Living Faith Logo

Here's the new logo for Living Faith, the vision statement of the Diocese:

Fresh Expressions Vision Day

Today was a great day for fresh expressions in the Diocese of Oxford. The Fresh Expressions Oversight Group organised a Vision Day for key leaders which also serves as an opportunity for the Cutting Edge communities to gather and share...

The whole event took place at the Kings Centre, Osney Mead, an amazing wearhouse conversion church which can be hired out as a conference centre. 

There was a good Milton Keynes turn out with Paul Bright, Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga, Bob Collard, Mike Baldwin, Peeny Keens, and Cathi, Howard and Seren Williams. Mike Morris was also there - as a Godly Play story teller...

There were opportunities to experience worship as led by different communities, to hear their stories and to think about key issues.

There were people present from Maybe, Home, iChurch, Messy Church, Cafeplus, Contemplative Fire and more... I was there to promote mission shaped ministry.

All in all, it was an extremely good day and there were many good conversations and encounters. It was the kind of event that we need to have if we are to encourage fresh expressions.

Moving on, we do need to start organising some more networking events in Milton Keynes and bring together a group to look at CafeChurch in more detail...

Lots of good stuff - looking forward to next year already!

Diocesan Synod

I went to a surprisingly good Diocesan Synod meeting this morning with Jeremy and Mike.

There was a good and balanced discussion about Women Bishops which focussed on the need to respect minority opinions and challenged us to think about how diversity may be protected.

There was a nice piece of input from the new sub dean of the Cathedral who seems genuinely keen to open up the Cathedral to the wider diocese - and is willing to come out to places like Milton Keynes(!) to meet us...

Bishop John showed us a six minute trailer for a new video about the diocesan vision statement "Living Faith" - looking good! (Although I do wonder how much of Living Faith has been "borrowed" from "Being and Doing Church" - not only do we have circles arranged in a cross, we now have talk about business cards... still, it's going to be a lot more professional, so I look forward to borrowing some of it back...)

Didn't get back home until 2:30pm. Printed off some stickers for the book so that it's clear £5 form each copy will go to All Saints' re-ordering fund. I hope to take some more copies round to some churches tomorrow.

The girls were out so I spent some time in the garden digging in some compost and repairing the raspberry frame. We had a really good crop last year, so I'm hopeful that this year will be even better - must remember to put the nets back before the summer though! I also attempted to split the rhubarb in the hope of a larger crop. Isla wants to plant in gooseberry bush, which should squeeze in where the strawberries were - but we could really do with a bit more fruit space - I'm tempted to expand into our veg space...

Pizzas for tea and I then spent the evening preparing the agenda for the next Deanery Pastoral Committe while the girls watched the dancing - and then to bed...

A Day with Bishop John

Once a year, the Bishop of Oxford gathers all the Lay Chairs and Area Deans together for a day together. This was the second such day with Bishop John down in Geralds Cross.

Bishop John spent the morning discussing his new vision document with us - now rechristened Living Faith after the influential evangelism vision day organised in the summer.

The key to this vision is that it must not be seen as a list of things to do, but a helpful tool for deaneries and parishes as they work out their own strategic plans and priorities. John spoke about the need to paint different pictures using a common pallet of primary colours. Each setting will generate a different creativity - based on the same key themes.

These are:

• Sustaining the Sacred Centre
• Making Disciples
• Making a Difference in the World
• Creating Vibrant Christian Communities
• Shaping Confident Collaborative Leadership

In our small group we discussed how this might be reflected in a process:

1. Reflect on how existing practices can be mapped onto the five themes
2. Consider what could be done to develop work in each of the five key themes

In other words, the Bishop's vision could (and probably should) be used as helpful input for an ongoing visionary/strategic process rather than be seen as another job or programme to be introduced. If deaneries and parishes are already in a planning cycle then this vision will probably be helpful. If not, then they should concentrate on developing some change muscles rather than simply try to keep the bishop happy.

In the afternoon we discussed women bishops and the troubles of the Anglican communion. There was encouragement from the floor for patience and time to listen to all view points...

Bishop Stephen put forward his new scheme. This is an idea to develop a system for Mystery Worshippers in a Deanery. Apparently he's done it before with some interesting results. The basic idea is that each church agrees to send out church members to visit as many of the other churches in the deanery as possible. At the end of the year the results are collated and churches are given feedback about how a random visitor found the experience...

This sounds like a great idea and could be really valuable. As Stephen points out, visitors remember:

1. the welcome they receive
2. the quality of the music
3. and whether the sermon is OK or boring

These are all things that churches can work on and could do with feedback on. Deaneries have been asked to say if they would like to take part in a pilot. I think MK Deanery should go for it!

All in all this was a good day. Nothing life changing, but worth doing. In a busy life with people spread out over three counties, it's very good for people to get together from time to time - even if it's only a few of us... There were comments about another diocesan (or archdeaconry) conference, so perhaps we might do this on a bigger scale in 2010...

Keith Lambdin

I was stunned to see a notice on Bishop Alan's Blog this morning: Small Earthquake in Oxford - all OK. Apparently, Keith Lambdin has just been appointed as principal of Sarum College in Salisbury. This is no small earthquake! Keith has been contributing to the development of ministry in Oxford Diocese and beyond for 25 years and will be greatly missed. I have personally valued his wisdom and always enjoyed batting ideas around with him. He was kind enough to give me a couple of hours during my sabbatical and we talked about collaborative ministry, deanery development and more.
Best wishes to him on this new appointment but we'll miss him.

The Healthy Churches' Handbook

by Robert Warren

The material in this book has been around for a while and has become fairly influential. This felt like a good time to re-read it.

Put briefly the argument is that churches grow (towards wholeness) when they exhibit seven key characteristics or marks:

• Energised by faith
• Outward-looking focus
• Seeks to find out what God wants
• Faces the cost of change and growth
• Operates as a community
• Makes room for all
• Does a few things and does them well

The book explores these seven marks in more details and sets out how a congregation might use them to develop and grow. There's also a super section about relating to the "angel of the church" which develops a Walter Wink style concept of corporate spirituality. This is good stuff.

Healthy Churches has been on my mind for a number of reasons:

1. Back in 2005 we suggested that parishes use Natural Church Development (a similar but more expensive project), Healthy Churches, or some other mechanism as a way to encourage development. This was part of our Deanery Plan - and we set aside money for it! It's odd that no single church took the money or gave it a go. Why? As we start the deanery planning process up again is there some way we can learn from the past and incorporate this more fully in our thinking? What would be required?

2. In his new vision, Sharing Life plus, bishop John also mentions Natural Church Development and Healthy Churches. This concept is clearly back on the agenda.

3. The LSM Project Group is thinking of developing a system of companions/mentors who work with communities who are working towards LSM. There is a reasonable overlap between the intention of the companions and the ideals of Healthy Churches. The Handbook has a lot to say about the need for fascilitators, which I found helpful in my thinking, particulalry in its' discussion about training. Robert Warren suggests minimal raining with ongoing support and mutual reflection. This may be helful for us in our thinking...

Bringing all this together I wonder if there might be a place for Healthy Churches within the new Deanery Plan and whether the LSM Project Group might incorporate it as part of its development work... What do you think?

Diocesan Synod

At Diocesan Synod today (in High Wycombe) we had a great presidential address from Bishop John, who shared the beginnings of his vision for the Diocese. We wants to call it "Sharing Life plus" or "Sharing Life: Making a Difference".
He had a set of principles that he thought should be central

• Not neglecting the past but building on it
• Not so much structure as about culture - mission and spirituality
• Not so much about structures as relationships
• Not top-down but local
• Not tragets but directions
• Not one size fits all but flexible
• Not complexity but elegance

He had five priorities that he invited us to share:

1. Sustaining the Sacred Centre
2. Making Disciples
3. Making a Difference in Society
4. Creating Vibrant Christian Communities
5. Shaping Confident, Collaborative Leadership

In order to support the priorities, he suggested that we focus on:

1. Deanery Development
2. Sound Finances and a Steady Number of Stipendiary Clergy
3. Light Touch, Supportive Central Services

Over the next few months, he wants to fine tune and develop this in conversation with Synod, so it will all become much clearer...
Most of the MK reps though this was great - since it all looked a bit familiar to them...

We also discussed Samuel Crowther, the first African Anglican Bishop, who's name we want adding to the list of commemorations in Common Worship. We also had a presentation from the Tomorrow Project, which is a great source of interesting facts. (Did you know, 40% of fresh water in the US is used to cool power stations? And by 2050 our livestock will be eating enough food to feed 2/5 of the world's population?)

It was a long synod and I didn't get home until after three. There were many (including Bp John) who wanted to get home for the Calcutta Cup - but they may have regretted this. (Lots of happy Welsh people around the place though...)