youth unemployment
Farewell to the Archbishop of Canterbury
Contingency business:
Report of the Standing Orders Committee

A question: would you guess, from looking at the above, that it's the agenda of the main decision making body of a church which is consistently declining in numbers, is facing a game-changing drop in its levels of staffing, and has committed during the current Synod to prioritising church growth and mission?

No, me neither. If there's any synod members out there who are looking at this and scratching their heads too, perhaps you could use the question time to remind Synod of our membership stats, or to ask at what point we are going to take the same steps as the Church in Wales and start to refit the CofE for the 21st century. Otherwise the final task of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury will be to turn out the lights.

What the Bishops Did Next

Just had this from our Diocese:

GENERAL SYNOD VOTE ON WOMEN BISHOPS

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Dear Colleagues,

You will have heard through the media of the vote at General Synod in York on Monday morning. I wanted to be in touch as quickly as possible to let you know how things stand.

In May, the House of Bishops chose to make two amendments to the legislation that 42 Diocesan Synods had supported. General Synod has decided, after considerable debate, to refer one of the amendments back to the Bishops. It is, in the jargon, para 5(1)(c), which puts into the Measure specific mention of how arrangements can be made for a parish to request alternative Episcopal oversight. It had attracted considerable criticism from supporters of women in the episcopate, although it had been seen as giving some comfort to those opposed, whether traditionalist catholics or conservative evangelicals.

The Press will probably treat this as a fudge and signs of indecision. Having sat through the debates, I think that is unfair. It was quite clear that everyone - including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Steering Committee - recognised that the amendment had not been subject to sufficient scrutiny and gave rise to serious concerns. There was no prospect that the Measure, as amended, would get the necessary 2/3 majorities in each of the three Houses of Synod as it stood. Had it been voted on, and rejected, then the whole women Bishops legislation would have failed, and it could not be re-introduced until a new Synod meets in 2015.

The timetable now is this. The House of Bishops will meet in September to further revise the Measure. Clause 5(1)(c) will have to be rewritten to avoid the current pitfalls, and the draft Code of Practice will have to be further developed to clarify the arrangements that will be put into place. That revision will be brought to an extra meeting of General Synod, to be held in November.

I hope this will be done in conjunction with the interested parties, rather than by Bishops alone. The Bishops must approach the further revision in a spirit of listening to the various sets of opinions. Exactly how the Measure will be further amended I cannot say, but I believe the leading constituencies in this matter (WATCH, Forward in Faith, and Reform), as well as key individuals, will be using the time to try and ensure the revised version is one that can gain the required majority, while offering the best possible safeguards to those opposed on theological grounds, so that we can move forward towards consecrating the first women Bishops as soon as possible: something that almost everyone now regards as desirable.

I will be meeting with representatives of our women clergy, traditional anglo-catholics and conservative evangelicals over the next few weeks. I will also speak about the situation at Diocesan Synod to be held at Millfield School on Wednesday evening next week.

Please join me in prayer for continued patience and a spirit of discernment among us all.

PS: Archbishop Rowan’s remarks on the situation can be seen on his website at

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2557/archbishop-of-canterbury-at-general-synod-in-york (scroll down the page).
 
Helpful to know what's going on, the original Bishops amendment might have had a better hearing with some more background like this. A few thoughts:
 
 - I'm concerned that the various pressure groups are being given what looks like priveliged access to the process. Fair enough, they represent 'constituencies', but they also have a life of their own, and a lot of folk in the CofE are not represented by these people. Is General Synod supposed to function as a representative democracy, with individual delegates taking soundings from their own Dioceses, or in this case has it turned more into the House of Commons with whipped 'parties' supporting one line or another, plus a few crossbenchers? I personally wonder whether the time between now and November would be better spent in prayer, rather than rounds of press releases and position statements designed to influence the process and the outcomes.
 
 - I wonder if the trouble started with the motion the Dioceses were asked to consider and report back on: it referred to a Code of Practice which didn't yet exist, and left vague the question of how people who opposed women bishops would be accomodated (or not). So, if you were in favour of women bishops, but also in favour of accomodation for traditionalists, did you vote for the motion or against it?
 
 - As I said earlier this week, there is a deeper problem of lack of trust. A family only needs to resort to law and codes of behaviour if relationships have broken down. Traditionalists fear that WATCH stands for Win And Treat Conservatives Harshly, and that without explicit safeguards they will be simply be marginalised. If most of the parties are spending their time in conference with like-minded people within their lobby groups, and not with one another in an attempt to listen, understand and love, then I can't see the entrenchment slacking off.

General Synod: When is a Decision Not a Decision?

'The perfect forum for those who want to avoid decisions'. That description of the Church of England General Synod was penned back in February by Andrew Brown of the Guardian. On first reading, it would seem ever closer to the mark today. A few thoughts:

 - Is the glacial decision making process of the CofE born out of a desire to get things right, a fear of getting things wrong, or a deadlock brought on by competing lobby groups taking up the ground normally occupied by leadership and vision? Is it another symptom of the weakness of the overall CofE leadership model?

 - This was supposed to be the day when the key vote was taken. Instead it's now delayed until November, and who knows what will happen then? It's better to take our time to make the best decision, and we should applaud synod for not sacrificing accuracy for speed, despite pressure from people like me to 'just get on with it'. But the longer this drags on the more sapping it becomes. A delay of 4 months isn't much in the 2000 year history of the church, but the delay itself is the result of an intervention by the Bishops which seemed to upset a lot of people. I think their motivations were right, but the result was a flurry of press releases disagreeing with them, and todays adjournment of the debate.
I'm not sure if it's fair to describe the governance of the CofE as dysfunctional, but something has gone seriously wrong here. Once this is done and dusted (as far as it can be) we need to ask some serious questions about CofE processes. We talk about ourselves as an episcopal church, we're looking to accept women into the episcopacy, but we don't seem that keen on episcopal leadership. I hate to say it, but we seem pretty confused about what bishops are for. To take a chess metaphor, we only seem to want bishops who will move sideways one space at a time, unless we agree with them, in which case we want them to move straight ahead as fast as possible.

 - The sad thing for me is that the desire for finely-tuned legislation is a symptom of a deeper problem. Normally, if a family has brought in the lawyers it's a sign that the relationship is struggling. We only resort to law to codify our relationships when love, trust and community have broken down, it's an external sanction on behaviour. It's apparent that many Anglicans don't trust each other sufficiently to live without safeguards. Whether that mistrust is well grounded, I don't know. But it doesn't look like people are willing to take the risk of finding out.

History may show that the delay has some wisdom to it. We may find a glorious way to please everyone. I just wonder how many other organisations could take this long, be this confused, and still survive. But maybe family rather than organisation is a better metaphor, and if the CofE is an organism, then in comparison with evolution we're going at lightening speed.

For a fascinating inside view of all this, have a look at Stephen Lynas' blog from synod.

Mission Back on the Agenda at General Synod

Having frequently had a go at General Synod for leaving mission off the agenda (ask anyone on my Twitter feed during February), I'd like to give it some credit for this time round:

As in July 2011, part of the Saturday morning has been structured in such a way as to foster a culture of listening and reflection in the Synod. The groups that met last year, each comprising twelve members and led by a bishop, will reflect, in the context of worship, on a Bible passage and on the Church's contemporary mission.

This will be followed by a debate on the role of mission agencies and on partnership between the Church of England and other churches of the Anglican Communion.

The mission theme will continue on the Saturday evening with a debate on the 'fresh expressions' movement, which encourages new ways of being the Church within the contemporary context, in the light of a joint Anglican-Methodist report which considers how these initiatives relate to the doctrinal understanding of what it is to be a church.

Of course, mission is not a theme, it's the key reason for the church's existence, but this is a start. However, I'm a bit suspicious of 'debate' if it doesn't lead to any action: how will the CofE work more in partnership with other agencies and churches? how will it develop the work of Fresh Expressions? How will synod arrive at an agreed position on the church's mission?

It also looks like there'll be more work on a 'national mission strategy' in February next year. Is the ship slowly turning?

General Synod: What You Might Have Missed

In between deciding nothing in particular about women bishops, and spannering the Weddings Project, there were some good initiatives announced at General Synod this week:

Worship Workshop, a new website for schools and children to use to create their own liturgy. Also worth a look for harvesting the links - some good ones under the 'engaging resource' section. Press release here.

How2Help is a new community action website, arising from a motion to Synod in 2010, which seeks to catalyse and resource local churches in serving their communities, and spreading ideas about what works, and how to do it.

from the press release:
The Church of England has a wealth of experience and skill in serving local communities, built up over decades of Christian witness and action for stronger bonds between people and for supporting the lonely and vulnerable. People can now go into the website, starting with the question or issue that motivates them, and find answers, ideas and examples. They can learn from the mistakes of others and discover what approaches work best

and finally, I hadn't realised the Queen was ill. The Synod opened with the National Anthem and prayers for HM The Queen and for members of the Synod who were unwell.  

General Synod: Rearranging the Dog Collars on the Titanic?

Sorry to go on about this, but....

This week General Synod has 4 debates about women bishops. Now ok, this is a biggie for the CofE, but we seem to have let it take over. This Synod has access, for the first time, to comprehensive data on the Church of England for the first decade of this century. It shows that our average weekly numbers have dropped from 1,203,000 in 2001 to 1,116,100 in 2010. That's a drop of 9.3%, or, if you prefer, 186 people a week.

That doesn't sound like a lot, but that's the problem. It never does.

And General Synod isn't even registering that this data exists. I can't see the point in us collecting all these stats when our main leadership body doesn't even discuss them. Unless we start to understand why people are leaving (and everyone will assume it's because the CofE isn't more the way they like it: liberals because it's illiberal, evangelicals because it doesn't preach the gospel, Catholics because we're straying from the ancient faith - I caricature, but you get the point), and why the few growing churches and Dioceses are actually growing, we will never seriously address what's going on. Sure, some may be leaving over the issue of women bishops, but I don't recall the ordination of women to the priesthood in the 1990s leading to widespread revival, and there's no reason to assume it will be any different now.

Andreas Whittam Smith called in the previous synod for 'a real sense of crisis' about the falling membership of the CofE. Judging by the agenda to this synod, he's been ignored. Ok, we aren't the only people with a membership crisis - the political parties make the Church of England look like a success story. But, as Andrew Brown wrote yesterday, we seem to be very good at avoiding the kind of leadership and decision-making that's required.

Because these stats aren't a blip:
Adults attendance 1989-2010 for those not of a nervous disposition
Childrens attendance 1989-2010 ditto, but more so.
2001-2010 breakdown by Diocese: adults, all-age

My own Diocese is nearly 1/3 smaller than it was 20 years ago. I've been on our Diocesan Synod for a while, and can only remember membership figures being mentioned when we discuss the Budget - fewer people means higher parish share per head. So we're just as good at the ostrich position as everyone else, and I'm currently working out how to get a motion to our local synod that can prompt a discussion at the Diocese. We either have to plan for being 1/3 smaller again by 2030, or make some deliberate changes aimed at reversing things, but at the moment we are doing neither.

There are plenty of good things happening in the CofE, some of them initiated by General Synod. In the last fortnight I've come across this on Bishops Mission Orders, the excellent Parish Buying website, a new web resource dedicated to community action projects, how2help.net and a theological college that's established a church growth centre.

But it all seems to be happening around the fringes. General Synod - and Diocesan Synods too - needs to spend less time rearranging the dog collars, and more time inspecting the ship.

Update: ....like London Diocese, which has done 2 major studies on church growth/decline and the reasons for it in the last 10 years, and, crucially, this informs policy at the Diocese. And guess which Diocese has grown the most? It's not rocket science....

Sad Stats for Synod: Childrens Attendance 1989-2010.

Following on from yesterdays figures for adult attendance, here's the stats on childrens attendance at CofE churches from 1989-2010. I hope that Synod this week can take time away from rearranging the dog collars on our cruise liner, and the usual tittle tattle about Rowan Williams, to ask what this data means for us.

The same riders apply to these figures as to the adult ones: it's 2 different measures for the 2 decades (usual Sunday attendance, then average weekly attendance) and theres a gap for comparison between 1999 and 2000.

The good news is that 15 Dioceses saw childrens numbers grow in the Noughties, which for all except London was a reversal of decline the previous decade. So it is possible to turn things around. Remarkable as it seems from the stats above, Carlisle actually saw some growth from 2000-2010. Yes, the 90s were that bad.

Further good news, 42 out of the 43 dioceses have a better figure for 2000-10 than 1989-99. The bad news is that for the majority of those it still had a '-' in front of it, but at least that's going in the right direction.

And that's about all I can do to cheer you up. At every other level this is catastrophic. If any other sort of organisation had these sorts of stats, we'd be debating a lot more than bonuses. It leave it for others to print off this chart, leave it on every seat at General Synod along with yesterdays stats, and ask at what point Synod will give some concerted energy to talking about the future of the CofE. And no, the solution is not more church schools. The state education system cannot, and should not, do the church's work for it. And it's obvious from the data above that, even if it is, it's not doing it very well.

It's times like this when union with the Methodists seems like a good idea. Here is what their equivalent of Synod was discussing and endorsing a few months ago. A church shaped for discipleship and mission? Are we?