Monday, 8th June, 2020 Esgob

To all members of Mission Area Conferences Llanelwy In the Diocese The of Annwyl gyfeillion,

I am proud of the Teulu Asaph and the way in which so many Mission Areas have risen to the challenge of finance in this difficult year, and met that challenge with generosity and trust in God’s faithfulness. All the Church in must share in these efforts, and the Representative Body of the has been generous in its provision from investments to assist in meeting clergy costs in the second quarter, while the DBF played its part with a decision to use this money to pay back to the Mission Areas a grant equivalent to 60% of the Mission Area Share that they will have paid for the second quarter of this year.

The way this has been done is deliberate, because as a diocese we want to invest in Mission Areas, and we are giving the Mission Area Conferences the chance to decide how to use this money. It may simply be given back to the Churches, if that seems right, but it may also be an opportunity to help the most needy congregations, or even an opportunity to develop mission for the future. When the DBF made its decision, it certainly asked Mission Area Conferences to pledge themselves to building the future. We explicitly asked for:

• a willingness by the Mission Area to engage in active discussion with the Bishop and Archdeacons about the future life of the Mission Area, including but not limited to, growth and discipleship, the provision of ministry, and the future of church buildings, in order to develop a plan for a sustainable future of the Mission Area; and • a commitment to cooperate with the plan’s implementation and the acceleration of the rate of change.

What do these requests mean? The Bishop’s Staff team has been working with me to develop a way in which to assist Mission Areas to review their life and work in mission and ministry, in order to develop a sustainable future and to accelerate the rate of change. Details of that programme come now with this letter.

Attached are two documents. The first sets out how we believe God has been working with the diocese over the last ten years to renew our life, and which speaks theologically about the issues before us, and the way in which we tackle them. The second is a paper which sets out a process by which the archdeacons and the diocesan team will engage with Mission Area Conferences over the next eighteen months to discuss questions of growth and discipleship, ministry, buildings and finance in order to refine and implement plans for the future.

Gregory K Cameron * Esgob Llanelwy * Bishop of St Asaph Esgobty, Llanelwy St Asaph, LL17 0TW * 01745 583503 * [email protected] I am conscious that many Mission Areas have already been working hard to renew their lives. I am also deeply impressed by many of the most recent initiatives in our common life. I acknowledge all that has been achieved to “unlock our potential”, but the task is one that has to continue with renewed pace, and become rooted in our lives as we seek to answer God’s call to be his people and his commission to go out in north east and central Wales with the Good News of the Gospel.

It is a mantra of managerial consultancy to say that there are no problems, only opportunities, and while the smoothness of this saying is not wholly convincing, I do think the discontinuity in our life coronavirus and the lockdown have imposed upon us must be seized as a chance to reflect more deeply on what we want the Church of the future to look like – not to fulfil our wishes or prejudices, but in obedience to the Lord of the Church and in seeking God’s will.

In my pastoral letters, I have spoken of the fact that coronavirus and lockdown brings change, and the future is going to have to be different. It is a description which seems to have support, and many people have written to me to say they agree. The archdeacons, the diocesan team and I are at your service to help us all to discover together what it is that God is saying to us.

In Christ,

Gregory K Cameron * Esgob Llanelwy * Bishop of St Asaph Esgobty, Llanelwy St Asaph, LL17 0TW * 01745 583503 * [email protected]