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Our Bishop’s Leadership Team has been reviewing and agreeing our priorities for the coming years. This short film is an opportunity to share their thoughts with you and celebrate the great work that is already taking place in our diocese.
This the first step in a process of collaboration and consultation with clergy and lay people so that, together, we can agree how we achieve our vision for 2030.
Our Vision for 2030
In recent years we have made good progress with our Transformation Programme. Many of us have experienced first-hand how things are changing for the better across the diocese in our parishes, schools and chaplaincies. This is helping us achieve our vision of being a worshipping, growing, transforming Christian presence at the heart of every community, and deliver our mission goals which are to grow our churches, nurture new and existing disciples, and serve the vulnerable, deprived and excluded.
Our achievements include moving to our new deanery structures, the creation of our 33 mission communities, investing in our lay leaders, supporting children’s ministry in each deanery, and increasing the practical support for parishes.
Most of these changes have focused on new ways of working together which are becoming embedded in the life of our diocese. Building on these successes, we are shifting to the next level in setting our priorities and working out what we want to achieve next. Given the excellent start that has been made, we now have the opportunity to be even more creative and ambitious with our plans for the future.
Learning from our recent experience, we are well-placed to develop the plans for our diocese based on the following themes:
- Growing Younger
- Church Planting and Revitalisation
- Developing Missional Leaders
- Parish Renewal.
These priorities align with the Church of England’s overall vision which is to create a church of missionary disciples, where mixed ecology is the norm, and whose membership is becoming younger and more diverse.
Growing Younger
We have been doing great work in the area of Growing Younger, exploring new approaches with the Children Changing Places programme in Bolton, and Man-Dio Growing Faith in the other deaneries.
We are now combining this experience and learning to develop a comprehensive approach to engaging with children, young people, and their families across our diocese. Our focus is on strengthening the links between our parishes and our church schools.
Church Planting and Revitalisation
Over the last seven years we have set up four new resource churches and more than ten church plants.
We now want to build on this learning, so that churches carrying a DNA of mission are established across our diocese, particularly in communities where attendance is low.
Developing Missional Leaders
We recognise the importance of investing in our clergy especially those who are newly ordained, and developing our lay people.
We are supporting clergy and lay vocations so we develop a new, diverse generation of church leaders with the calling and skills to grow new faith communities.
Parish Renewal
We are providing direct support to our parishes to ensure they are are missionally focused and financially sustainable. Our Area Deans and Lay Chairs are working closely with our parishes, ensuring they have access to the support they need.
Mission communities are enabling parishes to work together on mission and ministry. Clergy deployment, parochial reorganisation and supporting our most fragile churches are particularly important.
Our Approach
Supporting our international congregations is key to achieving racial justice, as is ensuring that those in governance, clergy and lay roles are representative of the diversity of our diocese.
Together we are continuing our work towards achieving Net Zero Carbon. Our parishes and schools are measuring their energy use and taking simple, practical steps to reduce their carbon footprint.
We continue to provide a safe environment for all by promoting effective safeguarding.
Across our diocese, people hold diverse views and express their faith through different traditions, united in a passion for Jesus Christ and his Church. Our bishops honour these differences by inviting church communities from across our diocese to learn together, support one another and listen to God.
Funding
We are working to ensure that, as a diocese, we are financially sustainable over the medium to long-term as we recover from the challenges of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. This includes talking with parishes about mutual support and the need to pay Parish Share so that the current levels of stipendiary clergy – 175 - can be maintained. We are also paying close attention to the management of the diocese’s assets to ensure optimal investment returns and capital growth.
Our emerging strategy is enabling us to bring together the key areas of opportunity and challenge in our diocese, so that we can support each other in a positive and co-ordinated way. We need to continue to work together to ensure that our Church thrives and grows, supporting ever more people in their faith. Developing positive, inspiring and relevant plans for the future mean that we will be well placed to make a bid for further funding to the Church Commissioners for this vital work.
Our Vision Leaflet
This short leaflet is designed to explain our emerging strategy and can be used in parishes, mission communities and deaneries. If you would like a set of paper copies, please email comms@manchester.anglican.org
Online version Click Here
Printable version Click Here
Our Vision Presentation Slides
These slides have been produced for use at meetings of parishes, mission communities and deaneries to support the discussion of our emerging strategy. If you have any comments of feedback about any of these materials, please email comms@manchester.anglican.org
