Bishop's rallying cry to Diocese to seek continued growth

The Bishop was speaking recently to the latest gathering of the Diocesan Synod, the main decision-making body of any diocese, where clergy and laity work together to guide its mission and governance.

The Synod had their regular meeting on Saturday, with a particular focus on discernment of a new vision for the Diocese. That new vision will build on the impact of the current ‘Vision 2026: Healthy Churches Transforming Communities’ as it enters its final phase, following a period of sustained growth for the past decade.

When it launches towards the end of next year, the new vision will take the Diocese to 2033 – a significant moment as it will mark 2000 years since Christ’s death and resurrection.

While being realistic about challenges the church still faces, Bishop Philip was laser-focused on the vital importance of Jesus and His joyful message being shared with the people of Lancashire at every opportunity.

In fact, ‘joy’ was at the heart of the Bishop’s speech with the word (or a variation) appearing 18 times as he called on every parish to be ‘joyful communities’ of the faithful making the love of Jesus known.

Bishop Philip said: “Any Diocesan vision must have Jesus at the centre. We are joyful followers of him. We believe in Jesus and the Parish as the best means available to us to declare Jesus. Nobody is beyond the radar of our ministry.

“We treasure our schools to form the young in the faith. We value stipendiary clergy to declare Jesus in word and sacrament. We love our buildings because they point us to the divine.

“And above all we need joyful communities of faithful lay Christians in every part of the Diocese who can make known the love of Jesus through their worship and fellowship, through their commitment and generosity, through their lives of service and their new congregations.”

The Bishop continued: “This new vision is not about what we are going to do for Jesus. It is about what Jesus has already done for us. And so it is about what Jesus is still doing for us through the Holy Spirit here, now in Lancashire. How we hear that and where we join in.”

Bishop Philip also pointed to plans put or being put in place to underpin this future work including support for clergy in the shape of an Assistant Archdeacon for Clergy Wellbeing; funding from the national church to enable regular sabbaticals and the single national stipend recently agreed by General Synod.

While support from the national church – which includes an award last year of £25.5m for mission and evangelism projects for all ages – was ‘good news’ for the Diocese according to Bishop Philip, he also had encouraging news about ways ‘we are also helping ourselves’ through giving and through a refusal to plan for decline.

He said: “The sustained giving from ordinary laymen and women in this diocese has been beautiful and heroic. We are one of just two dioceses in the country whose share income increased in 2024.”

“Today, as we discern our vision, let’s imagine a county filled with wells of joy. May every single one of our parishes, our schools, our chaplaincies be a well of joy, flowing over with the life and love and saving power of Jesus.

Bishop Philip added: “The world says the church is a busted flush; faith in an interventionist God crazy superstition; belief in the power of prayer for the deluded. And they are wrong.

“Many Christians are tempted to despair, to believe the lies that the game is over and that we need to reduce, cut back, plan for decline. And they are wrong.

“So let’s keep our vision big as we discern who the Lord is calling us to be as his people in Lancashire. Our task is not to tinker or maintain or to survive. It is to transform, to change lives, to let justice roll down like a river and righteousness like an everlasting stream, to revivify arid lives with the water of life that is Jesus.

“As we join in with his work, may every single person in Lancashire draw deeply from the well of salvation that is Jesus and in so doing find life.”