The Rt Revd Andrew Watson became the Bishop of Guildford 10 years ago this month and took the opportunity to reflect on his the last 10 years in his Presidential Address at Saturday's Diocesan Synod:
"Ten years ago this month I became the Bishop of Guildford in a strange legal ceremony in the Crypt of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, famous for its 'Bow Bells'. I didn’t properly take up my post till the beginning of 2015, so I don’t count the 10th anniversary as especially significant. But it gives me the opportunity to share a personal reflection on where we’ve come from in the past ten years, where we are now, and a little of where we may be going next – which I hope will be helpful at the start of this new Triennium.
"Reflecting back over the past decade, it seems obvious to divide it into three distinct eras: pre-Covid, Covid, and post-Covid. The global pandemic had such a revolutionary impact on every aspect of our lives, not least our life as a Church, that it will always be regarded as one of the epoch-making moments of the 21st century.
"Pre-Covid, back in early 2015, we gathered together a diverse and creative group from around the Diocese to work on the first bullet-point of my episcopal job description: ‘to review the diocese’s current aspirations set out in ‘Common Purpose’ and to shape a vision for the gospel message and church which serves a diverse society’ – and a few of you were part of that group.
It had the best possible agenda at every meeting, which went something like this: ‘What’s been happening? What’s happening now? And what do we do next?’ And following a major listening exercise around the diocese, in which 1500 people participated, we came up with Transforming Church, Transforming Lives (TCTL).
"TCTL, as it came to be known, was launched to the clergy in 2016 in a large marquee in front of the Guildford Cathedral and was greeted with enthusiasm. People warmed to the focus on Transformation, because of a shared sense that the best thing in Christian ministry is to witness lives transformed by the gospel of Christ, and communities transformed through the witness of God’s people within them. They were positive about an approach which recognised and celebrated the diversity of the diocese, putting forward a framework for discussion not a blueprint for implementation. And they also liked the idea of returning to their parishes with a clearer mandate to focus on vision, around the drawing together of a Church Development Plan.
"We also agreed on twelve goals through the TCTL process, covering almost every aspect of our life together, from children’s work to communications, church buildings to overseas mission. Some of those goals were very specific: developing a hundred new worshipping communities by 2027; growing the number of clergy by 50% by 2020; and it was exciting to see how quickly we reached the target of 100 new worshipping communities, as many of our parishes developed some fresh areas of outreach - whether a new midweek congregation, a Messy Church group, or a service in a care home. Nationally, over that time it was also exciting to witness a growth in ordinand numbers. We didn’t quite make 50%, but we got up to 43%, from 400 and something a year to over 600.
"At the same time, we were witnessing some significant changes to the senior team, including the appointment of a new Diocesan Secretary in Peter Coles and Guildford’s first female bishop in Bishop Jo. Under Peter’s leadership, we brought the central team together into one place, Church House Guildford, and then undertook a review of our central services, on the basis that the sole purpose of Church House was to support our parishes, their churches, chaplaincies and schools. It was a necessary exercise, but also a painful one, with a significant number of redundancies. In particular, we became aware of how much we were subsidising our local authorities through the then set-up of our Community Engagement Team and reshaped that aspect of our ministry completely. And it was also during that time that the idea of Mission Enablers and the Parish Needs Process began to develop.
"And then Covid came along. And all of a sudden old dogs like me had to learn a whole host of new tricks. Clergy and laity across the diocese responded brilliantly, quickly learning new tricks themselves so as to keep the home fires burning. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and good old-fashioned Phone trees came into their own, as ways of keeping connected. Churches developed local partnerships to reach out to the most lonely and deprived in their communities. And there were huge challenges, not least the deaths of some dearly loved members of our church communities, and the debilitating effects of long Covid. But there were also opportunities for churches to rethink their vision and priorities.
"As part of that rethink, we began to recognise that the 12 goals of TCTL were all very well, but no one could remember them – so we boiled them down to three: Growing Disciples, Growing Diversity and Growing Community. We also recognised a second flaw in our original thinking, which was that the Church Development Plans were extremely patchy – some of them clearly thought through and prayed over, others giving the appearance of having been written on the back of an envelope the night before they were due. How could we create a greater sense of partnership between the coalface and those in our central team, was the question, creating a culture of ‘us and us’ rather than ‘them and us’ in our shared endeavour to be a TCTL? And how could we get better at sharing good practice between the parishes, given that the real wisdom is generally out there, rather than held in some depository in Church House, or down the road at Willow Grange?
"Post-Covid, our worshipping numbers were well down, at only around 75% of where they’d been before. Some had died, others had lost confidence and still others had simply got out of the habit of going to church. Nationally, ordinand numbers plummeted too, and have still not properly recovered.
It was during that time, though, that our Parish Needs Process began in earnest: the first-ever attempt to bring the parish and the centre together in quite such a systematic way. There was plenty of learning there too, and the learning continues. But very quickly some significant benefits began to emerge. For one thing, our training became much more focussed, being determined by the real needs on the ground, rather than a scattergun approach from the centre. For another, the fragility of a number of our parishes became far more evident, leading us to deploy a range of different approaches so as to secure healthy, viable ministry for the future. And for third, the synergy between parishes – where one could learn from the experience of another – became increasingly significant.
"As the Mission Enablers started reporting back, it also became clear that there were some real gaps in our mission strategy and approach to vocations. For one thing, we were failing to connect with the large majority of young people across the diocese. For another, we needed new vocational pathways so as to raise up more theologically-trained lay leaders and a broader cohort of ordinands. And during the course of this Diocesan Synod, we will be receiving regular updates from our new Youth Catalyst scheme (largely funded by the central Church of England) and from our Local Ministry Programme, and will need to get used to phrases like ‘Caleb ordinands’ (i.e. those who start their training in their 60s) and LAMS (i.e. ‘Lay Associate Ministers’).
"Now all of this, praise God, is beginning to bear some significant fruit. We have had three years of solid growth since 2020, and our numbers are now getting close to 2018 levels, placing us top of the table of dioceses in the country if you’re feeling competitive, or if the Bishop of Guildford is needing cheering up after a difficult day! And we’re also experiencing a welcome rise in our vocations to both lay and ordained ministries, on top of the boost that will be provided once our Caleb ordinands start coming through.
"On the wider front, we are grateful for the work of our Diocesan Board of Education in overseeing our church schools, and will receive periodic reports from Alex Tear, our Director of Education, not least at a time when the new government is rethinking the business of academisation; and we also give thanks for the appointment of Bob Cooper as our new Dean, who will be taking up his post in January, and also for Stuart Beake and the team who have been steering our Cathedral through some choppy waters. And meanwhile, Church House Guildford is on the move once again, relocating onto the Cathedral site following the restructuring of the central team and the new patterns of hybrid working since Covid – which will bring in considerable savings in the long term.
"But there are, of course, some brutal facts here too as we look to the future – some of our churches that continue to struggle to keep their heads above water, whether missionally, financially or both and, most especially our continuing disunity over Living in Love and Faith and the recent fall-out from the Makin Review, including the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Living in Love and Faith will return to this Synod in the Spring, and meanwhile, I give thanks for the graciousness and generosity of so many in this diocese who take opposing views in these matters. The Makin Review is clearly a deeply troubling document, not least personally in my unusual role: and I would value your prayers for endurance, integrity and wisdom. And meanwhile, I’m sure you’ll join with me in praying for all victims of abuse, and in recognising the magnificent work of our Parish Safeguarding Advisers in the parishes and our excellent safeguarding team at Church House.
"To finish with, I’ve been reflecting over the past week on Psalm 46, one of the Psalms for last Monday’s Morning Prayer, whose metrical version has been rather improbably set to the Dambusters March!
"It’s a Psalm written in the midst of global turmoil: ‘The nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken’. But it’s equally a Psalm of extraordinary trust: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble’. And though this must be one of the most familiar verses in the whole Old Testament, I was struck afresh by verse 10: ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth’.
"It's partly, perhaps, because it’s a brilliant example of that hope that I addressed in my homily this morning – confronting brutal facts, but never losing faith that we – ultimately that God – will prevail in the end. But it’s also that I noticed for the first time, that this is a prophetic word from God Himself during the Psalmist’s reflections.
"And with both world and church in real turmoil right now – perhaps we might hear that word again, spoken prophetically into our Synod this morning, and then have a few moments of stillness to strengthen our faith and our awareness of God’s presence:
"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.'"
- The Rt Revd Andrew Watson, Bishop of Guildford at Diocesan Synod Saturday 23 November 2024