Revd Ian Tarrant - Transforming Presence - The Bishop of Chelmsford's Consultation - February 5th 2012

Two weeks ago our ‘new’ Bishop of Chelmsford called together 1000 people from the length and breadth of the Diocese to talk about our strategic priorities for the next 15 yrs.  Three of us were there from St Mary’s. This morning I want to share with you some of what we talked about, and how that might affect our lives as individuals and as a community in the future
Bishop Stephen & the consultation
Bishop Stephen has been in post for just over a year now, and in that time he has visited every deanery, and listened to church members in a wide range of parishes.He has been encouraged by the good work going on in many places, and heard how lives are being transformed by the love of God, and how many churches growing.  He has also been made aware of many problems and challenges that the church faces in the 21st century.  
Having done all that, he now wanted to gather representatives from the whole diocese to talk about what happens next.We gathered in the sports hall of a leisure centre in Brentwood, where 100 big round banqueting tables were laid out - but sadly there was no banquet!  We sat where we were told, so that on each table we were a mix of clergy and lay, male & female, and from the different corners of the diocese. The day began and ended with times of worship and words from Bishop Stephen. There were two documents that we were to have read beforehand:
• a glossy brochure called ‘Transforming presence’ with a picture of a pot being shaped on a potter’s wheel on the front cover (Isaiah 64:8)
• a less glossy document called ‘Developing a new ministry strategy’
For the main part of the day, at intervals we would be given questions to discuss at our tables; and we wrote our answers and comments on big sheets of paper, which were initially displayed on the walls of the venue for all to see. (Since then they have been summarised on a special website: http://www.transformingpresence.org.uk
Transforming presence
The title ‘Transforming presence’ picked up the aspiration from a long-standing mission statement of the Diocese: ‘To be a transforming presence in every community’.  Our glossy brochure had four sections:
1  inhabiting the world distinctively This was about recognising that our faith makes us different from our neighbours - or at least it should - in what we think, say and do; how we spend our money, how we treat our family, friends, colleagues and neighbours.  Some might prefer to call this holy living.  By our distinctiveness we witness to God’s holiness and love. This difference is based on our life of prayer, and it should drive us to pray more.
2 evangelising effectively We should remember that we have good news to share.  Jesus told his disciples that they would no longer catch fish, but fish for people.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians: ‘woe betide me if I do not proclaim the gospel’.As Christians we should be at ease about sharing our faith, and inviting others to join our church; and we should make it easy for them to engage with our Christian community.
3 serving with accountability This was about recognising that all our parishes need to pull together as we serve God - that we should all be accountable to one another in the ways in which we use our time, our buildings and our other resources.  It is envisaged that every parish will be asked seven challenging questions, about:
• prayer
• teaching the faith
• sharing the faith
• calling people to ministry lay and ordained
• our service to the wider community
• the welcome and security that we offer
• our partnership with other Christians locally and globally.
At present every year your churchwardens receive a visit from the Area Dean on behalf of the Archdeacon, when the church finances and registers are checked over, and questions are asked, mainly about the church buildings and furniture.It looks as though in future the churchwardens will be asked also these seven questions. on behalf of the whole church.  Annie and I have been talking about the possibility of a series of sermons on these seven questions later in the year.
4 re-imagining ministry There is a shortage of clergy - which is set to get more noticeable over the next ten years as many serving clergy retire. This is not so much a finance problem but a vocation problem - there are not as many energetic bright young curates coming out of the colleges as there used to be.  But it does mean that as clergy retire or move on to new posts, they will not automatically be replaced. And that will affect their neighbouring parishes as well. Every cluster in our deanery is likely to lose a post or half a post over the next ten years. Nevertheless Bishop Stephen wants us to plan over a longer time scale and imagine what each deanery and each parish and will look like in 15 years time, and to think what sustainable Christian ministry will look like.
At the diocesan level, it is planned to have fewer specialist advisors but more archdeacons supporting parish clergy in ministry and mission - so that parish clergy can do their work more effectively.
At the parish level we are urged to give capable lay people opportunities to use their gifts, especially in leading groups and congregations.Bishop Stephen is clear that he is not interested in closing churches.  
He says that he was once told that there were too many churches in the Diocese.  But his reply is:‘The problem is not too many churches but too few churches.’ Meaning, I think, not too many buildings - but too few congregations using them. So the Diocese will be looking for imaginative use of our buildings by different congregations at different times of the week, something that we have already started talking about here.
Conclusion
We will be hearing more about these initiatives from the Diocese over the coming year.My overall impression of the consultation day was one of people engaging in a very positive way with our new bishop, and looking forward to seeing how God might want to develop his church in Essex and east London.We can take encouragement from the words of Isaiah said: those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,they shall mount up with wings like eagles,they shall run and not be weary,they shall walk and not faint.

Relevant Scripture passages for this sermon:

Isaiah 40:21-31 1 Corinthians 9:16-23   Mark 1:14-20