Diocesan News
Connor Clergy Training Day
Photo: At the Connor Clergy Training Day on Empowering Ministry are, from left: The Revd Barry Forde; Development Team; Jill Hamilton, Children’s Project Development Officer; Trevor Douglas, Parish Development Officer; Bishop Graham Cray, Archdeacon Stephen Forde, Caroline Bradley, Care in the Family; and Archdeacon Stephen McBride
A training day for clergy in Connor Diocese on the theme of ‘Empowering Ministry’ was held in Antrim Parish Halls on Tuesday 25 February.
Sixty five clergy attended the event, which was addressed by the Rt Revd Graham Cray, The Church of England’s Archbishops’ Missioner of the Fresh Expressions team.
Clergy were welcomed by the Bishop of Connor, the Rt Revd Alan Abernethy, who said Bishop Graham was ‘not just a theologian but a practitioner.
Bishop Graham has been the Archbishops’ Missioner of the Fresh Expressions team since 2009. He was consecrated in March 2001 when he became the Bishop of Maidstone and the Bishop for Mission in the Diocese of Canterbury. Before this, he was Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, a Church of England Theological College, having spent 14 years as a vicar of St Michael–le–Belfrey, York.
He has been chairman of the Greenbelt Festival and is currently chairman of the Soul Survivor Trust. He chaired the working party which wrote the Mission Shaped Church report on church planting and fresh expressions of church. His theme was at the clergy training day was discipleship and disciple making.
Bishop Graham delivered two talks, and Connor’s Children Project Development Officer Jill Hamilton spoke about ‘Ripple,’ Children’s Ministry Connor, and the work she has been doing across the diocese since her appointment in November.
During the afternoon Bishop Graham hosted a seminar on ‘Making new disciples through fresh expressions of church,’ while a seminar on Children’s Work was led by Jill assisted by Caroline Bradley of Care in the Family.
For further information please contact:
Connor Diocesan Communications Officer
Contact Details
Karen Bushby
028 4066 0798
07766103880
[email protected]