Diocesan Synod
- 5th November 2016
"I want to begin with a particular thank you to six people,
and an apology to the same six people. Those people are the representatives
chosen by your Vacancy-in-See Committee to serve on the Crown
Nominations Commission. I want to thank you for the trust you
have put in me by recommending me for this role of 99th Bishop
of Lichfield; and I want to apologise to you, because much of
what I am going to say now you will have heard before. When the
CNC for Lichfield met in January this year, those of us who had
been invited to interview were asked to give a ten minute presentation
of what we would say in our first Presidential Address to Diocesan
Synod. It was an extraordinary moment for me the six of
you, along with eight others and the Archbishop, were all seated
on chairs around the edge of the drawing room at Lambeth Palace,
your faces framed by the setting winter sun so that you all appeared
to me like speaking silhouettes. Well, its good to be able
to see peoples faces this morning; and the other difference
is, that I have a bit longer than ten minutes at my disposal
so make sure you are sitting comfortably. But I do still
want to repeat today the three things that I said then about
this great Diocese of Lichfield: that we are a Midlands Diocese,
brought together to grow as one body; that we are the Diocese
of Mercia, invited to work imaginatively across boundaries; and
that we are the Diocese of our beloved Chad, called like him
to walk in faith as disciples of Jesus.
Growing
Together: A Midlands Diocese
"I am a Midlander though from the east, not the west
and I rejoice to be back in the Midlands. It irritates
me when people underrate this part of England, because it is
the Midlands that hold our country together, and they are neither
mediocre nor boring as people sometimes suggest. We here in Lichfield
are in a region of remarkable variety, creativity and opportunity
a great representative slice of England, with some very
dramatic bits at the edges, including some slivers of Wales.
And we are called to mirror this landscape in our life together
as a diocese.
"Lichfield is a remarkably
large and diverse diocese; I have been finding out about that
at first hand. In the last two months, I have visited 49 churches,
but that still leaves another 524 to get to thanks for
your patience. The scale is large: during the same period, the
milometer on the car the Church Commissioners provide for me
shows that I have driven 1680 miles within the diocese
and thats not counting all the kind people who have given
me lifts. And it is hugely varied in physical and social
geography; in income levels and educational background; in ethnicity
and culture; and in theology, liturgy, churchmanship. I want
all of these to be honoured equally, because here in this Midlands
diocese we are called to grow together as one body not
just to be together, but to grow together. Pauls image
of the church as the Body of Christ tells us that growth is for
all its parts, individually and together: growth inwards,
outwards, and upwards. I want to affirm our strong commitment
to growth in every dimension, and the way in which that is expressed
in our five themes: Discovering the Heart of God; Growing Disciples;
Reaching New Generations; Transforming Communities; Practising
Generosity. I have a set of five coasters tastefully emblazoned
with those themes to remind me of them every time I drink a cup
of tea or give somebody else a cup of coffee. I believe that
they will continue to serve us well. For years, Lichfield has
also used the headline Going for Growth, and I recognise
the focus that has given to being intentional about our mission,
though sometimes it can feel that the figures have been unresponsive.
I believe that particular form of words has now served its purpose,
and in due course I anticipate that a new strategic headline
will be formulated but I do not yet know what that will
be; if I did, I would tell you.
"We need to ensure that
all parts of the body share in the growth to which we are called
in this large, varied Midlands diocese. We need to look at what
we can together do to help every tradition of church grow in
every dimension of our five themes. Growing Disciples is not
just for evangelicals; Discovering the Heart of God is not just
for catholics; Transforming Communities is not just for radicals;
Practising Generosity is not just for those in the middle of
the road; Reaching New Generations is for us all. We need to
look carefully at how our church life, our ministry, our parochial
and diocesan governance reflect at every level who we are as
the people of God, and there are challenges here: for example,
in growing vocations from Black and Minority Ethnic people; in
the representation of women in leadership roles; in the age profile
of many of our churches. We dont need to beat ourselves
up with guilt over these challenges, but we do need to recognise
their reality. And, in a diocese as gloriously diverse as this,
we need to look at how we do business together across our differences,
which can be deep. The formulation of Five Principles has been
a good model to hold us together in our differing views on womens
ordination, and I am thoroughly committed to upholding the letter
and the spirit of them. We will undoubtedly face equally significant
challenges over issues of human sexuality, which will test the
quality of our life together. My hope is that by Gods grace
we will be able to win through to a pattern of being together
which will not only provide for what has been called good
disagreement, important as that is, but which will lead
us into genuine mutual flourishing. Our call to grow together
can be satisfied by nothing less than this, difficult as it may
prove to achieve.
Working
Across Boundaries: A Mercian Diocese
"Lichfield has been a little disparagingly referred to as
the left-overs of the ancient Diocese of Mercia,
what was left when other bits were carved off perhaps
the biblical idea of the remnant is a better image.
And what was Mercia? Mercia was Mercen-rice, the kingdom of the
borderlands (the marches). Historians are not absolutely
sure which borderlands those were, but certainly boundaries run
through this diocese. We have, most obviously, bits of Offas
Dyke in Shropshire; I am told that it is impossible to move any
distance in the Black Country without crossing a boundary of
some sort; I came away from a day in the Potteries thoroughly
briefed on the difference between Stoke-on-Trent, Stoke-upon-Trent,
and Stoke City Centre, but please do not ask me to explain that
now; as a diocese we include some or all of one Welsh and four
English counties.
"Boundaries are important
because they define places, but for Christians who serve the
universality Kingdom of God they must not become barriers. Cutting
across all geographical boundaries, the aftermath of the Referendum
on EU membership revealed deep divisions within our society,
and our work of Transforming Communities must take on board the
need to build bridges across difference.
"Places matter for us.
As the Church of England, we are committed to maintaining a Christian
presence in every place, and it is at local level, in our parishes,
schools and Fresh Expressions of church, that there is energy
for growth. On the other hand, for that energy to be maximised
we need to work across boundaries, and we also need to recognise
the important missional role of other patterns of Christian ministry,
such as the many chaplaincies with which we are blessed here.
The missional role of the diocese, as I see it, is not to organise
and impose a grand central plan but to germinate ideas and expertise,
to encourage the mutual sharing of resources, to foster a culture
of cross-boundary working.
"I want us to think creatively,
imaginatively and radically about how we resource ourselves in
this diocese, and I hope that in the new year we can begin a
conversation about that which draws in all aspects of our diocesan
life. My aspiration is for a diocese in which all the baptised,
the great people of God, feel they have the confidence to shape
our life together; in which there is a holistic vision for mission
and ministry which makes sense in each one of our extraordinarily
diverse contexts; in which our existing stress on putting parishes
first is strengthened and developed so that our normal way of
thinking about resourcing is not top-down or centre-to-edge but
neighbour-to-neighbour; in which we are nimble and free to invest
where there is potential, not simply to reinforce success or
to squander on proven failure. Being Released for Mission
is what this is all about; we will look at that later on in the
setting of rural churches, but it applies to every one of our
missional contexts.
"So I want us to foster
and sustain a culture where clergy, lay ministers and the whole
people of God expect to work collaboratively and generously together,
while maintaining the distinctive calling and gifts of each ministry.
I was immensely heartened last week by the number of Readers
who came to the Cathedral to affirm their commitment to that
particular ministry; as I said to them then, as those who hold
my licence in this diocese, I want to see them accorded a parity
of esteem with clergy who are similarly licensed. I want parishes
and benefices to expect to share resources for mission in mutual
support, particularly within deaneries, while maintaining a strong
continuity of presence in their local communities. I want our
churches and agencies, while maintaining our Christian Anglican
distinctiveness, to work in partnership with other churches,
with other faith groups and agencies: that is at the heart of
the Transforming Communities Together item later on our agenda
today.
"The Diocese of Mercia,
this diocese, is a borderland diocese. Living in borderlands
is risky business; crossing boundaries generates anxiety; that
is why we need a culture, locally of informed risk-taking, and
centrally of thoughtful permission-giving. If that is to be real,
we have to recognise that some risky ventures will not work out
well but then they would not be risky if there were not
that chance. As we will hear this afternoon, our current financial
situation is sufficiently healthy that we can be encouraged,
not indeed to be reckless, but to be audacious and imaginative.
Walking
in Faith: St Chads Diocese
"This diocese is Chads diocese, and I became conscious
of that in a new way as, with fellow pilgrims, I walked along
the Two Saints Way from Stoke to Lichfield for my installation.
Chads holy and humble witness is threaded through the landscape,
history and spirituality of this land. Think of leadership in
this diocese, and you have to think first of him. That is a daunting
example for any bishop in this diocese; but what it means before
anything else is that Clive, Geoff, Mark and I are first and
foremost disciples together with you, and so are your parish
priests, and all your ministers. For you, I am a bishop;
with you, I am a Christian said St Augustine to his people,
and those are the words a teenager reminded me when I first sat
down on Chads throne. Discipleship has to be our priority,
and we have a long way to go on putting that first at every level
of our life together, including in the meeting and deliberation
of this Diocesan Synod.
"We do not really know
what Chads strategy for mission was, though given the lasting
results of his work it must have been effective; but we do know
the pattern of discipleship he embodied, and the cultural change
it made among the pagan Mercians of his time. I do not yet know
what a strategy for mission in the Diocese of Lichfield for our
own time will look like, but I do know the culture of discipleship
within which it needs to be set. That will be a relational culture,
where we all are prepared to travel far to get to know, to encourage
and support one another. It will be a hospitable culture, where
we are not afraid to welcome one another, to trust one another,
to be enriched by one another. And it will be a prayerful culture.
All we undertake together must be soaked in prayer, for our only
strength comes from Gods grace. And any leadership that
I or my fellow bishops can offer to you must always be a leadership
which comes from our own followership of Jesus. The two most
important items on our agenda today are No 1, Worship
and No 10, Prayers.
"Thank you for your attention;
I promise I will not go on so long at my next diocesan synod!"
Rt Revd
Dr Michael Ipgrave
5 November 2016
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