Diocesan Synod met at St John's House, Bury on Saturday. In his opening address, Bishop David advocated for a purpose-driven, inclusive, and pragmatic approach to making the Lord known and loved across every part of our diocese.
Read the address in full:
"It was a Scottish bishop, addressing a gathering of Franciscans I was attending in the late 1990s, who put it most bluntly. “The trouble with most church movements”, he said, “is that they are founded in pursuit of some clear purpose, but by the second generation they disproportionately attract into leadership those who are more devoted to the institution than to the purpose it was founded to fulfil”.
"I’ve carried that warning with me ever since. The purpose of the Franciscan Order to which I belong is simply “To make Jesus Christ known and loved everywhere”. I would argue that this should be the purpose of the whole Church of God. But you wouldn’t easily recognise that by attending, as I have to do, or following, many of the debates of the General Synod. Good things happen, but, at least in my view, too much of our time is spent on highly politicised, often tribal, arguments over what are essentially internal matters. Meanwhile, representatives of factions strive to grab control over key church committees, or to block changes that might weaken their grip on power. I doubt that is what those who founded the Synod, 55 years ago, had in mind for their vision of how it would serve and further the mission of the Church.
"I hope, and believe, that in Manchester we can be better than that. We will, in the course of this morning’s Synod, focus on a number of aspects of our mission. But I am confident that in doing so, we will not be asking “How does this promote the views of people like me?”, but “How does this help make our Lord known and loved across every part of our diocese?” I’m hopeful more generally about our diocese, because we share with the wider culture of the Manchester area, a warm pragmatism, one that welcomes different insights and experiences, and looks to find ways to make things work for the wellbeing of all. Wherever the national church structures take us on contentious matters such as LLF, or the best way to manage safeguarding, we will make them work here, because what matters is the mission.
"The Manchester way, both in society and church is to focus on the main thing, and to work together to achieve it. To value difference and diversity for the strengths they bring. It’s why English devolution has proceeded further and faster here than anywhere else. And it’s why I believe we need to be bold in advocating for this inclusive, purpose-led, pragmatism. It has never been needed more, both in the wider Church and in the World at large.
"Through much of my early life, I could look on as authoritarian regimes across the world gradually gave way to more democratic structures. That tide, I fear, has turned. We see the rise of a combination of out-and-out dictators along with populist strong men, and I use the gendered term deliberately, who ride roughshod over checks and balances intended to preserve the rights of minorities and the weak. Painstaking progress made in recent decades, on issues such as climate change, gender equality, racial justice and the civil rights of LGBT+ people, is being rolled back. Moreover, this has spread beyond politics to infect key sectors of the global business world, and even to co-opt Christian churches to its agenda. Many of our sisters and brothers in the Anglican Communion suffer under increasingly harsh and excluding regimes. Others are deeply ashamed of how the name of Jesus is being sullied by those who employ it to justify a lovelessness that Christ would never condone. I hope most of you have heard the wonderful sermon preached by one of the Episcopal bishops after the inauguration ceremonies in Washington in January. It had me in tears.
"One of my maxims is that whilst we cannot always change what is bad, and that is certainly true in terms of global politics, we can at least always model what is good. To be Church for a Different World is to live here, in our own diocese and structures, the behaviours we yearn to see more prevalent elsewhere. For me that is what comprises modern-day prophecy. By that means, the name of Jesus can become better known and more loved far beyond our direct areas of authority or power. And so, as we go through our agenda this morning, let us keep that Mancunian purposeful, loving, pragmatism to the fore in all that we discuss and decide."