Message from the Deanery Synod Council

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Report of the Work of the North Deanery Synodal Council

June 2024

 

In February of this year, we spoke to you about the proposal to create a new way of working together as Families of Parishes. Our proposal has been accepted by the Archbishop. We also asked you tell us of your hopes as well as your concerns. Thank you to all those who sent in comments. They have been very helpful. In particular you asked us to be better at communicating with you. A small number of comments suggested that what was being done was a waste of time. Others were much more positive and offered their support and commitment in what they saw as a difficult task.

 

What was really encouraging was a desire many of you expressed to become more outward looking and inclusive, a more supportive and welcoming community, particularly to those who may currently feel excluded. We need to be better, you tell us, at being alongside and supportive of young people and families as well as the sick and the poor in our communities. The importance of developing the gifts already present in our parishes, was recognised and the whole issue of the role of women in the Church was raised.

 

A key question was asked: what does it actually mean to be a member of a Family of Parishes? The answer is simple but challenging and the word Family is the key. We are being asked to find effective ways of working together, of sharing resources across what have been traditional parish boundaries. We will then become better at addressing the needs that you have identified, and which are also clearly identified in the Pastoral Plan. It is our task in the Deanery to pray and discern how this is to be done.

 

We are therefore, currently identifying in each family of parishes both what is being done well as those areas which will need development. We will then be able to build on these strengths and address those areas that are seen as weak. It is by sharing our talents and supporting each other in love that we will find the confidence to develop the new skills that will be needed. We are also asked in the Pastoral Plan to find ways of using our resources to better address the mission given to us by Jesus to proclaim the Good News and indeed to rediscover what the Good News is that we are asked to proclaim.

 

We know there will be tensions that will need to be resolved and misunderstandings that will arise. But changes will be necessary if the church is to develop in the way God is asking of us. Jesus, in the parable of the talents, tells us that we all have gifts which are to be used to build his kingdom on earth.

 

With your support we are confident that we will be able to respond to what God is asking of us at this time. The promise of Jesus not to leave us orphans and to be with us on our journey is steadfast and so we can pray with St Paul:

“Glory be to God whose power working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”