We want the faith of all in spiritual leadership in our diocese to be vibrant, growing, deep, and attractive.

To support them we want our clergy and lay leaders to rediscover the importance of sharing ministry life together. We’ll invite clergy and lay leaders across the diocese to form Benedictine-style networks which we are calling Cairns to create space for the Holy Spirit to move in our lives together.

We hope that these cairns will encourage a sense of solidarity, a deepening of personal faith, mutually encouraging ministry and a stronger experience of well-being; and so put us in the best position to develop inspired leadership for mission.

There will be Cairns throughout the diocese, but we'll start with two different styles:

• Pilot Cairns: These Cairns may be formed within a single substantial parish, or across many benefices. They would meet together about once a month: to eat together, pray together, and study together using materials such as Divine Renovation, a suite of resources that accompany ordained and lay leaders who are dedicated to parish renewal. The Pilot Cairns will be given significant diocesan support as we seek to evaluate the material and the overall approach. There will be nine of them, three in each Archdeaconry. Our hope is that these Pilot Cairns will prove to be an invaluable part of the spiritual revival of those taking part, and a revitalising inspiration for our Diocese. Scroll down to see where those nine Pilot Cairns will be located.

• Cairns: other groupings of clergy and lay leaders will also form across the rest of the diocese. These are likely to be more informal groups, with the option to look at other study material or find alternative ways to support each other. We pray that these too will be key to a deepening of our spiritual life and well-being across our diocese, and lead to a greater revitalisation of our parishes.

Pilot Cairns

Each of our nine pilot Cairns will be comprised of the key ordained and lay leadership from specific combinations of parishes in an area. They'll meet every month for a meal together, and encourage each other through fellowship, prayer and shared study of Scripture. They will initially explore the Divine Renovation set of resources, which is a worldwide ministry coming from the Roman Catholic perspective.

The nine Cairns are:

Isle of Wight:

• Clergy and lay leaders from Cowes, Northwood and Gurnard
• Clergy and lay leaders from Ventnor, Wroxall and Shanklin
• Clergy and lay leaders from Newport, East Cowes, Whippingham and Wootton

Bishop's Waltham Fareham, Gosport and Petersfield:

• Clergy and lay leaders from the Meon Valley parishes
• Clergy and lay leaders from the Western Wards, Fareham (read more about them here)
• The Petersfield deanery chapter

Havant and Portsmouth:

• Deacons from the Havant Deanery
• Clergy and lay leaders from South Central Portsmouth (Cathedral, St Mary's Fratton, Harbour Church, St Luke's Southsea, Holy Spirit Southsea and Church of the Ascension, North End)
• Clergy and lay leaders from Havant (Hayling Island, St Faith's, Bedhampton, Leigh Park and Warren Park)

External professional consultancy, training and coaching will be available to all members of the pilot Cairns (paid for by the Diocese) to help with developing advanced leadership as part of continuing ministerial development.

Thus the leadership of each parish, would further develop their own parish mission action plans to create pathways by which those currently unconnected to church can connect with the Christian message and make their journey towards becoming committed disciples. On development of these plans, each pilot Cairn would be able to apply for around £50,000 (split in any way they feel appropriate across the parishes) of additional financial support from the diocese to support them in their mission, as part of REVITALISE.