Firm in Hope Strategic Vision 2020 - 2030 Father of all, we give you thanks and praise, that when we were still far off you met us in your Son and brought us home. Dying and living, he declared your love, gave us grace, and opened the gate of glory. May we who share Christ’s body live his risen life; we who drink his cup bring life to others; we whom the Spirit lights give light to the world. Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us, so we and all your children shall be free, and the whole earth live to praise your name; through Christ our Lord. Amen. From the Common Worship Order 1 Service of Holy Communion Contents Foreword from the Bishop of Leeds 3 Introduction from the Dean of Wakefield 4 Context and opportunities 5 Wakefield district and city 5 The Diocese of Leeds 6 The cathedral building 7 Worship and mission 8 Moving forward: our strategic framework 9 Our purpose Our mission Our vision Our values Goals and objectives 10 1. Building the body of Christ 2. A partner for mission 3. Maximising our assets for mission 4. A cathedral for the whole diocese Next steps: Bringing the strategy to life 12 Acknowledgements 13 Foreword from the Bishop of Leeds Hope can be a slippery word. It is not the same as optimism. Optimism is disappointed when things don’t turn out the way we had wished; hope takes whatever comes and works with it. Hope faces reality and doesn’t get deflected when times are rough and uncertainty colours everything. Christians are drawn by hope (rooted in the resurrection) and not driven by either wishful thinking or fear. This is why it is so important that Wakefield Cathedral takes so seriously not only the language of hope, but also fleshes it out with vision, goals and objectives. I am writing this as we live through the worship, community and outreach of the extended pandemic caused by Covid-19. cathedral in the diocese and wider world In 2020 we saw all our assumptions about might look different in the post-pandemic the routines of life destroyed – almost in world, but the vision and strategy set out an instant. Expectations about life, finance, in this document boldly sets out how we economics, social interaction were hit hard. can be … whatever the circumstances or Churches found that this irruption of the resources available to us. virus into what we thought was ‘normal’ life threw our certainties aside: churches are all I commend this paper and look forward to about meeting with people for fellowship working with the cathedral in developing its and service, but meeting was the first thing ministry in the years to come. to go. And now, as the future looks very uncertain, we face the challenge of creating and shaping a future that might not look like the past. So, hope is what we need. And hope cannot October 2020 just be a vague word, but must be one filled with intent and depth and substance. The cathedral can demonstrate to the wider world what hope might look and sound like. This hope, rooted in an experience of the love, grace and mercy of God who is no stranger to what we experience now, does not diminish in the face of other change or challenge. God is not a thing that can be manipulated by events. The vision that fires this cathedral is one I wholeheartedly endorse and commit myself to. Firmness is not about obstinate rigidity, but, rather, about confident rootedness. The 3 Introduction from the Dean of Wakefield The Cathedral Chapter began developing this Strategic Vision before the Covid-19 pandemic transformed our national life, including the life of the Church, in March 2020. We had originally intended to launch the Vision at Easter 2020, but that intention was overtaken by our need to respond to the immediate challenges of a national lockdown. As I write, in late autumn 2020, all sorts of challenges still remain. But with challenges come opportunities. The opportunity to launch the Vision at the beginning of Advent, a time when we look forward with such hope to the celebration of coming of God among us, seemed too good to miss. It is my hope and prayer that the Vision, the Jesus challenges all sorts of people in the fruit of consultation, discussion and prayer, Gospels: the religiously self-satisfied, the will challenge all of us who constitute the well-off, the priests in the Jerusalem temple, ‘community of communities’ at Wakefield the Roman governor, even his own followers. Cathedral to respond, in our turn, faithfully ‘Who do you say that I am?’ he asks his and prayerfully to the challenge of Jesus disciples at Caesarea Philippi; ‘Oh, how Christ, seizing opportunities both to proclaim foolish you are, and slow of heart’ he chides and to embody the glorious reality of God’s Cleopas and his companion on the road to kingdom that has come among us. May Emmaus; ‘Do you love me?’ he asks Peter this Vision challenge us to be a place that three times on the shores of Lake Galilee offers doorways, literal and figurative, into a after his resurrection. To be followers of community that is safe and welcoming; may Jesus means being willing to open ourselves it challenge us to be a community that is constantly to Jesus’s questions and his life-giving, and that nourishes and cherishes challenges. But Jesus also offers reassurance: everyone unconditionally; above all, may ‘I am the gate for the sheep,’ he says to this Vision challenge us to live life fully in the uncomprehending Pharisees; ‘I am the God’s spirit and to be a place from which resurrection and the life,’ he says to Martha, God sends us into our city, diocese and mourning the death of her brother Lazarus; beyond to share our unbounded hope, joy ‘Receive the Holy Spirit,’ he says to his and confidence in him. disciples when he appears to them on the evening of his resurrection. To be followers Simon Cowling of Jesus means being prepared to offer that same reassurance - especially, though not November 2020 only, to the doubtful, the grief stricken and the fearful. I am extremely grateful to Canon Jane Evans, Chair of the Wakefield Cathedral Council, for facilitating the development of this Strategic Vision. She has brought her considerable professional experience as well as the perspective of the worldwide church to bear on all our discussion and reflection. 4 Context and opportunities Wakefield district and city Wakefield Cathedral sits at the very heart of traditionally Labour-held seats fell to the the city and district of Wakefield. Conservatives. As such, Wakefield is a focus for some of the most challenging issues The last available data (2018) show that currently facing our nation. the Metropolitan District of Wakefield has a population of 345, 038. Consisting The City of Wakefield (population 76,886 mainly of former coal-mining towns and – 2011 Census) has in recent years faced villages, the district has seen physical and challenges associated with a post-industrial economic development in recent years in context, including a decline in the traditional response to the growing economy of Leeds. high street. The local authority and business Nevertheless, 15,200 people in the district partners are proactively moving to address live in neighbourhoods that are amongst these challenges: recent developments the top 10 most deprived areas in England. include Trinity Walk, the Theatre Royal and (Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019); 92.8% the Ridings shopping centre; Wakefield BID of people in the district identify themselves (Business Improvement District), focusing on as white British; 6.4% identify their religious the regeneration of Wakefield City Centre, identity as ‘Christian’; 24.1% as ‘no religion’; has been accepted by phase 1 of the Future 2% as Muslim; 0.3% as Hindu; 0.2% as High Street Fund; the city and district Buddhist and 6.9% as ‘other’ (2011 census). are home to two national-level cultural institutions in the form of the Yorkshire In the 2016 EU referendum, more than Sculpture Park and the Hepworth Wakefield; 66% of people in Wakefield voted ‘leave’, much work has been done, supported by and in the 2019 general election, Wakefield local churches, to develop the identity of found itself part of the ‘Red Wall’, where the city as a ‘City of Sanctuary’. Within the 5 city is Urban House, one of the UK’s largest The Diocese of Leeds initial accommodation centres for refugees and asylum seekers, located next door to Created in 2014 following the dissolution of Wakefield Prison. the former dioceses of Bradford, Ripon & Leeds and Wakefield, the Diocese of Leeds Wakefield Cathedral, with its is in the unique position of having three prominent location in the city cathedral churches. Working closely and centre and its links with all aspects collegially, all three play an equal role in being the seat of the Bishop and all serve of city and district life, is poised to the whole diocese. help address the challenges and The diocese comprises 656 parishes, seize the opportunities presented grouped into five episcopal areas. Covering by its context. the major conurbations of Leeds and Bradford, the towns and cities of Wakefield, Ripon, Barnsley, Halifax and Huddersfield and hundreds of rural communities particularly in North Yorkshire, the diocese represents a remarkably diverse cross section of national life within its borders. Wakefield Cathedral is committed to playing its distinctive and complementary role as one of the three mother churches of our diocese.