Diocesan Synod, November 2023

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Bishop Jonathan gave his Presidential Address as part of the Eucharist in our cathedral. He spoke from Psalm 94 and touched on the current conflict between Israel and Gaza, the Covid inquiry, our diocesan budget and the need to speak out against injustice. You can read the full text of his speech here.

SAFEGUARDING

Interim Diocesan Secretary Philip Poulter spoke about safeguarding issues on behalf of our safeguarding manager Emily Hassan. He mentioned interviews held in our diocese by Professor Alexis Jay on behalf of the Future of Independent Safeguarding programme. He told synod members that her suggestions could involve responsibility for safeguarding being taken out of the hands of the Church of England, but was reassured we would still have a safeguarding team embedded in our diocese.

DEANERY PLAN UPDATES: ISLE OF WIGHT

Isle of Wight area dean the Ven Steve Daughtery presented an update to the Isle of Wight Deanery Plan, 12 months after it was originally submitted. You can see his presentation here. He outlined some of the issues facing the island – the diminishing number of worshippers, their age profile and the challenges of church buildings and finances. He then outlined an approach to mission that would involve:

Revive: personal and corporate spiritual growth that would deepen discipleship;
Revitalise: helping our existing churches to grow younger and to reach those currently unconnected with church. That would involve recruiting more ministers, lay and ordained, and helping churches to provide stepping stones by which the unchurched might discover faith;
Renew: kick-starting the presence of the Church is some places where new congregations could be planted or transplanted from elsewhere. This includes the projects to refurbish the interior of Newport Minster and the project to renew the churches in Ryde.

DEANERY PLAN UPDATES: PETERSFIELD

Vanda Leary, the lay chair of Petersfield deanery, updated synod members on the deanery plan for her deanery, 12 months after it was originally shared. One change was the recruitment of three new priests-in-charge and one self-supporting curate, which had made a huge difference. And the new style of appointments, with 70% parish and 30% deanery focus, had begun. Canon Peter Sutton’s deanery focus is on lay vocation/training, the Rev Clare Welham’s is on Growing Faith and the Rev Bruce Deans' focus is on mission and evangelism.

DIOCESAN BUDGET 2024

Financial controller Elaine Aplin presented details of our diocesan budget for 2024. Her report to Synod members is here and her presentation is here. Her overview for 2023 included these points:

Our forecast deficit for 2023 is £235,000;
Our forecast parish share collection rate for 2023 is 84.8 per cent;
Our deficit is lower than those projected for other dioceses in 2023;
A diocesan finance review has been instigated and our diocese is part of the pilot project.

The 2024 budget was prepared in line with the Audit Committee’s recommendation of a five per cent increase in parish share, and a five per cent increase in stipends and salaries. There would be a focus on increasing parish share collection rates, so three different models were presented, assuming a 95%, 92% and 88% collection rate in 2024.

Expectations for 2025-26 assumed that our current drive to appoint new clergy would have stabilised, that our parish share review process would be complete, and that inflation stabilises, plus some other large items of expenditure would have been completed.

Synod members discussed elements of the budget. Among the points made was that Bishop Jonathan had urged the House of Bishops to offer national strategic funding to support stipends for parish clergy, as well as church-planting and other innovative projects – to truly reflect the Church’s mixed ecology of mission and ministry.

Synod members approved the budget for 2024, authorising that the Diocesan Board of Finance seeks to raise £5,223,000 in parish share during the year.

NET ZERO CARBON ACTION PLAN

Interim Diocesan Secretary Philip Poulter explained that the national Church’s roadmap towards net zero carbon by 2030 included the requirement for dioceses to approve an action plan by the end of 2023, which would represent our proposals to tackle carbon emissions. Some initial funding helped pay for DAC secretary David Cain to also be appointed as our diocesan environmental officer, with a brief to promote net zero carbon. There was also external funding for a consortium including Guildford, Portsmouth and Chichester dioceses to employ a programme manager to oversee this work.

Synod members considered our net zero carbon action plan, which can be found here and discussed possible ways to reduce carbon emissions in our churches and church schools. They voted to welcome and adopt our net zero carbon action plan. Read more about what our diocese is doing on this issue here.

BISHOP’S COUNCIL AND DIOCESAN STAFF TEAM UPDATE

Interim Diocesan Secretary Philip Poulter told synod members that many of the issues discussed by our Bishop’s Council recently were being considered under other headings in this Diocesan Synod.

He updated members on some of the newer appointments and moves within the staff team. Members also voted to approve the allocation of seats for Diocesan Synod elections in 2024, which you can read here.

STRATEGIC FUNDING UPDATE

Strategic programme manager Vanda Leary presented an update on the strategic funding that our diocese is receiving from the national Church of England. You can read her report here.

Among the items discussed were:

The ‘reset’ of the SDF3 bid, which involves Gosport North, Gosport South and Newport: this had been agreed by the SMMI Board, with an extension of the schedule and adjusted targets;
The formal reviews of the SDF2 bid, which involves St Margaret’s, Southsea, and St Luke’s, Southsea, with a link person from the national Church;
The approval of funding towards the initial revitalisation of congregations on the Isle of Wight, with specific funding for the five churches in Ryde;
Plans for a major bid for funding across the diocese in 2024, which would be linked to the plans created by each of our deaneries.

STANDING ORDERS REVISION

The chair of the House of Clergy, Canon Bob White, presented revised rules for deanery synods, as part of our Standing Orders for Diocesan Synod, which you can read here. Synod members voted unanimously to accept them.

GENERAL SYNOD UPDATE

General Synod member the Rev Andrew Hargreaves updated our Diocesan Synod on what had taken place at the July meeting of the Church’s national decision-making body. Among the items considered were:

Andrew updated synod members on what happened in July’s General Synod meeting about Living in Love and Faith process, and since then. He also previewed what could happen at November’s General Synod meeting, where this issue is likely to dominate the agenda, and acknowledged the pain of disagreeing with Bishop Jonathan and other colleagues. You can see the papers for November’s General Synod meeting here.

LIVING IN LOVE AND FAITH UPDATE

Bishop Jonathan offered his view on Living in Love and Faith, promising that he would not be trying to win others around to his view. He suggested that if those who disagreed on this issue could hold onto each other as followers of Jesus, this model of differentiated unity was something that could help to promote the gospel message.

For more information about the work of our Diocesan Synod, click here