Diocesan News03 Jun 05

Bishop of Connor's Presidential Address to the Connor Synod

CONNOR DIOCESAN SYNOD
THURSDAY, 2 JUNE 2005
THE LAGAN VALLEY CENTRE, LISBURN

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY THE BISHOP OF CONNOR
THE RIGHT REVEREND ALAN HARPER

Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ appeared before the Sanheddrin and Pilate in chains. In chains he was led to the hill called Golgotha and nailed to the cross. He broke those chains by his death and resurrection, breaking also the chains that held humanity in bondage to sin and setting us free to seek God?s face and receive forgiveness and reconciliation through the atoning power of his sacrifice.

Stephen, the first Christian Martyr was taken out in chains and stoned to death with the express consent of a man called Saul. The martyrdom of Stephen and the persecution that fell upon the Greek speaking Christian community in Jerusalem unleashed a flood of refugees out of Judea into the wider Mediterranean world so that Christianity burst out of the bonds of Judaism and into the new and exciting gentile environment.

Irony of ironies Saul himself, now known to the world as Paul, appeared before Agrippa and his court in chains, appealing to Rome for judgment, thus bringing the power of Paul?s advocacy and his zeal for the Saviour, who had set him free from his bondage to sin and death, to the heart of the Roman Empire itself.

Breaking free from bondage ? chains, shackles ? is the precursor, so often, to the dawn of a new era and the release of new vigour, purpose and hope in the life of the Church. We are here in Synod to break chains and to free ourselves for just such a new day in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Diocesan Council set itself a challenge: to re-imagine the diocese and to put in place the changes that are required to enable the Church in the Diocese of Connor to move forward with vigour and confidence.

Building for Generations, the programme launched by Bishop James Moore in AD2000 identified specific areas of ministry requiring particular attention. As a result we have developed a

? much admired training capability for clergy and laity;
? an imaginative approach giving support to clergy and their spouses ? an approach which has seen between a quarter and a third of all clergy in the diocese seek support within the past three years;
? new standards and new ways of building up our communications capability both within and outwith the diocese;
? innovative engagements with issues surrounding support for the 21st century family, shaped and inspired by the Mothers? Union in Connor Diocese;
? new resources, training and structures for the development of youth ministry in the diocese;
? a fresh approach to ministering to and with those who are retired ? we call it ?Age-Ability?; and
? a restructured Council for Mission with an agenda to encourage, facilitate and integrate mission into the whole life of the diocese.

From the outset we have recognised the constraints put upon us by old systems and old ways of doing and seeing things. We have inherited 19th century structures and 19th century attitudes that do not easily serve the mission of the Church in the 21st Century. We live in changed and changing times, we need structures and ways of working that, in modern parlance, are ?fit for purpose?!

Let us be prepared to recognise and accept certain truths.
We no longer live in a Christian society. Modern society, even in Co Antrim is now at best post-Christian. It might almost be said that we find ourselves in a situation analogous to that faced by many missionary dioceses overseas, except that we have not acknowledged the sea of unfaith, indifferentism, and ignorance of the scriptures, worship and the Christian religion that surrounds us. We content ourselves that we have influence and input into schools (which we do), that the Churches provide 80% of the youth work in the Province (which we do), and that these and other interactions have armoured us against rampant secularism amongst young people: WRONG! Many, many families are un-churched, a proportion of them several generations distant from any real engagement with the things of Christ. To call oneself ?protestant? nowadays is to make a political not a faith statement. It is time for us to waken from our slumber.

There are many other aspects of contemporary society which we, as a church, are ill equipped to confront:
? the mercurial mobility of society;
? the atomisation of community;
? the collapse of the traditional family;
? the leisure pursuits of a wealthy society;
? the dilemmas of the single parent household;
? two salary households in which working time plus travel time consume most of normal waking hours.

I could go on in anecdotal fashion, but I prefer to offer some hard statistics. Here is something of the background against which we need to shape the mission and ministry of the Diocese of Connor over the next 10 years:
? The population of Northern Ireland is projected to increase by 6% from an estimated 1.689m in 1998 to an estimated 1.794m by 2015 ? an increase in population of 105,000.
? The revised Housing Growth Indicators project the requirement for an additional 200,000 housing units over the same period, that is to 2015.
? 53% of the expected increase in households by 2015 is estimated to be accounted for by the increase in population, together with the changes in population structure associated with increased longevity.
? 47% of the expected increase will be due to changing social trends, especially an increase in single person households.
? Thus, by 2015 the average household size in Northern Ireland is expected to be 2.34 persons compared with 2.65 in 2001 (the UK average in 2001 was 2.36).

Extrapolations of the changes in age structure in Northern Ireland in the 25 year period from 1998 to 2023 calculated by Age Concern suggest the following:
? A 15.9% decrease in under 16 year olds
? An 11.8% decrease in 16-29 year olds
? A 0.6% increase in 30-44 year olds
? A 36.9% increase in 45-59 year olds
? A 47.8% increase in 60-65 year olds
? And a 56.7% increase in 75 year olds and over

The incomplete results from our own recent ?Age-Ability survey of Connor parishes indicates that currently around 28% of Church of Ireland parishioners in Connor are 65 and over. In 2001 the Northern Health and Social Services Board Area showed 13.7% of the total population at 65 years and over. The figure for the Eastern Health and Social Services Board was 14.8%. In other words the demographic structure of Church populations is more heavily weighted towards the older end of the spectrum than in the overall population.

Thus, by 2015 the Church may expect to minister to 105,000 more people in much smaller households with many people living much longer and many many more households consisting of only one person.

Let me bring this home for each one of you here in a different way. The figures I am about to give illustrate the additional number of housing units expected by 2015 in each of the District Council Areas in the diocese. Look out for the figures from your area:
Antrim
Total Housing Stock in 1998 16,400
Total Housing Stock in 2015 21,600
New Dwellings required 5,200
No of Households in 2015 20,500

Ballymena
Total Housing Stock in 1998 22,200
Total Housing Stock in 2015 28,200
New Dwellings required 6,000
No of Households in 2015 26,000

Ballymoney
Total Housing Stock in 1998 9,000
Total Housing Stock in 2015 13,200
New Dwellings required 4,200
No of Households in 2015 12,700

Belfast
Total Housing Stock in 1998 117,200
Total Housing Stock in 2015 142,000
(of which 200 will be second homes)
New Dwellings required 24,800
No of Households in 2015 120,800

Carrickfergus
Total Housing Stock in 1998 14,500
Total Housing Stock in 2015 19,300
New Dwellings required 4,800
No of Households in 2015 17,900

Coleraine
Total Housing Stock in 1998 23,100
Total Housing Stock in 2015 30,900
(of which 2,800 will be second homes)
New Dwellings required 7,800
No of Households in 2015 24,900

Larne
Total Housing Stock in 1998 12,500
Total Housing Stock in 2015 15,200
New Dwellings required 2,700
No of Households in 2015 14,300

Lisburn
Total Housing Stock in 1998 39,200
Total Housing Stock in 2015 49,300
(of which 100 will be second homes)
New Dwellings required 10,100
No of Households in 2015 46,800
Moyle
Total Housing Stock in 1998 6,300
Total Housing Stock in 2015 8,700
(of which 900 will be second homes)
New Dwellings required 2,400
No of Households in 2015 7,200

Newtownabbey
Total Housing Stock in 1998 30,100
Total Housing Stock in 2015 38,000
(of which 100 will be second homes)
New Dwellings required 7,900
No of Households in 2015 35,800

Among other conclusions that may be drawn from the statistics given above you will note that in the District Council Areas quoted (almost entirely in the Diocese of Connor) the Government is projecting an increase of 75,900 new homes of which 4,100 will be second homes. No matter in what light one views such figures they certainly imply much larger numbers of households ? addresses if you will ? for each parish to keep in touch with. Furthermore, they also imply high turnovers in resident families, and volatile population and denominational movement across the residential spectrum, complicated by high levels of dependency within an increasingly ageing population. Meanwhile the development of the regional transportation strategy will encourage and seek to sustain enhanced mobility as people are encouraged by government, and by the philosophy of our emerging culture, to maximise choice in access to housing, shopping, education, medical and personal services, leisure and recreational facilities. The shape of community and expectations of stability have already changed and are continuing to change, and I have made no mention of polyglot inward migration.

This deluge of statistics and statistical extrapolation is indicative, not consistent. Figures have been culled from various sources and do not all refer to precisely the same time periods. Nor are they likely to be free from future modification through the emergence of new factors. Nevertheless they give a clear indication of compelling underlying realities with which we must now come to terms. We must shape the future of mission and ministry in this diocese to meet the challenges posed by the changes in society which we may confidently predict, and we must do so with full acknowledgment of certain clear principles and current realities.

The essential principles are these:
1. The ministry and mission of the Church of Ireland is to and for all the people of Ireland and that is why we seek to maintain ministry on a parochial basis covering every square inch of the island of Ireland. We are a parochial not a congregational church.
2. We have always recognised the need to retain, as far as humanly possible, a direct link between mission and pastoral care on the one hand and engagement with and leadership of the worshipping community on the other.
3. Each parish is linked with its neighbours through membership of the diocesan family which is tasked with working to sustain the well being and the joint mission of the whole family.
4. Christian ministry is not merely the ministry of ordained clergy, it is the ministry of the whole people of God, the Body of Christ, deploying each gift that the Holy Spirit gives to serve the needs of mission within the whole church. Therefore, gifts and competencies are not a private possession but are given for the benefit of all, that is, they are given for sharing.
5. It is the responsibility of the whole church to call, equip, recognise and enable people to offer their gifts under the conditions and within the contexts best suited to each.
6. There should be no false distinction between the work of mission and the work of ministry: ministry should be seen as the way in which the mission of the church is best served in each place at any particular time.

Among the present realities with which we must now take account are these:
1. There are now fewer ordained stipendiary clergy in post than ever before in the modern history of the Church Of Ireland.
2. Of the clergy in training for ordination, roughly one half are training for ordination to the Auxiliary ministry. Of those being ordained this year 4 of the 17 will be Auxiliaries; in 2006 15 out of 22 will be Auxiliaries; in 2007 8 out of 15 will be Auxiliaries. This gives aggregated figures of 27 out of 54, i.e 50% over the current three year cycle.
3. Again, amongst those currently or soon to be in training and those ordained within recent years a high proportion could be described as ?late vocations?, so that the pattern of ordaining a majority of clergy within three or four years of their receiving a first degree has become relatively unusual. The implication is that the length of service offered by clergy in the ordained ministry is significantly reduced.
4. This needs to be balanced by recognition of the immense and invaluable service offered ad hoc by retired clergy in response to specific short term needs.
5. It is also balanced by a growing recognition of the appropriateness of the full time or part time engagement in ministry by lay people and the gradual emergence of suitable structures, training and parameters for the deployment of Commissioned Lay Ministers.
6. Financial considerations need also to be taken into account: the costs of clergy housing, clergy stipends and allowances, statutory payments such as Pension contributions, National Insurance etc. have all risen ? ordained ministry now costs significantly more than in past decades.

Such is the range of principles and present realities with which the Diocesan Council has sought to grapple in order to move from being reactive ? mere victims of circumstance, to becoming proactive and so to shape the future. Building for Generations is providing some of the tools for that task. The Action Plan which you have in your hands is the next step in the process. It sets out a total of 10 objectives together with the sort of principles we believe should be invoked in meeting the changes and challenges which lie ahead.

This is not a document set in stone: experience will probably indicate the need for modifications of detail as time passes. Nor will all proposals come simultaneously into play. The Strategy arises from the engagement of the whole Diocesan Council, working together in a way which I have never seen before in this diocese and involving every member present at special meetings and working groups set up for the purpose. I commend the work wholeheartedly to this Synod. If you approve it, (and I hope you will!) enabling legislation will be brought forward by the Diocesan Council to future Synods as required.

People hate change, but sometimes the choice is between change and a lingering death. Evolutionary, that is incremental change in response to the dynamics of emerging circumstance, is in my view more appropriate in Church life than revolutionary change. I commend the work of the Diocesan Council as providing the best way forward for evolutionary, incremental, change as we move forward together in the eternal mission of Christ and his Church.

Thank you for your patience.