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A mild late-November morning saw Synod meet online with an extensive agenda to take it through to mid-afternoon.
Synod was to consider the Strategic Plan for the Diocese of York for the next decade, ‘Living Christ’s Story’, which has emerged from the consultation and planning process under that name which was launched two years ago at the November 2020 Diocesan Synod.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
“...The whole notion of living Christ’s story has begun to capture the imagination of the diocese as we re-imagine ourselves, our worship and our witness, as living out the story of Christ for the communities we serve, and for our wider world,” said Archbishop Stephen.
“ The big decisions before us today will shape both the trajectory, the shape, and maybe most important of all, the underlying values and spirit of what it means to be a Christian and a Christian community in the Diocese of York over the next 10 years or so.
“My prayer is that today we will take a deep breath and then commit ourselves to the outworking of the Living Christ's Story agenda. Principles and a direction of travel have already been agreed. Now we agree to turn them into challenging action.
“Let us remember, the choice is not between changing or staying the same. But between being the architects of change or its victim.”
Read the full address at bit.ly/presaddress2211.
LIVING CHRIST’S STORY
The Ven Sam Rushton, who has recently resumed the role of Archdeacon of York following her secondment as Interim Director of Strategic Transformation, introduced a two-hour consideration of the newly-completed Strategic Report for the Diocese of York, ‘Living Christ’s Story’.
Synod Members had had the opportunity to read the 32-page report before the meeting: it is available to download at bit.ly/lcsreport221100.
The report outlines the challenges facing the Church of England, including the Diocese of York, in meeting our commitments to the mission of the church as the body of Christ, and to the stewardship of the institution that is the Church of England.
“Our strategy must maximise the overlap between these sometimes competing concerns,” said Sam.
She outlined the problems facing us: church attendance figures across the Diocese of York from 2014 to 2019 show a drop from 27,000 to 23,000 weekly attenders and from 17,000 to 16,000 usual Sunday attenders. The clear lines on the graph show a continued decline if we simply stay as we are. Meanwhile our costs have roughly tracked our income until the pandemic struck in 2020, since when costs have risen and income has dropped, and the majority of our ministry units do not contribute enough money in Free Will Offer to our Common Fund to cover the cost of the ministry they experience.
Conversely, some churches are growing; the Mustard Seed and Multiply projects (to reach people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and people in places where life is tough) are both showing good early signs of sustainable growth. Our work with schools is very strong; deaneries are becoming more effective with increasingly confident leadership, and the new Mission and Ministry team in the Diocese is almost complete and beginning to make its presence felt.
Reminding Synod that our refreshed Diocesan Vision, Living Christ’s Story, was adopted just last year, Sam considered the importance of stories both lived and told before outlining the major features of the plan now coming before Synod: to become more like Christ, to achieve revitalised growth in our churches, to promote a new local leadership culture in which lay and non-stipendiary ministry will play a growing part, and a move to more sustainable church buildings (including the commitment to Carbon Net Zero by 2030).
Synod moved into online ‘breakout rooms’ of around six people for a brief discussion of initial reactions, with particular focus on the prevailing story in each location, and the prospect of etching a new story into its fabric of place and time.
Director of Mission and Ministry the Revd Dr Ian McIntosh sketched the approach for which the newly-constructed team has been prepared: becoming more like Christ, growing and/or revitalising healthy churches, a three-fold renewal of lay ministry, and further developments in reaching those we currently don’t.
These include programmes of teaching, resourcing, encouraging and enabling individuals and congregations in their discipleship, two streams of work to promote and enable church growth, a remapped pathway from growing in discipleship to opportunities in ministry both lay and ordained, and a renewal of informal, authorised and licensed lay ministries.
Further discussion in ‘breakout rooms’ focused on reactions to the four themes and on identifying areas where further attention might be needed.
The final stage of the presentation examined the plans for ministry in the Diocese of York over the coming decade, showing a small reduction in stipendiary clergy but a significant growth in numbers of self-supporting clergy, and a substantial increase of those in recognised forms of lay ministry.
A range of targets would be adopted for transforming the central support structures of the diocese and its financial underpinning, to embrace the Church of England’s ambition to be ‘Simpler, Humbler, Bolder’ and to encourage both sustainability and environmental prudence in the use of our buildings.
Actions will include nurturing disciples, encouraging vocations, promoting a greater digital presence at all levels, supporting mission and ensuring that the administrative machinery is fully fir for purpose.
Finally Archdeacon of the East Riding the Ven Andy Broom reminded Synod of the crucial part played by our deaneries—the 21 local groups of parishes making up the Diocese of York—in forming the Living Christ’s Story plans. The deanery plans embody local knowledge and vision with endorsement by the Bishop and Archdeacon; each plan is largely self-sufficient in its use of existing local resources; the diocese-wide resources and initiatives are devised to support and complement deanery plans rather than add extra obligations; and the sum of the deanery and diocesan plans adds up to Living Christ’s Story together.
Archbishop Stephen moved the motion, “As we seek to Live Christ’s story in the Diocese of York, this Synod welcomes and endorses the strategic plan...”; the motion passed by 94% with 3% against and 4% abstentions.
The report ‘Living Christ’s Story’ can be downloaded from bit.ly/lcsreport221100.
FINANCE
Invited by Diocesan Board of Finance Chair Rodney Barton, Finance Director Kathryn Rose introduced the draft diocesan budget for 2023, beginning with the latest forecast for the financial results of 2022.
It is anticipated that expenditure in 2022 will be £2.1 million greater than income, against a budget figure of £2 million. Free Will Offerings to our Common Fund by the end of August were 3% below the level pledged.
The draft 2023 budget includes an excess of expenditure over income of £2.1 million. The two thirds (by value) of parish Free Will Offer pledges received to date suggest that the overall level is likely to be 5% below that pledged for 2020.
At this level of drawdown, unrestricted readily realisable reserves would fall to around £7.3 million by the end of 2023, which remains £2.3 million above the current minimum threshold (4 months expenditure) that has been set.
Synod voted on the motion “This Synod approves the Budget for 2023… and authorises the Diocesan Board of Finance to expend a sum of £15,325,000 (of which £13,597,000 is from the general fund) with the facility to draw up to £250,000 of contingency in addition from reserves”; the motion passed by 97% with 3% abstentions.
RACIAL JUSTICE CHARTER
Co-chairs of the Diocesan Racial Justice Advocates Group, the Revd Rob Suekarran and Ms Yvonne Bowling presented the proposed Racial Justice Charter for the Diocese of York and an accompanying draft set of commitments and actions.
Inspired by the courageous advocacy of Canon Linda Ali, Archbishop Stephen called together a working group during 2021 of what has become a Diocese of York Racial Advocates Group. The Advocates will primarily be working in Archdeaconries to promote racial justice and to help point parishes, schools, chaplaincies and new worshipping communities to resources supporting us in becoming people who are not just for racial justice, but are intentionally becoming anti-racist.
The Anti-Racism Charter is a theological vision for racial justice within the Diocese’s commitments to Living Christ’s Story, accompanied by a set of commitments and actions to form a strategic implementation plan. These will need further discussion and work on costings which, if the Synod is minded, will be referred to the Archbishop’s Council working with the Racial Justice Advocates Group to bring back to the Synod.
Following discussion, Archbishop Stephen moved the motion, “This Synod (i) endorses the Racial Justice Charter… (ii) requests the Racial Justice Advocates Group and the Archbishop’s Council and Standing Committee to carry out the necessary further work required to bring a fully costed statement of commitments and actions for consideration by the Synod at the earliest practicable date”; the motion passed by 97% with 3% abstentions.
ENVIRONMENT
Diocesan Green Ambassador the Revd Jan Nobel introduced ‘Choose Life – Worship and Action for Creation’, a resource for churches building worship and action around their concern for God's creation.
Devised by Jan with Dr Diane Craven under the auspices of the York Diocesan Environment Steering Committee with funding from the Church of England’s Environment Programme, ‘Choose Life’ will be available to parishes as downloadable PDFs on its release around the turn of the year, via www.dioceseofyork.org.uk/environment.
Jan also updated Synod on energy saving advice published by the CofE Cathedral and Church Buildings Division.
GENERAL SYNOD REPORT
General Synod Member Dr Tim Scott updated Synod on the July 2022 General Synod meeting; his report can be downloaded at bit.ly/gensynodjul22.
NEXT MEETING
Saturday 22nd April 2023