Thank you for your patience waiting for an update while I was off recovering from surgery. I’m very excited about the possibilities and energy that have come out of the Visioning Awayday. We started the day talking about the joys and challenges of a multi-parish benefice.
Some highlights from that discussion included the joys of :
- The warmth of welcome in all churches
- A variety is offered
- Greater use of resources
- The weekly team meeting with church wardens and clergy
- Reaching out to those on the edge of society
Some of the challenges listed included:
- The disparity in the relative sizes of the congregations
- Fellowship among congregations
- No common vision as a group of churches
- Too few people spread too thinly (but doing great things)
- Geographical distance
We then talked through our hopes for the future and how we might work together. Out of that discussion (and many flip charts of great ideas) came the Proposed Strategy from Visioning Awayday (2026-2027). There are some excellent ideas for the entire group as well as a few that would work well with certain individual churches. We’ll plan to review this document in a year.
Thank you for all that you do to make these churches such welcoming places for visitors and tourists, and important places of worship serving our communities.