OUR DIOCESE
Our Vision
Our vision is to be a worshipping, growing and transforming Christian presence at the heart of every community. We want to be a Church for a Different World.
Our Bishop’s Leadership Team has been reviewing and agreeing our priorities for the coming years. The short film below 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
We have made good progress since getting underway with our Transformation Programme, for which we have been awarded significant funding by the Church Commissioners since 2017. 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 – to be a growing, worshipping transforming Christian presence at the heart of every community – and our mission goals which are to grow our churches, nurture new and existing disciples and serve the vulnerable, deprived and excluded.
Our recent achievements include setting up three resource churches; 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 provided to 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 with the new projects and programmes that are underway, we are developing our overall strategy and plans based on the four distinct but interconnected themes of:
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.
Our Approach
We have been doing great work in the area of growing younger, trialling new approaches with the Children Changing Places programme in Bolton, and Man Dio Growing Faith in our other deaneries. We are now bringing this experience and learning together to develop a comprehensive approach to engaging with children, young people and their families across our diocese. Our particular focus is on how best to strengthen the links between our churches and our church schools. Our aim is to support every mission community and parish with this.
We have had similar successes with church planting and revitalisation. Over the last seven years, we have set up four new resource churches and a number of 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 is a key priority for us. We recognise the importance of investing in our clergy so they are equipped to grow our churches, especially given the number of newly ordained clergy who are being appointed to stipendiary roles. As a diocese we continue to focus on developing our lay people, particularly through our Authorised Lay Ministry, focal leader and Reader programmes. 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, continues to be important to us.
Providing direct support for parish renewal is central to our Transformation Programme. We are working closely with our parishes to understand the opportunities and challenges they face and make sure they have access to the support they need. Mission communities are key to this, enabling parishes to work together on mission and ministry. Clergy deployment, parochial reorganisation and engaging with our most fragile churches are important strands of this work. We are also strengthening the support we provide to church officers with training, resources and new technology.
Supporting people of global majority heritage is key to achieving racial justice, as is ensuring that our clergy and lay leaders represent the diversity of our diocese in their governance roles.
We will continue our work towards the 2030 Net Zero Carbon goal set by General Synod, by supporting our churches and schools with measuring their energy use and taking 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, yet we all share 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 one another and to God.
We are working to ensure that 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.
Funding
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.
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 or feedback about any of these materials, please email comms@manchester.anglican.org.
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