PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Bishop Jonathan’s Presidential Address combined a focus on the life of St David and the imminent start of Lent with comments on the global response to the war in Ukraine. He commented on the recent confrontation between Presidents Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office, and suggested that we should pray that leaders would gain wisdom and be truly be able to hear each other’s points of view. He also mentioned some words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book ‘Life Together’ which would be relevant for Lent and also as we seek to grow and witness as the Body of Christ. You can read extracts from it here.

MATTERS ARISING

Bishop Jonathan gave an update on our application to the Dioceses Commission for a suffragan Bishop of the Isle of Wight, which was debated at the previous Synod meeting. The response had been a letter that said our application “requires further consideration”. Bishop Jonathan has a chance to make the case again at a meeting on March 10.

SAFEGUARDING

Head of Safeguarding Emily Hassan updated synod members on recent developments, including the debates in General Synod about the Makin Report and the call for safeguarding to be made independent of the Church. She referred to the recent review of those individuals named and criticised in the Makin Report, which had resulted in applications being made for disciplinary proceedings to be brought against 10 senior clergy (none from our diocese). Emily also went through how safeguarding in the CofE had developed over the past 10 years, to show how far we had come.

With regard to the independence of safeguarding, she explained to synod members that the General Synod had voted for model 3 to be implemented (which means independent oversight/scrutiny of safeguarding in the CofE) and then the CofE would work towards model 4 (where diocesan safeguarding officers would be employed by an external body). She said this was the best outcome we could have hoped for, as there was no evidence yet that model 4 would mean reduced risk for children, young people and vulnerable adults. Therefore more work should be done on this.

She mentioned the strengths-based safeguarding audit by consultancy INEQE, which would include a comprehensive survey which starts now, and a series of in-person interviews in June. The online survey will include different sets of questions for different stakeholders, and Emily mentioned that those with multiple roles can fill out multiple surveys, as appropriate. To fill in this survey, click here.

FINANCE

Head of Finance Elaine Coe shared some details from the management report and parish share report that had been circulated ahead of the meeting. She explained how our operating deficit for the year to December 2024 was £973k, and how that was within the budget scenarios that had been outlined in advance. She also shared that the parish share collection rate for 2024 was 86.4%, which was up on 84.4% in 2023. Every single parish had contributed something during the year, and 75 % of parishes had paid everything they’d been requested to pay.

Elaine also went through progress on the 2025 budget, where the deficit was predicted to be £638k (if 100% of parish share was collected) or £1,284K (if 88% of parish share is collected). Diocesan staff are still in conversations with 13 parishes about the amount requested in parish share, but 89.8% has now been allocated.

There are some proposals to change the way dioceses are funded from 2026, which will go to General Synod in July. That could involve an increase of Lowest Income Communities (LINC) Funding, the removal of funds paid to the national Church under ‘votes 2-5’, the ‘vote 1’ funding being replaced by a nationwide training fund, and a standard clergy stipend set nationally.

You can download Elaine's finance presentation from here.

NET ZERO CARBON CONFERENCE

Environment officer David Cain reported back on the net zero carbon conference that had taken place in our cathedral in January, which had gathered together clergy and lay people from Portsmouth, Guildford and Chichester dioceses to consider how to become net zero carbon and to conserve God’s creation. You can read more about it here. The thinking is that this could become an annual event, with 17 January 2026 already pencilled in for next year.

GENERAL SYNOD

The vicar of St Faith’s, Lee-on-the-Solent, the Rev Paul Chamberlain, one of our delegates to the Church of England’s General Synod, reported back on the February meeting in London. He also talked about synod’s discussion of safeguarding, mentioning the debate on the Makin Report, and the discussion about independence of safeguarding. He also thought synod members had made the right choice by opting for model 3, with model 4 potentially to come.

He also mentioned the debates on:

• The Clergy Conduct Measure, which will replace the Clergy Discipline Measure.
• A debate on the governance of the national Church of England.
• A revised Mission and Pastoral Measure.
• Greater involvement for young adults in General Synod discussions, which Bishop Jonathan had been involved with.
• A change in how we appoint diocesan bishops

and he commended this blog by Tim Wyatt to use to consider decisions made by synod members in February.

REJUVENATE STRATEGY

The Ven Steve Daughtery, Archdeacon of the Isle of Wight, and the Rev Andrew Hargreaves, our interim director of Ministry and Discipleship, introduced interviews and videos showcasing progress on our rejuvenate strategy. They reminded us that the strategy is composed of three parts: Revive, Revitalise and Renew, with the emphasis on the Revive element, re-invigorating the spiritual life of clergy and lay leaders within the diocese. More details are on portsmouth.anglican.org/strategy

Andrew showed us a diagram of his newly-formed Ministry and Discipleship team (which is here) and introduced the three elements as follows:

REVIVE

Andrew introduced the Rev Neil Smart, our Lead for Revive, whose role will be to help those in

spiritual leadership in our diocese to have faith that is vibrant, growing, deep, and attractive. Among those responsibilities will be implementing the bishop’s vision for ‘Cairns’, which are small groups of worshippers who meet to eat, study and pray together. A small number of ‘Pilot Cairns’ have been set up with strategic funding, which have specific material to study and whose development will be evaluated. Neil said his wish is that God deepens the discipleship of worshippers across the diocese.

Andrew also introduced the Rev Annie McCabe and the Rev Mike Terry, who are both involved with groups that are part of the Pilot Cairns scheme – Annie is part of a ‘central Portsmouth’ group and Mike is part of a ‘Western Wards of Fareham’ group. Their groups will study Divine Renovation together, and each work towards a missional plan that could attracts £50k of strategic funding. Annie’s group had already met three times and included elements from every tradition in the Church of England. Mike’s group had been meeting for 20 years, and was formed of four parishes that had formed a covenanted partnership. The four parishes are “independent but inter-dependent.”

More details are on portsmouth.anglican.org/Revive

REVITALISE

Andrew introduced a video recorded by the Rev Andrew Axon, our Lead for Revitalise, who will help parishes to develop pathways to discipleship for those currently unconnected with church. You can watch it below:

Andrew introduced Emma Sneddon, who is our diocese’s Anna Chaplaincy co-ordinator. She explained how older people are the Church of today and need spiritual support and development, and that there are 7,000 care home residents in our diocese. Anna Chaplaincy is therefore outward-facing and missional. There are now 54 licensed Anna Chaplains in our diocese with another 10 on the way. Among other things, they can also help to facilitate reconciliation across generations. Details on portsmouth.anglican.org/anna

He introduced Heather Powney, who is our diocese’s new Children, Youth and Families Officer, who has previous experience working in schools and churches. She is visiting children and youth workers, paid and voluntary, around the diocese and hopes to find space where they can gather and support each other. She would love to see children and young people themselves sharing the gospel with others. Find out more on portsmouth.anglican.org/what-we-do/children-young-people/

He introduced the Rev Julie Jackson, who is one of those running Choir Church projects across our diocese. She leads one from St Mary’s Church, Fratton, which involves going into two local schools to run after-school singing groups. Some of the songs they sing are not worship songs, and there is a need to help some children to realise they are loved and valued. There are similar projects being run from St Faith’s Church, Havant, and St Michael’s Church, Paulsgrove. Find out more on portsmouth.anglican.org/choirchurch

Andrew shared a video from Youthscape, the organisation that will be running training for our clergy in youthwork. The intention is to train cohorts of 10 clergy at a time, over six weeks from July 2025, and encourage them to develop youth work in their churches – it applies even to those parishes that currently have no young people. There would be five cohorts in all, so a total of 50 clergy could be trained.

You can see that video on www.youthscape.co.uk/yse