News for clergy, churchwardens, LLMs and lay chairs

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News for Clergy, Churchwardens, LLMs and Lay Chairs

The View 15 MARCH 2021

EDITION 41

We are called to live well together in Christ A reflection by the Rt Rev Peter Hill

Yesterday, as is traditional, many of our churches celebrated Mothering Sunday, whether live in the church building or on Zoom. Over the years it has also become a significant secular celebration, when families get together to recognise the love and care of the mothers amongst them, but that has sadly not been possible this year.

As a vicar, I quickly became aware that Mothering Sunday needed careful handling, as it is always a sensitive and highly painful day for some: those not able to be mums; those who have lost little ones; those whose mothers were neglectful or even abusive; and for those whose motherhood for various reasons has been less than a bed of roses.

These days, the whole presumed Christian concept of family is being challenged more than ever. I say ‘presumed’ because it is easy for most Christians in the affluent global north and west to understand family more in the modern nuclear sense of parents and children, rather than the more extended family or clan scenario that is evident in scripture and persisted in British society for centuries until relatively recently.

The New Testament speaks of ‘households’ rather than families (oikos in the Greek) and would have included the possible inclusion of servant families and welcomed aliens, as well as blood kith and kin. So family has always been complex!

Yet, Mothering Sunday, however we tend to celebrate it today in Britain is a modern tradition. Much older is the tradition of “Mother Church” and celebrating the family of the Church. So a key question for us who are Christian is when we think of family, do we also visualise our household of faith: our church family?

Bishop Geoffrey Paul, a previous Bishop of Bradford, used to say, ‘There is no way of belonging to Christ except by belonging gladly and irrevocably to all that marvellous and extraordinary ragbag of saints and fatheads who make up the one holy catholic and apostolic church.’ I love that truth and the challenge it bears for us all. Another more well-known saying is, ‘we can choose our friends, but we have no choice about our family’. That is also a challenge to those of us in the households of faith. In these mobile days too many of us switch congregations when something or someone offends or irks us, rather than hanging in with the church family and working things through.

Paul has some strong words to say to the young household of faith in Colossae on this: ‘Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.’ Colossians 3:12-14. Interestingly this is one of the set readings for Mothering Sunday, a sort of Christian Family Manifesto!

The Jewish faith, out of which Paul wrote is of course huge on extended family. The late Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sachs, said this, ‘The family is where we acquire the skills and language of relationships. It is where we first take the risk of giving and receiving love. It is where one generation passes on its values to the next and ensures continuity of civilisation. For any society, the family is the chief crucible of its future.’ How much does that apply also to the church family in parish and diocese!

The reality is, as the Chinese proverb suggests: ‘Nobody’s family can hang out a sign which says, “Nothing the matter here.” In the end at home, in the local church and in the wider diocesan family of which we are all a part, we are called to live well together in Christ, whatever disagreements or issues arise amongst us: doctrinal, political or personal. So let me conclude with 10 practical words that emanate from that Colossians 3 passage and for me when spoken out and practised will work towards keeping any Christian family, however complex, together in hard times:

I was wrong I’m sorry forgive me I love you …….

News and information

Bishop Guli’s Confirmation of Election – Recording now available

Bishop Guli was confirmed as the Bishop of Chelmsford on Thursday during a prayerful and historic service led by the Archbishop of Canterbury. A recording of the service can now be watched here.

Bishop Guli sent her first Ad Clerum to clergy, church wardens, Licensed Lay Ministers, Licensed Lay Workers, Deanery Lay Chairs and members of Diocesan Synod today.

Between now and Easter, she will complete her ministry as Bishop of Loughborough. Legal authority for oversight of this diocese will remain with Bishop Peter until 19 April at which point Bishop Guli will begin her ministry as our diocesan bishop. She will move to Bishopscourt with her family in the summer. In early September it is hoped that we will be able to hold a public Welcome and Installation service in Chelmsford Cathedral.

Thank you for your continued support for the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. We have now raised more than £16,000 for Five Talents, the Anglican Communion’s charity and their work in our link diocese of Marsabit in Kenya. To find out more about how your church can get involved please click here.

Thy Kingdom Come 2021

More than 1,000 people tuned into last week’s launch webinar for Thy Kingdom Come 2021.

This year’s resources including the 2021 prayer journal, videos and material for families and young people are now available here.

Interim Ministry Hub – Online Launch, 22 March, 10.30am On 22 March, Chelmsford Diocese will launch a set of major national resources to support churches seeking change and renewal. The resource hub will provide support for Interim Ministry. Based on international models, and increasingly explored across the Church of England, Interim Ministry involves parishes make short term appointments to help them move through a process of rethinking who they are, what they are about and how they are going to move forward.

The Interim Ministry Web Resource and Interim Ministry Source Book are the output of Capacity Building Funding from the Church of England’s Strategic Development Fund (SDF). They will form a national IM resources ‘hub’, initially to be hosted by the Diocese of Chelmsford.

You can join the launch webinar at 10.30am on Thursday 22 March by clicking here.

Lent Bible Studies Our final Generous God, Generous Disciples bible study will take place on Sunday at 6pm and will be led by Bishop Roger. We will be studying Peter 4: 7-11 and the theme is Generous Living. The webinar will run from 6pm-7pm. Please register here.

Recordings and materials from the bible studies are made available for parishes to use in their own context here.

Generous God, Generous Disciples Webinar - Diocesan and Parish Finance, 16 March, 7.30pm Join Interim Chief Operations Officer, Maureen Cole and our new Finance Director, Michaela Southworth for an overview of diocesan and parish finance. This is an opportunity to understand more about the diocese’s finances - including where the money comes from and how the money is spent. If you have always wondered how your Parish Share is used, then this is an opportunity to find out!. Register for the webinar here.

National Day of Reflection

Since the first UK Covid-19 lockdown began on 23 March 2020, millions have been bereaved, both as a consequence of Covid-19 and due to other causes. The National Day of Reflection, co- ordinated by the charity Maire Curie and officially supported by the Church of England, has been designated as a special day to reflect on collective loss and grief.

On 23 March there will be a national minute’s silence at 12 noon to create a moment that shows support for those who have been bereaved. People are also asked to connect with someone who is grieving. That might mean sending a card, a message, some flowers or calling someone for a chat.

The Church Support Hub contains a range of resources to help churches participate in and promote the National Day of Reflection. Please click here for more information.

Chelmsford Cathedral will also be marking the anniversary of the first lockdown with The Colours of Hope, creating a vibrant space of colour and light in the cathedral to gather reflections and prayers. You can find out more here.

Colchester Area Vocations Day, 12, 19 and 26 April The Colchester Area Vocations Day takes place across a series of three webinars. Each webinar starts at 7.30pm and lasts approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. The webinars explore the age old question “What’s my calling?” and are open to anyone aged 13 or over at any stage of life or faith. To find out more and register, please click here.

Chelmsford Diocese Estate Churches Network – Catch-up by Zoom

The Chelmsford Diocese Estate Churches Network is having a catch-up by Zoom on Wednesday 17th March at 11am. Members will be joined by Revd Sara Barron who is the new Executive Director of the National Estate Churches Network. Sara recently took over from Revd Andy Delmege.

NECN wants to encourage local groups, such as our own diocesan network, and to bring together clergy and others working in areas of significant social housing for training and support.

The diocesan estate churches network now has 56 members across the whole diocese and it's hoped that this catch-up will be the first of many.

There are a few social housing estates in the diocese that are still not represented, and anyone interested in joining the network or the Zoom call should contact Carol Richards on [email protected]

Barking Area, Webinar on Dementia

Each year in the UK, almost a quarter of a million people are diagnosed with dementia.

Many of us will experience the impact of dementia in our families and on individuals within our congregations.

How do we offer a carefully considered, compassionate, coherent, theological and pastoral response?

What resources are there in the Christian tradition?

How could we improve and change what we do in our churches to become more dementia-friendly?

This is an opportunity for us to come together as lay and ordained Christians, with the Bishop of Barking, to learn, to reflect, to be challenged. To book a place on this Zoom webinar please email [email protected] who will send you a Zoom link.

Online Church Update

Mevo Live Streaming Camera- last chance for special offer Chelmsford Diocese Mission and Stewardship Adviser, The Revd Canon Jeremy Fraser has negotiated a bulk discount to help churches in our diocese purchase a specialist camera for livestreaming.

The camera is called the MEVO Start and you can find out more here.

The cost is around £300 per camera. If you are interested, please contact Jeremy at [email protected] and he will provide you with a unique code to claim your discount. The offer will be expiring soon so please contact Jeremy as soon as possible if you are interested.

New Streaming Plus License from CCLI Many parishes have made use of the streaming license from CCLI which allows churches to include hymns and worship songs in broadcast worship.

CCLI have now launched an enhanced Streaming Plus License which allows the use of a greater range of music recordings including master or original recordings. To find out more, please click here.

Online Church Webinar recordings Our recent series on Online Church webinars are all available to watch on our Online Church Hub.

There is a collection of practical and reflective webinars to help churches consider how they develop online church in the future. Next week we will be promoting a survey in The View to help us understand how we can support Online Church in the future.

Eastern Region Minority Ethnic Vocations Conference

The Eastern Region Minority Ethnic Vocations Conference takes place on 7 and 8 May 2021, online.

To find our more and book your place, click here.

Good News The Choir Church Project This week’s Good News story is written by the Revd Vanessa Conant, Team Rector at St Mary’s and the Parish of Walthamstow

In the first months of developing new worshipping communities on the Attlee Terrace and Prospect Hill estates, we held an outdoor Carol Service. In the community garden, as neighbours joined from their balconies, a newly-formed scratch gospel choir belted out Christmas favourites. To our surprise, more and more people kept arriving; we realised our repertoire was too small, we hastily added in new carols and the seed of an idea was sown. The SDF-funded project in Walthamstow is based around principles of community organising, listening closely to the interests, concerns and passions of our neighbours and taking action on both questions of justice and in the building of new church communities. This event and our listening to the community had made clear some of the challenges the estates were facing and also some of the possibilities which existed for building community. We had a strong sense that music and singing would be part of this, but then suddenly found ourselves in lockdown, unable to meet in person and still in the very early days of building relationships and making connections. Over the months, Charnelle Barclay, our Community Organiser and Church Planter and Josh Price, an intern working with St Mary’s through the Centre for Theology and Community’s Buxton programme, began to explore some digital solutions.

As a church, we have been hugely inspired by the work of Tom Daggett who has developed the Choir Church movement (www.choirchurch.com). Choir Churches partner with local schools to teach the choral tradition, worship together and explore issues of social justice. Tom supported the team here to develop a Gospel expression of Choir Church and to build the connection with our local church school. The team, working with Robyn Samuels, a member of the renowned Kingdom Choir, has recorded warm-up exercises, tunes and harmonies, together with biblical reflections and thoughts on social justice while St Mary’s Curate, Rev Adam Childs, has designed a simple-to-use accessible format which can support and equip schools to journey through an online choir session. Click here to view a preview.

Over time, we will be able to edit together the voices of children to create an online choir and, in the months to come, we hope to be able to meet, sing and worship together in person. Covid-19 has been so costly in so many ways; we are so thankful to be able to find creative and joyful opportunities to build new worshipping communities, thanks to the support of SDF.