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The Bishops' Office The Bishops’ Office 28 May 2021 Dear Colleagues, This letter comes with greetings for Trinity Sunday. As we leave the great series of seasons that began with Advent and enter Ordinary Time, this seems an opportune moment to clarify our hopes for the rest of 2021 and into 2022 with respect to Resourcing Sustainable Church (RSC). This is because our implementation of RSC has to be part of our ‘ordinary’ mission and ministry from now on. We wrote earlier in the month more generally about RSC. This letter is to focus on some specifics and comes with a link to the full RSC document and with a shorter introductory guide that might be helpful for your congregations. Diocesan Synod has commended the following Resourcing Sustainable Church processes: 1 Church Type self-reflection. Starting in June 2021 and through the summer until September, every church community is invited to reflect on its strengths, opportunities, concerns and weaknesses. Resources will be offered to help with this, but a basic initial framework can be found in the full RSC document beginning at page 26. This is a vocational conversation for each church, which will help every parish to take part in what happens next. The conversation/reflection can be led by the incumbent or by delegated officers/ministers such as church wardens. The full RSC report can be found at https://www.lincoln.anglican.org/links 2 Identifying and building partnerships. Beginning in September 2021 and (if necessary) lasting until autumn 2022, churches, benefices, deaneries and groupings of deaneries (Deanery Partnerships) will discuss how to identify and build patterns of collaboration. This process will be supported by bishops, archdeacons, rural deans, lay chairs and the parish support team at Edward King House in Lincoln and full details of how to participate will be sent later in the summer. The outcome will be Local Mission Partnerships (LMPs), which will also assist decision-making about how and where to deploy clergy and lay ministers. 3 Covenant conversations about Parish Share. Starting at the same time as the Church Type self- reflection and also running until mid 2022, parishes and benefices will meet with the newly trained Covenant Pastors, who will assist each parish to agree a financial pledge to the diocese for the support of ministry. These will be phased meetings in order to ensure that the whole diocese is covered during the course of the year. These meetings are part of our generous giving response to God’s generosity to us. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Edward King House Lincoln LN2 1PU [email protected]@lincoln.anglican.org [email protected] 4 Vocational conversations for ministers, lay and ordained. Beginning in autumn 2021, every ordained and lay minister who holds the bishop’s licence will be invited to a vocational conversation, which will be an opportunity to reflect on her/his ministry, and will parallel the reflective conversations that will be going on in church congregations. The intention of these conversations is to listen, to support and to discern ways forward, for individuals and for the diocesan family of ministers as a whole. The Bishop of Lincoln is beginning this series of conversations now, by meeting with his Bishop’s Staff on a one to one basis. Synod has also commended other recommendations, about which we will write in time, but we want, now, to share our basic hope, which is that everyone who is part of God’s people in Lincoln will participate as best they can in the four interrelated processes above. The key word that underlines our hope is ‘together’. It is by acting together that we will implement our vision of being a faithful, confident and joyful family of churches that is transforming lives across Greater Lincolnshire. We are, we pray, moving from the disruption of lockdown and the height of the Covid-19 pandemic into a period of recovery. We know that there are challenges ahead, but we are confident about the desire and the capacity of the body of Christ in this diocese to meet them. We see many signs of God’s Spirit at work among us. Thank you for your response to God and for the privilege of sharing in ministry with you. The Rt Revd Christopher Lowson The Rt Revd Dr David Court The Rt Revd Dr Nicholas Chamberlain Bishop of Lincoln Bishop of Grimsby Bishop of Grantham ________________________________________________________________________________________ Edward King House Lincoln LN2 1PU [email protected]@lincoln.anglican.org [email protected] .
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