The Bishop of Whitby, the Rt Revd Paul Ferguson, writes:
With hope and trust
I very much hope that the easing of restrictions has helped you to have a refreshing time this summer, as we all look to the future.
And it’s with hope and trust in God that we come to the next important stage in our Living Christ’s Story consultation with parishes. Each PCC has been invited to answer a set of consultation questions (or as many of them as you can manage) by 3 September, using the link at the foot of this page.
One of the glories of the Diocese of York is our variety. We have communities of different sizes, coastal and inland, industrial and farming … As the Church of England from the Humber to the Tees it’s our calling to be people of worship, celebration and prayer, of care and service, learning and growth, of good influence in civic life and responsibility for the environment. We’ll do this differently in different places, and it’s been wisely said that an effective church does a few things and does them well.
PCCs have been working hard on the consultation — thank you for everything that you have been doing, with special meetings and awaydays to look at the material. I can’t emphasise too much how valuable it will be to have the answers and comments from around the diocese that will help us to move to the next stage of planning.
When we’re able to look at all the responses together, it will help shape mutual and diocesan-level support, and also help to decide what can be afforded for the future.
St Paul wrote about the variety of God’s gifts (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12) and the importance of mutual support (2 Corinthians 8-9). In that spirit, your response will be a key part of planning for effective shared mission into the future — thank you.
+Paul