Bath Deanery Plan

Bath Deanery Plan 2011 Everyone a disciple Every disciple a disciple-maker Every church a discipleship community Everywhere a discipleship invitation

Introduction

In 1978 the first plan for the Pastoral Re-organisation of the Bath Deanery, known as “The Yellow Peril”– from the colour of its cover and the unwelcome proposals it contained - was published. It was the pioneering work of the then Archdeacon of Bath, the Venerable Tom Baker (afterwards Dean of Worcester). This initial response of the Church as a whole to the decline in clergy numbers was to ask each cleric to do more – so parishes were joined together into benefices and in the same place where before there might have been two or three or even more parish priests, there is now only one. This policy might have worked if each constituent parish in a benefice had recognised the problem of “clergy stretch” and been willing to make fewer and lighter demands on its shared parish priest; but the prolific supply of clergy over the course of previous generations had created an understanding of ‘church’ in which the clergy took all the leadership responsibilities, relieving the laity of the necessity to contribute very much at all to the ministry and mission of their parish.

The process of pastoral reorganisation continued after the publication of the Yellow Peril. New benefices were created and others were suggested and then dropped. The deanery boundary was also redrawn in 1995 when Farmborough, Marksbury and Stanton Prior became part of Chew Magna Deanery, and Timsbury and Priston part of Midsomer Norton Deanery.

In 2005 every deanery in the diocese was invited to produce another deanery plan. The Bath deanery was given the task of reducing its stipendiary posts from 23 to 20. Two posts were identified quite quickly (one in the city centre and one in the Marlbrook Team Ministry) but identifying the third post saving has proved difficult.

Essentially the task given to us was to produce a plan for pastoral reorganisation. In the Bath Deanery, however, we have interpreted “a deanery plan” to mean a plan not for decline but for mission. In late 2009 and early 2010 the Pastoral and Standing Committee proposed to deanery synod that the deanery should take a more active role firstly supporting churches in vacancy and, secondly, enabling churches to develop mission action plans when invited to do so. Synod agreed this proposal in February 2010. This latest version of the Deanery Plan is, we hope, the next step in this direction.

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Key assumptions and core values underlying this new plan

The DSPC has responsibility for pastoral planning and we need to report to the Archdeaconry Pastoral Group in April 2012 with a proposal for how the diocese might reduce the number of clergy posts in the deanery to 20. However, we do not wish simply to inform the deanery where a post saving will be made. We believe a more useful way forward is to involve every parish in the process by inviting them to evaluate their ministry needs and their resources and discern how both fit into a deanery vision outlined further below.

Added to this, although a post saving must be identified immediately, all the indications are that others will follow in the coming years and we are keen to establish an on-going process that helps us in both the short and longer term. Together we must insure that the parishes where the savings are made do not lose ministry but have ministry provided in different ways.

For this to succeed we believe that is vital that this process is owned and adopted by every parish, every PCC, and every leadership team, right across the deanery and we need all churches, of all styles and all theological positions, to be able to sign up and buy into both the process and the ongoing plan we are presenting here.

Celebrating our diversity as individual congregations, we increasingly recognise the importance of working out a plan for growth as one Anglican Church in Bath rather than as many individual churches. When taken as a whole we recognise just how much we have as the Anglican Church in Bath. We have numerous worship centres, gifted leaders, discipleship groups, outreach activities, and significant resources. We want to use these together for God’s glory and to submit to one another under God, work together with one heart and mind and share in one another’s lives. We want to build up and encourage areas where we are strong and we want to stimulate and develop new growth in areas where we are weaker.

In everything we write we also want it to be noted how we view, evaluate and define success.

Very often in church life we assume that big is best, or that large is success. We believe this to be an insufficient criterion on its own. We definitely want to recognise and to celebrate the big. Big celebrations, big gatherings, big buildings, and large numbers of people are indeed a part of God’s plan for his church here in Bath, and we want to validate these. But we also recognise that small

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things, mustard seed sized things, are always and often a vital part of the kingdom. Small is indeed beautiful. The point we want to make is that we recognise and accept that size, or scale, matters, not so much because big is better but because the scale we do things is significant – it change how things feel, how they work, how complicated they are, how flexible they can be. Big is not always best. But neither is small. The most important thing is vitality.

As a DSPC we are planning for growth and are praying for it. We believe that growth is natural where there is life. But we also believe that we need a new scorecard to measure success as churches. Measuring people in ‘church’ on Sundays is one measure, but we want to develop a much more rounded, challenging and holistic approach which can help us maintain our focus on discipleship. We believe that measurements matter for the church and we believe one of the most important measurements is ensuring that men and women are being changed by the power of the gospel. Are more people following Christ? Are more believers growing in their faith? Are more churches making an impact on their communities? What signs of God’s kingdom are we seeing around us? The need to deploy stipendiary clergy in new ways is challenging us to ask important questions about effectiveness and for this we need to know clearly what we are aiming for. This is why a shared sense of vision is so vital for us as a deanery.

Another thing that needs to be articulated is that while there is much that is good, even brilliant about the way that we currently express church across the deanery, we are convinced that there will be people, perhaps many people, who will need us to change if they are to find Christ and discover his good news. For these people we know that we will need to try different kinds of approaches, new forms of services, different forms of liturgy, and new kinds of structures.

Expecting our current churches to be able to reproduce completely new forms of church life is asking too much. We want to include new ‘Anglican’ forms into our way of doing things and under our oversight alongside the established ways we are living and praying and worshipping. Any plans we make must include and expect space for these new expressions of church life.

Lastly, but by no means unimportantly, behind everything in this plan is the often expressed belief that Church is a 'who' not a 'what'. Church is people, not an institution. Church is about relationships and community rather than about services, or buildings or events. For too long people, even those of us who belong to the church, have seen church as a provider of religious services. We reject this understanding categorically. The church is the community of God’s people

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participating in God’s mission to his world and sent out to them in his love and power. And so this plan is ultimately about people. We believe that people, and specifically so called ‘lay’ people, are the churches most important asset. We long to see every one of them empowered, energised and equipped for ministry. This is our goal. Ordinary people, surrendered to Christ, filled with his Spirit, being salt and light in our city, all day, every day.

If this is to happen, we believe developing and releasing new leadership will be essential. We believe it is self-evident that every group and church needs good leadership to thrive and flourish.

Underlying this plan is an assumption that the level of growth we experience will be directly related to the quality of the leadership that we deploy, support and develop across the Deanery.

We recognise that some leaders will be paid and others will be self-supporting. Taking away leadership will inevitably lead to decline. Only by increasing and releasing more leaders will we see things grow.

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Our Vision

Our desire is to see hundreds more people drawn into discipleship and our whole community changed and transformed by God’s loving rule. This can be expressed in the following way. 

Everyone a disciple

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Every disciple a disciple-maker

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Every church a discipleship community

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Everywhere a discipleship invitation

A disciple is someone who follows Jesus, receives the life of Jesus, is changed by the love of Jesus, and who lives to share that life and love with a needy world. A disciple is not someone simply waiting for heaven.

Everyone a disciple We are aware that for too long the church has baptised people but failed to attract them to a life of discipleship. We admit that levels of whole-life and whole-hearted discipleship in our churches have been low. We recognise that attendance is not the same as discipleship. We confess that we have failed to see people bring all aspects of their lives under the rule of God and submit themselves fully to his Kingdom. We repent of this.

We now agree that our goal and our vision are to see a dramatic increase in both the quality and quantity of disciples across the Deanery and commit ourselves to making this a reality.

Every disciple a disciple-maker Connected with this we are also similarly aware that we have failed to make disciples who are adequately motivated, equipped and enabled to make other people disciples too. We recognise that ministry and mission has been seen as something that experts are engaged in while the vast majority of the church remains passive. We admit that we have failed to equip the saints for ministry and that ministry has been relegated to a professional class of clergy, readers or other workers.

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We accept that it is vital that this situation needs to change if we are to see a whole generation of people access the Kingdom of God, receive forgiveness and salvation and experience the eternal and abundant life of the Kingdom of God in them and their communities in the present moment.

To this end we commit ourselves to a vision where every disciple sees themselves as a disciplemaker, an active part of the body of Christ, fully participating in God’s mission to transform and redeem society and building up His church.

Every church a discipleship community It is not uncommon for us to describe our buildings or our services as ‘church’. Added to this has been an implicit understanding that ‘church’ is what happens on Sundays when we gather to worship. We recognise that we need to re-conceive the way we think of ‘church’ and ‘church life’ uncoupling it from its attachments to buildings, services or activities. Instead we want to see every ‘church’ as a community of disciples and every church building as a centre for discipleship.

Alongside notions of seeing our buildings as ‘worship centres’ we want to see our church buildings recast as ‘discipleship centres’ and equipped and fit for this purpose. We imagine a discipleship community not as a place where people come as individuals merely to receive the ministry of others but a place after the pattern of Acts 2, a generous place encouraging radical lifestyle choices and a place which saw many added to their number. As we do this we believe that our ‘churches’, the community of disciples, will become more naturally missional in nature.

Everywhere a discipleship invitation We also accept that for too long our faith has been restricted within the walls of our church buildings or confined to a sphere of life that is called ‘spiritual’. We believe that Jesus is Lord of every inch of this world and we want every disciple to know that they have a mandate to be an agent of the kingdom in every sphere of life. Just as drinking coffee is no longer confined to the café, we believe that the gospel must no longer be confined to the church. Just as it is possible to be offered or sold a coffee at almost any part of the day, in every sphere of life, whether in offices, schools, at home, on train stations, in planes, or on the road, we want to see an explosion of places where people can discover and learn what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We can see this happening through established buildings and structures but we crucially anticipate it happening through a multitude of new and creative approaches and whole range of places and spheres.

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Key objectives of the plan

The last thing we want to produce is a plan which remains in the back of a filing cabinet and has no on-going use for us as a Deanery or as individual churches. We have high hopes, however, that engaging in this process together will lead to the following things:

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The development of the Anglican brand across city

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The establishment of a rolling audit of Church life across the Deanery

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Every PCC to develop its own working mission/discipleship strategy for every locality

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Existing church leaders released into their calling

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New forms of leadership developed, released and authorised alongside established forms

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Significant new church planting including •

new planting in new places/communities and

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re-planting into old buildings

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The renewal of our Church buildings so that they are fit for purpose

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The development of new partnerships and connections between individual churches

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Increasingly joined up thinking with others right across the Deanery

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The reallocation of resources towards missional development

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The development of shared systems for administration

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A review of parish boundaries across Deanery

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The development of a Deanery discipleship courses across the Deanery

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Review and development of Chaplaincy across the Deanery

With all this in mind we are presenting our plan under the following headings: 

Developing mission and discipleship

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Developing leadership and ministry

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Sharing resources and developing partnerships



Supporting and developing Chaplaincy

Each section is followed by a list of actions for us to follow up.

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ONE - Developing Mission and Discipleship

The central aim of this plan is to grow disciples.

For this to happen we believe two things are needed: 

The development of strong churches where our programs, structures and activities are designed with this goal in mind



The empowerment and equipping of every member of our church communities for works of ministry and disciple-making in their daily lives

With these two concerns guiding us we want to invite every parish to embark on a process where we review and evaluate our strengths and weaknesses as discipling communities in order to then go on to develop a strategy that will facilitate growth. Each church is faced with different issues, addresses different missional contexts, have different levels of financial and human resources and will have been shaped by different traditions, personalities, experiences and histories. Regardless of these we believe that each church community is called to make disciples and must seek God for direction as to how best go about this task. Together as a deanery we want to support one another in the primary task of making and growing disciples. We want to hold each other to account and to deploy resources appropriately under the guidance of the Spirit with this criterion in mind.

In recent months the incumbents in the deanery have come together to for reflection and discussion and these have been very profitable times of conversation and exploration. Through these times a fresh sense of purpose is emerging together and we are committed to working together across the deanery to see more people discover life in the kingdom of God.

A central part of this plan is to continue this on-going deanery wide conversation and to give it a particular focus with regards to discipleship. Strong, healthy churches are marked by a number of characteristics (set out at the end of this booklet) and we are committed to helping each other in developing strong churches in the numerous localities we find ourselves.

Alongside this we are also particularly aware of current missiological thinking that suggests, firstly, that a church is unlikely to impact more than the one thousand people who live closest to it, and

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secondly, that most growth in traditional churches comes through people transferring membership whereas most growth in church plants or new mission communities comes through people making their first steps in faith. As a result we are resolved to think in new and imaginative ways to create and sustain new communities of faith or church plants, sometimes supported by a larger church, sometimes supported with help from the collective resources of the deanery, with the specific intention of having an outward looking agenda, sharing faith and serving a community that may previously have been unaware of the presence of God in their midst. We want to encourage more church planting of this kind.

As part of this we have spent time asking whether or not the current groupings of parishes and benefices are most helpful for the purpose of making disciples. We have looked at a map of the deanery and wondered about forming an entirely new set of groupings. However, having recognised the enormous amount of time that this would take to work through and the uncertainty that it would really help us to be more focused in our task, has led us away from pursuing significant parish re-ordering.

Instead we are exploring the question: Where is there a welcome for the gospel and energy for mission in the deanery and where is there currently, despite evident need, no real appetite for the Kingdom of God and where, for now, may it be best “to shake the dust from our feet� and simply maintain a praying presence? Keeping the rumour of God alive across the deanery is very important and ministry in every area in valued, but in some places opportunities for growth seem to emerge more naturally. We believe that a welcome feature of deanery life among the clergy has been an absence of jealousy or competitiveness and the avoidance of distant or parochial attitudes if this is not happening in our own parish. We will love and encourage each other whether ministering in harder places or apparently more fruitful places. This, however, is not a plan for more resources to simply follow those churches that already seem to have a surplus. We want to be aware of the unseen nature of the Kingdom of God. The opportunities for growth often emerge in surprising, even unpromising, places.

In this process we would encourage a holistic approach. Mission overseas has always been premised on the basis of first learning about language and culture and forging relationships before church planting begins. We would endorse this process as part of our deanery plan. We are uneasy about simply dropping a prefabricated version of church onto an area of the deanery in a way that

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does not honour or respect what Christian witness may have gone before. Some of these church plants will take place in new or rented premises; others may involve re-planting back into one of our existing church buildings.

The effectiveness of our work will also depend, as indicated in the next section, on the identification and development of local church leaders who can think strategically, lead a church plant (not just lead Sunday services), and take real responsibility for the life of the church plant.

Such a vocation needs be understood and emerge from a sending church. Indeed, there may be churches who decide that a new appointment, a house-for-duty priest or an NSM should prioritise a church plant in an existing church building as a matter of urgency. A developing understanding of theology of ministry is very important. As already stated elsewhere, new leadership must emerge in order to avoid a plan which stretches current clergy further still.

At the moment, we are seeing various examples of this taking shape. Thinking is embryonic but plans have been discussed for church planting into the new Western Riverside development, joint initiatives have been discussed in Snow Hill, the currently unused church of Holy Trinity Queen Square may yet be a venue for a new mission community, a new church and community centre has been built in Fox Hill, and the youth church plant into St Matthew’s Widcombe has flourished in the last year. We very much hope our plan can encourage the sort of discussions and create the sort of environment that lead to further such thinking and action.

Actions 

Incumbents to continue to meet regularly to pray and think strategically

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Churches to evaluate regularly their ministry needs and mission priorities (see Appendix 3)

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Theology of church planting and understanding of good practise to be developed and church planting encouraged

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Deanery synod to be made aware of new initiatives and to feel connected to the process

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Discussions with the archdeacon as a critical friend to take place often

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Vocations and vocational training to be developed.

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DSPC to discuss structural implications and possible pastoral schemes

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TWO – Developing and deploying Leadership and Ministry – Both Lay and Ordained

Leadership is crucial to the process of making disciples and yet because Clergy are fewer in number and increasingly stretched we need to see an dramatic increase in leadership development right across the deanery. We have been aware for some time of consequences of this situation and believe that now is a moment to think strategically to develop leadership both in quantity and quality with a view to its deployment not only in parishes that can afford it, but in parishes that need it and where there is vision and passion.

Deploying leadership in the deanery is, in the end, not something always in the gift of DSPC or something that can be done entirely as the result of a deanery plan. Leaders are usually ‘locally grown’. The DSPC works gladly in partnership with the bishop's staff on one hand and local church circumstances on the other. However deaneries have in recent years been given the task of determining where stipendiary posts may be saved and this has encouraged us to ask the question about the deployment of other forms of ministry. This is not a role the deanery is accustomed to and it has taken time for people to understand what is happening. In this plan, leadership refers not only to ordained stipendiary ministry but to a wide range of different kinds of leaders. It refers to non-stipendiary ministry, locally supported ministry, house-for-duty ministry, licensed lay ministry, reader ministry, ministry of volunteers, and, in some cases, youth ministry and chaplaincy ministry.

The deanery plan is not about interfering with the choices made by individual churches to employ additional staff if they wish to do so. It is about recognising that in some areas of the deanery churches may lack sufficient ministry and leadership for church growth. This could be for historic, financial, or cultural reasons. We believe that church growth cannot happen without leadership, and we do not simply mean leading traditional Sunday services. We mean leadership of mission communities - strategic leadership that enables Christians to engage with contemporary culture and society, growing disciples who impact the world. Necessity is often the mother of invention and there is a recognition that falling numbers of stipendiary clergy means that creative and innovative ways of maintaining leadership levels need to be found to avoid simply managing decline. The solution is not to stretch remaining clergy ever further. Recognising this situation is not new, responding to it is new.

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Furthermore, we want to affirm the need to build confident communities of faith, that are mission-focused and good at growing disciples which is a central feature of Changing Lives.

However, we want to add that an identifiable leader for each such mission community is vital to this process.

Central to all this is the need to help parishes to assess and understand their actual needs for ministry. In many churches, when a vacancy occurs the default assumption is that church life can only go on if a new stipendiary priest is quickly appointed. This may no longer be possible. It may not be desirable either. Therefore, part of the aim of the deanery plan is to establish an on-going process in all our parishes which enables us to identify what leadership is required.

Actions 

Invite all parishes to evaluate their leadership requirements (see Appendix 2)

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Work firstly with parishes in vacancy and then with all parishes to explore other varieties of leadership alongside ordained leadership.

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Think more strategically about the potential for financing more leaders

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Develop the reader review process to change assumptions about the deployment of readers and, where appropriate, use reader’s gifts more fully.

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Think more strategically about the ministry of NSMs and Locally Supported Ministers

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Develop local leadership training. The Diocesan School of Formation is one option but CPAS, New Wine Training Partnership, and South West Gospel Partnership all provide good options too and many in Bath are already opting for these.

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Share examples and stories of good practise of growing leaders across the deanery.

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Work with the bishop's staff to identify appropriate ways of validating new forms of ministry and creating good structures of accountability.

From implementing these actions, we hope a variety of leadership ministries will emerge and consequently be deployed more effectively. We have been talking for some years about the need to enable more people to take responsibility for the church's life and mission and to avoid stretching clergy further, but we have not really identified a coherent strategy to bring this about.

We hope these actions will address this need.

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THREE - Sharing resources and developing partnerships

Recognising that we are all different and that God distributes his gifts to his church in varied ways we are increasingly aware of our interdependence on each other. The Anglican Church is very much a family of churches and we celebrate this unity and diversity in many ways and we are committed to working together so that God’s Kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven. We are aware that we have not always cherished our oneness in Christ and that the pull towards congregationalism has been a strong part of our recent history. Increasingly however, and for many reasons, we are finding ourselves drawn ever closer together and we are learning together about how to be one church rather than many. Partnerships between parishes are developing in meaningful and tangible ways. Examples of these are: 

Deanery wide audit of children’s and youth work

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Shared discipleship courses between parishes

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Joint prayer across the city

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Church administrators’ lunches

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The development of shared mission plans across an area

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New city-wide and area-wide ministries

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Shared use of buildings

Over the next decade we want to see a significant development of this joined up thinking and partnership. We want to strengthen the ‘Anglican Brand’ in Bath, working collaboratively together in all aspects of life – our worship, community, discipleship and mission. While recognising that we have particular callings to different parts of the city we also recognise that sharing resources and developing city-wide and area-wide connections are vital for our future.

Two particular models of partnership are currently being discussed by incumbents across the deanery. One is the ‘minster model’. The other has been named the ‘doughnut’.

In the minster model a larger church acts as a central resource helping to serve a number of smaller churches or ministries in outlying areas. In this way stronger, better resourced churches reach out to areas beyond the locality of the bigger church and enable mission to take place in new and fresh ways. The minster also serves as a resource for larger services, celebrations, or activities

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not possible from a small church gathering. Holy Trinity Combe Down has worked like this for the plants in Fox Hill and St Matthew’s Widcombe. This model has a number of strengths as it actively supports ministry and mission in areas that are harder to reach or serve, it provides larger churches with opportunities for service and leadership development, and it reduces isolation sometimes felt on the edges of the city.

The doughnut originates from the observation that Bath has a central area surrounded by a number of suburban areas, in turn surrounded by outlying villages. Under consideration is the development of formal and informal partnerships between churches in the same ring of the doughnut as each other with the aim of supporting parish administration, worship development, and leadership training. We are aware that there is a tendency for there to be a city/rural divide in our deanery where the needs are very different and ministry takes on different forms. We would like to develop our strategic thinking about how we do mission and ministry to the rural areas around the edge of the city, the suburban ring and to the work and life of the city centre. Sharing ideas, approaches and resources in this way across parish boundaries is an exciting development for us as deanery.

Actions.

To this end we want to: 

Launch a new Deanery website

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Establish a new and on-going parish review and development plan process (see ‘Deploying leadership and ministry’ above)

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Develop deanery-wide mission objectives supported by local parishes

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Develop new working partnerships to support the administrative functions of the churches

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Use Deanery Synod meetings to share good practice and develop relationships

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Encourage the development of new church plants across the deanery

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Explore the expansion of the minster model

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Consider the roll of ‘Filling Station’ type mid-week meetings supporting the rural fringe

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Explore the development of relationships among churches and communities in similar contexts especially the rural fringe and the city centre

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FOUR – Chaplaincy

Chaplaincy exists in a number of places across the deanery. Historically, the Anglican way has focused on the parish church as the hub of Christian activity, but the presence of chaplains reminds us clearly that God is at work in all sorts of other contexts as well. To start with, chaplains usually minister among groups of people who would be very unlikely to cross the threshold of a church.

They have the task of interpreting faith in non-church contexts where the majority of those they see may show very little interest in spiritual things. They also frequently find themselves representing Christianity in a multi-faith market place alongside other faith traditions. For all these reasons chaplains have a particular role in the church's mission, they have a significant perspective on mission, and need specific encouragement and resourcing.

Some of the chaplains in the deanery have been appointed by the organisations they work for and who pay them. Some chaplains are appointed by the bishop, or at least have roles recognised by the bishop, and are usually unpaid. Other chaplaincies are held, usually by clergy, in very informal arrangements with a variety of groups who value the time and input they receive. This last group of chaplains probably need to seek some appropriate form of accountability.

To the best of our knowledge the following chaplaincies exist in the deanery: 

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Bath University (full time Anglican

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St John's Hospital (part time)

alongside chaplains of other



Partis College (part time)

denominations)

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Genesis Trust (voluntary)

Royal United Hospital (full time and

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Bath Police (voluntary and currently

voluntary posts)

held by a Methodist)

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St Mark's School (full time)

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Mencap (voluntary)

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Monkton Combe School (full time)

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Bath Rugby (voluntary)

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City of Bath College (voluntary)

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Royal British Legion (voluntary)

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King Edward's School (part-time)

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Send a Cow (voluntary)

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The very substantial amount of hours and other resources put into chaplaincy work demonstrates its significance in the deanery. The two posts where chaplaincy could also be considered in the future are at the Mineral Water Hospital and in the City Centre to the world of business and retail.

Actions

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To encourage membership of chaplains to the deanery chapter

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Promote awareness of their work

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Work with the diocesan chaplaincy advisor to achieve best practise.

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To develop partnerships of cooperation between chaplains and churches

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Possibly develop a chaplaincy centre in the city centre.

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Conclusion

Discipleship, Leadership, Partnership and Chaplaincy

This plan resolutely places the growth and development of disciples as our primary goal as a deanery of churches. For all kinds of reasons we need to accept a change in the deployment of stipendiary clergy across the deanery and are committed to making a decision about this by Spring 2012 following a deanery wide review of ministry needs over the coming months. We accept that the models of church life that we have inherited are changing and that consequent changes in clergy role and deployment are inevitable. Far from resisting these changes we welcome them seeing them as part of God’s way of renewing his church and leading us towards a new season of growth and expansion. As a result, and underpinning our focus on discipleship, we are agreed that we urgently need to grow and develop many more leaders across the deanery who are equipped for ministry and mission and that we need to give these people the freedom and authority to express this leadership in new ways alongside more established roles.

Looking beyond this there is a clear desire for working together in new formal and informal partnerships and relationships right across the deanery, across traditions, parish boundaries, and mission contexts. Seeing ourselves as one church in the deanery rather than a deanery with many churches is a new and significant challenge and development. Sensing an increasing interdependence we are being encouraged to commit ourselves to each other, share ministry with each other, develop new missional approaches together, and to keep each other accountable for what God is calling each us individually to do.

Lastly, we recognise that participating in a new and on-going process for reviewing each church’s life and its effectiveness in growing disciples is vital if we are going to be able to develop new forms of ministry and mission alongside more established forms both in the local church and in chaplaincy. For all this to happen, a new willingness to learn, develop and grow together as the Anglican Church here in Bath is vital.

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Deanery Plan Timeline November 2011 – Deanery Synod 

Synod agrees to participate in initial deanery-wide review

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Synod agrees direction of plan – discipleship, leadership, partnership, chaplaincy.

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Synod agrees to participate in on-going deanery wide review process

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Incumbents meet to discuss practical ways forward for parishes to take process forward

January 2012 - PCC’s receive Deanery Plan and discuss with Incumbents

th

February 11 (TBC) – Deanery Conference (for all PCCs) at St Mark’s School. 9.30am - 12.30pm Presentation of plan to PCC’s, discussion and vision sharing

February/March – Review period 

Incumbents meet again to feedback PCC/Parish discussion/reviews

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DSPC meets

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Spring Synod explores Discipleship

March/April - Rural Dean, Assistant Rural Dean and Lay Chair meet with parishes where possible posts may need to change th

April 16 2012 – Proposals made to Archdeaconry Pastoral Group with plan for Stipendiary Deployment going forward

Summer - Deanery Synod – The Deanery Plan and the Abbey

Winter - Deanery Synod – Leadership Development

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Appendix The Changing Context of Mission Background Reasons for a Plan in 2011 Criteria for Assessing Ministry Needs in Parishes Allocation of Stipendiary Clergy Sermon by Bishop of Taunton in Bath in October 2011 Changing Lives mission statement

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Appendix 1 – The Changing Context of Mission

Underlying our plan is an assumption that the context for ministry is changing. Below is a description of some of the ways that this is being experienced.

In recent years it has been repeatedly noticed that there is a shift going on in our culture which is often described as a move from ‘geography’ to ‘networks’. Due to increased mobility, technological advances and increased wealth we are no longer as rooted in our physical geography as we once were but now put down our roots within ‘networks’. As physical distance or location becomes less significant in determining the strength of our relationships, new pathways of communication are opening up to us through constant technological innovation. Facebook, texting, emails, and Skype all contribute to us being able to sustain meaningful relationships with people who live miles away from us and the address we live at describes less and less the place we actually live in.

Associated with this is a new way of thinking about ‘community’. Community is no longer something that we are obligated to or tied to because of where we live, the family we belong to, our class, our race, our birthplace. Community is now less a fact than it is a feeling. When we say we long for ‘community’ we are not saying we long for the old order of duty, obligation, responsibility and boundaries of the past – we are instead longing for a deeper connectedness, a relational experience that we feel we have in some way lost. But the reality is that, as we have embraced ideas of individualism, we have ceased to think and live ‘communally’ and we now mostly think individually. This shift touches all areas of our lives so that questions about who we marry, where we live, what we think, how we spend our money, how close we live to our parents as they age and, crucially for this discussion, how we think of ‘church’, are now based primarily on personal choices and individualistic ways of thinking.

We should not underestimate the way that this has changed the ways we relate to church, to church leadership, to giving to the church, and to being involved in church life. As can be seen in all areas of social and cultural life, community attachments are weakening all around us. Unions, political parties, guilds, and community groups all report a decline in membership and involvement. This is echoed in the life of the church. Attendance has declined as mobility, opportunities and choice have increased. People belong, but as individuals and as consumers, and

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commit as long as their needs are being met and their preferences accepted. This experience is magnified in the city, even a city like Bath. No longer can we rely on people to turn out because ‘the church’ is doing something. People act as individuals because they think as individuals.

However, despite the fact that expressions of community seem to be dwindling as a feature of national life, we do not want to jettison it. “Community” is something the church does well and, more than that, we believe that human beings were created for community and that new disciples need a mature community of faith in which to flourish, discover dignity and explore vocation and gifting. We do not see mission and community as mutually exclusive objectives but as belonging together. This is a basic implication of loving and worshiping a Trinitarian God. What we do want to recognise is the tendency to confuse church attendance with Christian belonging. We very much hope that one will lead to the other, but on many occasions, and for many reasons, church attendance is the stage in the journey where people get stuck.

It is perhaps also important to note that very often people are attracted to the Anglican Church precisely because they sense that it is a more conservative, less modern version of church life – a refuge from the changes they experience elsewhere. We need to be aware that our approach to leadership can reflect this inherent conservatism. It is perhaps not surprising that for a younger generation church life is often experienced as irrelevant and out of touch.

Bath, like other cities, is growing and over the next decade we can anticipate it changing in significant ways. Over the last 30 years, industry has all but vanished as a source of employment in Bath. At least eight major factories have closed on the south west side of the city, along the lower Bristol road, with the loss of thousands of jobs. The MOD has also left Bath causing further job losses. In more recent years the council has developed a city plan which includes redeveloping a large swathe of land along the river called the Western Riverside on which they hope will be built 2000 homes for 4000 people. Other areas of development are expected on the recently decommissioned MOD sites and we can expect to see new homes being built here too.

Another expectation is that Bath will continue to attract millions of visitors and tourists. We recognise the significance of this for our local economy although the social impact on the character of the city of a local economy now built almost exclusively on tourism and leisure is yet to be seen.

250 years ago such a climate contributed significantly to the decline of Georgian Bath.

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Other socio-economic features are also worth noting; we recognise that Bath continues to be a seen as an attractive place to come and study and we expect the numbers of students to remain high even as the current concerns over student debt remain; while incomes across the city are relatively good, high house prices continue to stretch families financially as they cover the costs of mortgages; with people living healthy, longer lives we can also expect to see a growing number of people who are retired as a proportion of the population; and lastly, alongside the relative wealth, we note that some areas of Bath also experience significant levels of poverty. As a Deanery we need to be mindful of these opportunities and challenges.

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Appendix 2 – Allocation of Sheffield Posts

As regards the deployment of clergy, it is widely known that the Diocese has directed the Deanery to reduce the number of clergy who have ‘incumbent status’ and are in receipt of a diocesan stipend to 20 immediately. We believe that we cannot simply stretch current incumbent workloads to cover the gaps that this reduction in clergy brings with it; yet it is highly likely that even this figure will prove unsustainable in the medium term. If the Deanery is to have fewer ‘Sheffield Posts’ going forward, then the expectations of all parishes will have to adjust accordingly and we will need to have the space to be creative as we seek to develop all areas of ministry. If we attempt to continue to operate as we have done in the recent past with a reduced number of stipendiary clergy, we believe that we shall find ourselves inescapably obliged to close buildings, merge benefices and reduce the levels of pastoral care we are offering.

Central to this plan is the establishment of a proper process which we expect all parishes to undergo. The first part of this process is to review ministry and mission in each parish using material outlined in Appendix 3. Our goal is not to reduce ministry levels in any parish but to develop it. However, this process will have to identify how at least one parish, and possibly two or three, will have its ministry provided in a different way, less dependent upon a traditional parish priest. This will probably still feel painful at first to the parishes in question but we hope that we can manage this process in such a way that ultimately is it seen by all to be beneficial and exciting and not a loss of ministry. It is very important that this process is managed well and carries the confidence of the deanery from the outset.

There are in reality only a limited number of ways we could re-distribute the current posts as they become vacant. Here are few possible scenarios we are considering: 

Can we completely remove a stipendiary post from any parish replacing it with other forms of leadership able to develop ministry and grow disciples and supported by other ordained minsters?



Can we reduce 2 posts to 0.5 posts in the same way, either employing people on part time basis or creating other part time deanery posts to bring their hours to full time?

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

Can we redeploy 3 posts to 0.5 posts and create three half time deanery half time supported roles such as: Deanery Leadership Development Role, Deanery Church Growth Facilitator, Deanery Missioner for Rural areas?

We currently do not intend to recommend any of these alternatives until after we have heard back from Parishes in the New Year and after they have evaluated their ministry needs (see Appendix 3) The table below provides one possible way of looking at the current distribution of clergy.

Current stipendiary priests City Centre

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Bath Abbey with St James St Michael with St Paul (Holy Trinity Queen’s Square) Eastern and South Eastern Bath Batheaston with St Catherine Bathampton with Claverton Bathford Bathwick St Mary with Bathwick St John’s

4

Northern and North East Bath Bath St Stephen’s with Charlcombe Bath St Saviour’s with Swainswick and Wooley Bath Walcot Bath Christchurch

3

Western Bath Bath Weston All Saints with Langridge and North Stoke Bath Weston Emmanuel, St John’s with Kelston

2

South West Bath Bath Twerton upon Avon Bath Ascension Bath St Barnabas with Englishcombe Bath St Bartholomew Bath Odd Down with Combe Hay

5

Southern Bath Bath St Lukes Bath Widcombe Holy Trinity Combe Down with Monkton Combe and Southstoke and St Andrews Fox Hill Freshford with Limpley Stoke and Hinton Charterhouse

3

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10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Priority

Stipendiary

House for duty NSM

Reader

Salaried

Volunteer

Youth or Children Administration

Other (specify)

Appendix 3 – Assessing Ministry Needs in Parishes

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Bearing in mind our focus on discipleship, a central part of this plan is that every church/parish initiates a consistent form of review and assessment as part of its ongoing life in order to enable it to set goals, refine vision and make good use of resources. We recognise that this is an art not a science! Many churches will be accustomed to looking at these questions, some will be less so.

The intention is first to discern priorities in a given church, and secondly, to think about what sort of ministry might be most appropriate to develop the work of the Kingdom of God in that place and meet those priorities. The following guidelines for analysis may help the process.

Demographics and Mission  Population of parish  Level of social need in parish  Number of churches of all denominations serving the parish  Type of mission field o Network or geography o Is the parish urban/rural/city centre/ housing estate? o Is the church well known (for the right reasons) does it have a high profile? o What factors inhibit and what factors help the mission of the church here? o What unreached people groups exist?  Occasional services o Thanksgivings/Baptisms o Weddings o Funerals Community  Where is the geographical heart of the parish?  Where do people naturally gather or meet? Do they gather and meet? Are there any events that bring the community together?  What community groups, residents association, youth projects, toddler groups, allotments etc already exist?  Is there a church/non-church school? Describe the church/school relationship.  Are there any nursing homes? Is there a church link to them?  Where is there warmth to the gospel or evidence of the Kingdom in this community?  Are there areas where hope is absent?  How and when does the church (not just the priest or church leadership) pray for their neighbours?

Buildings  What buildings does the parish have and are they fit for purpose?  How accessible are they?  How expensive are they to maintain/modernise?

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 What opportunities do they offer?  Are they in the right place?  What impact would closure of building have?  Are they the best buildings for the job?

Health and viability of current church congregation  How many members do we have? Children/Teens/Under 30/30-50/50-70/70+  What has been the level of growth/decline over past years?  What are our current staffing levels  How local is the church congregation?  How healthy are we as a church?

Indicators of health: o Strong sense of vision, calling and purpose o High levels of faith o Empowering/Equipping Leadership o Effective Structures o Facing the cost of change and growth o Passionate Spirituality and commitment to personal formation o Inspiring Worship Services and relevant biblical teaching o Strong community experience and holistic small groups o Quality of relationships/tensions/conflicts o Outward looking and missional Financial considerations  Parish share contribution  Other income  Financial vulnerability  Strengths and weaknesses Place in the deanery  What role does the parish have in the deanery?  What is its unique quality?  Does the church community have a special role/purpose/mission?  Tradition  Relative strength of neighbouring churches Discerning ministry needs Having reviewed the life of the church each parish is encouraged to discern their ministry needs.

This can be done by:  Prayerfully reflecting on the observations made  Writing down up to 10 priorities for making disciples in this place (using grid on p16)  Indicating who leadership would be best placed to move those priorities forward

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Appendix 4 – Reasons for our plan in 2011

There are two main drivers that have led to us developing this plan for our deanery. The first, and most obvious, is the requirement for us to present a plan for the Diocese about clergy deployment going forward to 2015 and beyond. We know that across the country there is a shortage of clergy and we understand that there is a need for an equitable distribution of resources across the church in England. Reducing numbers of clergy is also a financial necessity and we recognise that Bath should play its part in coping with this new and emerging situation we find ourselves in.

Recognising the need to see a reduction in stipendiary posts across the Deanery we also endorse the Diocesan strategy of Changing Lives which encourages us to think differently about ourselves and the rapidly changing world we are ministering into. As a Deanery we accept that the way we have been ‘doing church’ is increasingly inadequate as a strategy for mission and growth in the years to come and that we need to find new ways of reaching out and living out the faith.

Part of this changing picture of church life is a gentle decline in membership across the Deanery as a whole. Recognising that figures tell only part of the story, we believe that they still have something important to tell us about the direction we are heading in and we must pay attention to this. Of particular concern is the general ‘greying’ of the church which brings with it other consequences in terms of finances and people resources. We are also aware of that men are proportionately less well represented in our churches as are people under 30. Of course churches in the deanery have not been static for the past two decades. Indeed, the opposite is true. All kinds of things have been tried and many great things have been achieved by God’s grace. But what is pertinent is that despite all this effort, our membership has remained at best static. The reasons for this various and complex and here is not the place to rehearse them but there is an acceptance of the need for changes to the status quo.

Despite generally smaller congregations, clergy work load has continued to expand. Maintaining existing and inherited church structures and activities often leaves little space and energy for trying out new forms of mission or developing new relationships and approaches. The danger of this is that this can lead to increasing levels of leadership burnout and stress.

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Alongside all this are other more positive reasons for us to review and change the way we do things as a Deanery. One of the most encouraging signs among us is the increasing acceptance of a missional mandate right across the church. Over the past years a new and refreshing missional conversation has developed and is now taking central place in all our thinking. Mission may have once been seen as something at the edges of church life but now we see it as the central purpose of our life together. Mission is something we need to make happen, rather than waiting for it to happen of its own accord

Linked with this is renewed missional agenda is a simultaneous pull towards a more united, collaborative and shared approach to ministry. Taking us into deeper relationships and understanding the Spirit is moving us beyond just meeting up, sharing ideas and praying for one another. Instead we are rediscovering our unity in Christ and his good news for our world.

Although recognising that sometimes disagree about theology and practice we are discovering a desire and draw towards each other as leaders, as churches and as individuals across the city. This plan builds on this move of the Spirit and hopefully sets a sail to catch the wind that we sense is blowing our way.

Centred on a desire for developing this missional conversation we believe that this is a key time for us as a Deanery in Bath. Rarely have we found such a resonance between us that opens up for us a new and shared way forward together and this plan fits into this new atmosphere of trust and confidence. Underlying this plan is an assumption that we move to seeing the deanery as a primary unit of ministry and mission and actively develop a more cohesive strategy together as a deanery.

Instead of serving our narrow congregational agendas, as if they are separate from, or in competition with each other, we want to release resources for mission in new contexts. We believe that there is an urgent call to the church in our day to move outside the walls of our own buildings, services, rituals and institutions and to explore new ways of being church. And so this plan endorses the view that we are being called to support the growth of a ‘mixed economy’ in church life across the deanery which is a mix of established forms of worship and gathering and completely new ones. Recognising that the way people think and live, the way they conceive of themselves and the worldview that they have inherited has radically changed in recent decades we are believe that now is a time for new expressions of church life to be intentionally encouraged

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and supported in the life of the church right across the Deanery. Inevitably these new forms of church life will challenge the established patterns of leadership, membership and community life and initially may seem ‘un-Anglican’ but we believe that not only must we not restrict such new approaches, we must actively encourage them. While doing this we will need to generate a trusting and transparent atmosphere where things can be tried, where things can fail, where risks can be taken. As a result it must be understood that this plan is not simply about maintaining or shoring up the established ways of being the Anglican Church here in Bath, but about us transitioning to a new future that we currently yet can’t exactly map out. Ultimately we would like the Anglican brand to be strengthened in the city.

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Appendix 5 – Sermon by the Bishop of Taunton at the Combe Down Licensing Some of you may have tuned in to a conversation between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rather edgy comedian Frank Skinner, a practising Catholic, which took place in Canterbury Cathedral a couple of weeks ago. Frank Skinner returned to the Catholic Church in his late twenties having left it in his teenage years – ‘there was too much tradition; it was too authoritarian and there were too many firm doctrines for a seventeen year old like me.’ However, at 29 he got the urge to go back, and he went to see an old priest in Birmingham. Frank asked him how he could possibly go back after all the drugs, the alcohol and the rest over the previous few years, but the old priest reassured him – oh just come back. Frank remarked that the encounter was like going to confession and receiving absolution. ‘The next day,’ he says, ‘on the feast of St. Boniface I went to mass – there were just 6 people in the church, but as I received communion, it was overwhelming.’

When the Archbishop had heard his story he said simply this – it’s not the argument that makes the difference, it’s the welcome, the acceptance – welcome is one of the most important things we offer.’

How do our churches become known for their faith in Jesus and their loving service to others – not says Brian Maclaren by simply being a community where you learn about love, but by being a community where you learn TO love. ‘What would it mean’, he says, ‘if we were willing to sacrifice everything else for this one goal of forming Christ-like people, people who live in the way of love, the way of peace making, the way of the Kingdom of God, the way of Jesus, the way of the Spirit? It is in that central goal that we find our hope.’

The American Franciscan Priest, Richard Rohr echoes some of that thinking. He is concerned that much of our behaviour as Christians in churches has become tribal, looking to make God in our own image rather than understanding our God as the one God of all the earth who is in all and through all. ‘If indeed’, he suggests, ‘there is one God of all the earth, then it is this one God who is breaking through in every age and culture, and we should be the first to recognise this truth.’ ‘Yet’, he goes on, ‘we often end up fearing and even opposing this idea probably because in our own lives our religion has been more tribal than transformative. Perhaps we want to belong to something exclusive, the equivalent of a religious country club, but by that time, of course, our God has become very small and been whittled down to our size.’

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If we wanted to look for evidence for religion that was not tribal but transformative, it’s there in the gospels. The purpose of Jesus’ proverbs and parables was disruption, not instruction and they challenge the listener not to radical obedience but to radical questioning. What we are not to become is a tribal church that looks inwards, concerned primarily with maintaining the tradition as it has been handed down to us through all time as if that is all there is. We must, rather, be a transforming and transformative church that looks outwards to the community and to the world in which we are set. The mission of God is not only a higher calling than the maintenance of the church. It is the very reason for which God brought the church into being. Practically speaking we need to stop starting with the church and focus instead on God’s mission. And this mission belongs not just to your parish priest, but to all of you who have been marked with the sign of the cross at your baptism. We are all called as members of the Body of Christ, priest and people alike, to be a ministering congregation to the communities in which we are set.

We need a vision that places God’s Word, and reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit and on prayer, at the centre of who we are as Christian communities, but we must also recognise, as Archbishop Rowan might have put it, that it’s acceptance and welcome that makes the difference, so will rightly place a high priority on sharing God’s love in our different contexts so that lives and communities can be transformed. In the words of one hymn writer, ‘may we build a house where hands will reach beyond the wood and stone, to heal and strengthen, serve and teach, and live the Word they’ve known. Here the outcast and the stranger bear the image of God’s face; let us bring an end to fear and danger. All are welcome; all are welcome in this place.’

The gift of ministry is a huge privilege and through our baptism it is a gift in which we all share. We rightly seek priests who will be prayerful visionary leaders, inspiring preachers with a heart for mission and outreach, caring pastors, gifted communicators, deeply committed to the power of prayer, and women and men who have the ability to discern gifts and empower others. These are high expectations, and rightly so, but I want to add that priests are essentially people who preside, encourage, and resource. They do not have to do it all, and neither should they. Otherwise the expectations on our priests and ministers become wholly unrealistic and deeply unhealthy.

In this diocese we believe and try our best to practice the principle of ‘no one alone’. So we believe passionately that we are all God’s beloved, sisters and brothers of Christ filled with the Spirit, lay and ordained alike, each with a particular gift to bring to the whole. Authentic ministry can never

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be a solo performance and all those who have particular roles in the ministry of the church should work in teams, where sharing work becomes an essential element in the character of a church and where everyone’s gifts can be acknowledged and used, and where both priest and people can feel supported and cared for. In busy parishes, please don’t become so overwhelmed by activity that you forget to give one another the space to be with God in prayer and worship and in silence.

The long term work of the priest in today’s church will be about building up confidence in Christ’s presence in the church, to be a kind of navigator who, with others, seeks to build a sense of community which is deeply rooted in the security of God’s love with the grace and strength to face up to the challenges that face the institutional church at the present time; so that, together, you can rediscover how to be church here and now, both in the communities where you live but also in the communities where you work.

The question for us now is not so much about what the church mean to us, but about what the church represents to those who look from the outside. Is it a beacon of light? Is it a community of hope? Does it offer hospitality unconditionally? Does it demonstrate in its life together the values of justice and reconciliation, of healing and forgiveness?

A former Bishop of Worcester, +Peter Selby reminds us ‘Jesus is God’s face, turned towards the world. We call ourselves Christians because we have come to know that face and its importance in our lives. We know that face of love in our worship, in the pages of the bible, in our receiving of Holy Communion, and in each other.’ But we all have to ask of ourselves openly and honestly, is this the reality of our lives? Is this what we show to others?

We live in exciting times and I trust God to lead us into what will be a challenging future. Together we can pray that God will sustain and encourage us as we work together in navigating the way forward for the churches in our communities.

Ours is a Steadfast God, and perhaps one of the greatest mysteries is why He continues to entrust the work of your His kingdom into our clumsy hands. But we are forever grateful that He does not want to change the world without us. May we become the church He dreams of. Amen.

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Appendix 6 – Changing Lives

THE AIM OF THE DIOCESE is to resource and encourage confident Christian communities which express joyful hope in the Gospel, for the sake of the world which they serve.

THE MISSION STRATEGY OF THE DIOCESE is Changing Lives, Changing Churches for Changing Communities. The vision is supported by four core aspirations: Calling This diocese seeks to affirm the call of all the baptised and to nurture and encourage the giftedness of each Transformation This diocese seeks to proclaim the Christian gospel afresh in each generation in ways that will transform the lives of individuals and communities Renewal This diocese seeks to re-energise its clergy and lay people with the gospel story through inspired worship and teaching and personal development Reshaping This diocese seeks to enable the whole Body of Christ to be the church in its locality by supporting and offering appropriate resources to parishes, local ministry groups, church schools and other expression of Christian community

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The Changing Lives Prayer Lord, you are the changeless one who comes to change us into the likeness of Jesus Christ your Son: grant that we, changed and transformed by your Spirit may be an instrument of changing lives in the world you so love. Amen

The Jesus Society Jesus says in his society there is a new way for people to live:      

You show wisdom by trusting people You handle leadership by serving You handle offenders by forgiving You handle money by sharing You handle enemies by loving You handle violence by suffering

In fact you have a new attitude towards everything, towards everybody. Towards nature, towards the state, towards all and towards every single thing because this is a Jesus society and you repent, not by feeling bad, but by thinking differently

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