Empowering and supporting our Diocesan mission.
Following much prayer, consideration and consultation between clergy and laity it was decided to embark on a special fundraising initiative, which has been underway since early 2024. The Enabling Our Mission campaign provides us with a unique opportunity to help our parishes, schools, and chaplaincies to be better supported in becoming more outward looking and missionary, while also striving to ensure that the fewer priests now available for active ministry across the diocese are best able to serve our communities.
This initiative underpins the three pastoral priorities I have for our diocese: to help children and young people to encounter God’s love and to become active disciples of Christ Jesus in the life and mission of the Church; to offer support and formation to parishioners to enable them to be confident agents of missionary discipleship, both within their parish and wider society; and thirdly, ongoing support for our clergy to free them up to be pastors, leaders and enablers of mission.
The campaign will ensure we have the funds to finance all these priorities, while also ensuring parishes receive a direct share of the funds raised, so they have the resources to grow in their relationship with Christ and in confidence and ability to be missionary. The campaign is seeking to raise £8 million over the next two years and we hope every can parish will take part, allowing us to achieve our shared vision for the Diocese. We look forward to keeping you up to date with the impact of your support.
To thrive, a parish must fully embrace its missionary identity. Through this campaign, we want to equip our priests and lay leaders with the tools and coaching they need to lead a move to mission, helping others come to know and follow Jesus. We also want to provide funding for parishes to undertake mission initiatives tailored to their parish’s unique
circumstances. Through the Mission Enabling Fund (MEF), a recently established programme, we hope to encourage even more parishes to engage in and develop their own mission initiatives. The MEF is open to applications for funding from parishes, deaneries, and diocesan departments
who meet the set guidelines. It will:
The MEF is open to applications for funding from parishes, deaneries, and diocesan departments who meet the set guidelines. It will:
• Support the work we conduct in our 86 schools, running annual retreats, organising pilgrimages and events (e.g. World Youth Day), and equipping our parishes to run inspiring and engaging initiatives for different age brackets.
• Train volunteers and lay leaders through workshops and events which empower them to engage in tasks they are both talented and passionate about (e.g. Called and Gifted workshops)
• Provide direct funding and support for parishes to start running initiatives that invite those outside the Church, and those who have lapsed, to explore faith and its relevance today (e.g. Alpha, Sycamore).
Our priests have always been central to the goals of the Church and even with increased lay participation in the various functions of the Diocese, our team of 52 priests remains one of our core resources. We are also blessed with a team of Permanent Deacons who play an important role in the mission of our parishes and Chaplaincies (hospital, university, prison, etc).
While we already provide an established programme of support for our priests (from formation and into retirement), we want to try and alleviate their ever growing workload by:
• Decreasing the amount of time our clergy spend in administrative and clerical work by establishing Deanery Hubs so that they can focus on pastoral and spiritual duties in the critical service of our community.
• Investing in Diocesan-wide administrative initiatives (e.g., updating and maintaining online communications) so that the burden of these tasks is centralised, reducing the load on our parishes.
• Equipping our laity and our clergy (including Deacons) with the latest in-service training, so that they can become more missionary and share the responsibility of the evangelising mission of the Church.
Parishes are at the centre of our faith community and sacramental life, and we want to ensure they can continue to play that vital role. This means having the funds to ensurephysical buildings and infrastructure are adequate for today’s needs.
This campaign will:
• Restore churches and community areas so that every person has a chance to grow in faith in a welcoming and well-equipped place of worship.
• Fund and support programmes that meet local faith formation needs, such as marriage care, parenting teens, growing in prayer.
• Support ongoing formation for parish catechists and nurturing emerging and established lay leaders and volunteers, strengthening long-term relationships with parishioners and recognising their impact, discipleship, and active charity.
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