Diocesan News
The Rt Revd Alan Harper's Presidential Address to the Connor Synod
CONNOR DIOCESAN SYNOD
Thursday, 12th October 2006
Royal Court Hotel, Whiterocks, Portrush
Presdential Address by the Bishop of Connor
The Rt Rev Alan Harper
My dear sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ, our focus in Synod this year will be largely upon matters domestic. This will be a housekeeping synod. However, I hope that what we may accomplish today work of lasting importance in equipping our diocese to meet the future with confidence, creativity and commitment. Today?s work continues, confirms and completes things to which we set our hand last year. Our focus will be on the future, not the past: the time has come to reshape ministry in our diocese to be more effective and efficient in future mission.
A couple of weeks ago I looked through the Register which records the work of Boards of Nomination in the diocese. I discovered that in the four and a half years since I became bishop I have appointed and instituted more than half of the incumbents of the diocese 38 out of 77. Moreover, more than half of the people now training for ordination are candidates for non-stipendiary ministry and many stipendiary clergy have come to ministry after other employment. These simple facts are immensely significant. They speak of a rapidity of turn over amongst incumbents, fluidity of life in the ordained ministry, much shorter periods of service in Holy Orders, declining numbers of candidates for full time (stipendiary) ministry, and an accelerating rate of change in parish life. All of this already impacts severely upon the availability of stipendiary clergy to staff parishes.
The rate of turnover amongst parochial clergy also signals an increase in the already huge amount of time and energy given to the Church?s appointments process, from the framing of parish profiles to the meetings of Boards of Nomination. Senior clergy and synodsmen, who serve on the Board of Patronage, meet time and again on successive Boards of Nomination, each board with a potential life of three months. Often two or more boards run concurrently. The average length of time served in incumbencies is reducing and number of clergy eligible for appointment is contracting. The length of time parishes remain vacant is extending and, as a result, the workload placed upon archdeacons and rural deans is escalating. Without the hard work and commitment of retired clergy the task of maintaining pastoral care in vacant parishes would be unsustainable. Let me, therefore record my very deep gratitude to the archdeacons, the rural deans, the diocesan curate, Canon Ruddock, and the retired clergy, ably supported by the Diocesan Readers, for the work they do without which ministry in vacant parishes would be vestigial at best.
Let us not pretend that we can any longer ignore the gravity of the situation. The Connor Strategy for Mission and Ministry has been specifically devised by the Diocesan Council over a period of more than two years to tackle some of the major challenges set out above. I want to commend that strategy to you and to seek support for it.
Some of you will recall that two years ago this synod discussed a proposal for vacant parishes to remit a small proportion of their income to the diocese towards the central costs of providing ministry, especially during vacancies. Wisely, the synod said - in effect - ?We don?t think it is fair financially to penalize a parish when it is at its most vulnerable, during a vacancy. If more money is needed by the diocese then everyone should contribute more.? And so, to meet the rising needs and to reduce the diocesan deficit you agreed to a progressive increase in the annual assessment. We are now beginning to feel the benefit of that decision and to move out of deficit. More importantly, however, the principle which members of the synod advocated at that time is recognised as the right one, namely that, as a diocese, we are called to work together as a family and to support one another, sharing the burdens equitably. The strong support the weak in the mission and ministry of the Church because we are all one in a shared calling to proclaim the Gospel of the Love of God in Christ.
Much of what now appears in our diocesan strategy responds to that Christian principle of working together and sharing the load:
"Bear one another?s burdens, Paul wrote, and so you will fulfil the law of Christ." [Gal.6.5]
The sharing of responsibility and support for one another lies at the heart of many of the proposals we put before you today. In particular, and as far as practicable, we want to try to make the burdens placed upon clergy more equal. Let me give examples:
? We are proposing that the diocese should have three archdeacons, and that each archdeacon should be responsible for three deaneries. The principle behind this is very simple: we want to make the workload of our archdeacons manageable and roughly equal. You probably thought - I certainly did - that we already have two archdeacons and that all we require is to create a third in order to even out the workload. Actually, it turns out, by a bizarre mischance, that the Archdeaconry of Dalriada was abolished by the General Synod in 1984. The General Synod didn?t mean to do it, indeed it didn?t realise that it had done it! But in amending a statute governing the Chapter of Belfast Cathedral, the Synod inadvertently repealed the statute creating the Archdeaconry of Dalriada. Now, therefore, at this Diocesan Synod, we are proposing not only that the Archdeaconry of Dalriada be restored but also that an additional Deanery, Carrickfergus, be added to it. We also propose that an Archdeaconry of Belfast be created with responsibility for the Deaneries of North, Mid and South Belfast. I should say that the Diocesan Council of Down and Dromore was consulted and is agreeable to the use of the name Belfast in the title of the new Archdeaconry. Eventually, when discussions are complete, we may propose minor adjustments to the boundaries of some deaneries to make more or less comparable the workload asked of our Rural Deans, but this is not being proposed today to allow additional time for consultation with the parishes concerned.
? Again, responding to the principles of sharing effort and responsibility we are urging that where parishes need to be grouped they should work towards becoming unions. It seems right that parishes that come together under a single incumbent should seek to work together in such a way that they take council together for the common good of the whole incumbency rather than indefinitely perpetuating separation. We strongly believe that we should be developing common and cooperative approaches to shared problems and that we should also be keen to limit the number of meetings, including Easter and Select Vestry meetings, which make for much duplication of effort. The logic of the proposal seems undeniable, but, of course, some parishes and Select Vestries may be inclined to think ?What we have we hold! We want to keep our identity and independence.? I understand that completely. Nevertheless, our central concern should always be what is best for the whole Church of God. We are called, in the Church, to work together and to model before the eyes of the rest of the world a harmonious unity of mission and common purpose. Second, if it transpires that neighbouring parishes have so little in common that they cannot risk a closer relationship, whatmight that signify? Where parishes share the same Rector, can they not - should they not - share much more?
? You will find much in our strategy about sharing ministry - about building ministerial teams and enabling gifted lay people to contribute more freely of their time and talents. There will be no uniform pattern in every parish, clergy are different, parishes are different and parishioners, their needs and their skills, are different. What we wish to recognise is that the mission of the Church of God is a shared mission and the ministry of the Church of God is a shared ministry. The rector is team leader and worship leader but she or he cannot be a one person band - not any more. Together is better so long as all is well planned, well led and the team members well trained.
? You will notice in the strategy that we recognise and want to address the profoundly important matter of vocations to the sacred ministry. The Church of Ireland is committed to maintaining inviolate the historic threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons. This diocese will be no exception. I am committed to discerning, fostering and encouraging any who may have a vocation to the sacred ministry. We need many more priests and we need especially to encourage younger people to explore whether they may be being called to priesthood. That is why we are setting targets. Those targets will not be easy to meet but our job is to remind people of God?s call to ordination and stand with them as they seek guidance. The booklet on ordination published by the Training Council during the past year has been widely admired, I hope that it will be a source of information and encouragement to many. Training for the ordained ministry will undergo radical change from 2008 onwards. There is no greater privilege in life than to serve in the ordained ministry of the Church. It is intensely demanding but it is immensely rewarding.
? A final word about the Mission and Ministry strategy document. Everyone will recognise that only a small part of the strategy requires formal ?Notices of Motion.? Much of it is aspirational, identifying directions and guidelines for the future. That is one of its strengths. Twenty two years of my ordained ministry has been spent in this diocese as deacon, priest and bishop. I am immensely proud and moved to serve this, the largest diocese of our Church. Nothing has made me more proud in those twenty two years than to see the way in which the Diocesan Council has devoted time, energy and imagination to charting the way forward for us. I want to commend the Council, the Honorary Secretaries and the archdeacons, past and present, for the creativity and commitment they have given to the document that stands before you today. I hope that you will feel able to endorse it.
I want to address one final subject. Before you today is the report of the group set up in response to a motion at last year?s synod asking the Diocesan Council to examine the appropriateness of our link with the Diocese of Edinburgh. Another Notice of Motion recommends the establishment of a partnership link with the Diocese of Yei in Sudan. I want to state explicitly that I fully support the conclusions of the report on our link with Edinburgh and I support equally strongly the proposal to create a link with the Diocese of Yei. We shall gain from both. We have much to give in return. Let us be wholehearted in our engagements. We need to sustain a breadth of vision and a generosity that permits us sometimes to agree and sometimes to disagree with our friends, both to listen to them and to be listened to by them, for we are fellow pilgrims on the Way of Christ. We are all. From our different national Churches embarked upon a Big Dander with Christ. Next year, God willing, no less than 150 young people will come to Connor from our other link diocese of Linkoping, to walk in the footsteps of St Patrick ? from Slemish to Armagh. Would it not be wonderful if, in our pilgrimage, even a few of them and a few of us were able to say, as Cleopas and his companions said, ?Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?? Let us walk by faith, alive to new ways of encountering the living Lord.
Revd George Beattie, Holy Trinity and Immanuel and Revd Don Gamble, Renewal and Outreach in the City, take in the north coast scenery during a break in proceedings at the Connor Diocesan Synod in Portrush.