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!

Maundy Thursday in Oxford

Once a year, the Bishop of Oxford gathers lay ministers, deacons, priests and bishops in Oxford for a renewal of vows and to bless the oils. It's usually a great opportunity to catch up on old friends and have a bit of a jolly - in the midst of a busy Holy Week.

Bishop John was on fine form today and was careful to make this a positive an encouraging occasion - and not too long...

He started his sermon with the observation that many people, lay and ordained, find their ministry draining at times, and then asked four questions:

1. What do you get up for in the morning? What are you passionate about?
2. What is the biggest question that you're asking at the moment? What is you vision?
3. What support do you need? Resources?
4. Will you wash my feet? - a bit of a different kind of question - motivation?

Good questions for a spiritual MOT I suspect... What would your answers be?

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...