Bishop John's Presidential address 16.11.13

I wonder what you feel is in the air, in terms of Church and faith and society at present? What's floating around?One of the things, I suspect, is anxiety.

Anxiety about finance, the parish share, paying for what we want to do to glorify God, to share the Good News, to serve our communities.

We have the money of course, but not always the will to release it from our pockets. Then there's anxiety about church attendance, which is becoming increasingly erratic.

Coming to church even once or twice a month is the new regular.

Perhaps we need to stop beating ourselves up about it, but nevertheless declining Sunday attendance is not the story we want told by the media. Then there's anxiety about our secular culture where Christian assumptions are increasingly absent and Christian standpoints often receive open hostility.

I think the situation is rather more complex and that we actually live in a post-secular culture where spirituality is much more fluid and diversified.

But there's no denying life is very different from how it was when I was ordained. So there's lots of anxiety in the air.

But faith is used to that.

And it has an answer.

The phrase most often on Jesus' lips in the gospels is 'Do not be afraid. ' He knew fear was a perennial human dilemma and he put himself right in its path.

'Don't be afraid.

Perfect love casts out fear'.

And we have perfect love, in Jesus.

Faith, not fear, is our centre-point, our sacred centre. Our confidence after all, isn't in the Church of England; it's in God.

The CofE isn't the last word.

It's a very good word, and a great gift to this country, but let's keep things in perspective.

The Kingdom of God is unstoppable.

We just have to hang in there, faithfully, in our day and serve the Kingdom, on which Jesus cut the ribbon and declared it open. And there are so many good things going on as well.

We've had some funding for an independent evaluation of Living Faith which has shown the very encouraging impact our strategic framework has had.

We'll come back to that next Synod as we look ahead.

The Mission Action Planning process has gone well and demonstrated that local ownership of mission is at the heart of diocesan processes.

Mission planning isn't top-down; it's top-supported, because it's local.

Ordinands.

We have over 200 people on the journey.

Why is God calling so many excellent candidates into ordained ministry in this diocese? Because God believes in God's Church.

New appointments in the diocese.

I had one of my suppers for newly arrived clergy on Thursday and again rejoiced that so many able servant-leaders are being drawn to us.

The re-ordering of churches for both worship and community use.

There are wonderful examples of imaginative schemes all over the diocese; did you notice what happened in Stadhampton last month? But I'm constantly tripping over fantastic plans everywhere.

We have sell-out conferences that really seem to be helping - Leading Your Church into Growth,

, next years three conferences on the Imagining Faith theme, and so on.

And looking wider there's also much to encourage:I'm more confident than I have been for some time that General Synod might be able to see through the women bishops legislation starting next week and then hopefully through by next summer.

What a delight that would be!The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is making a real impact on issues that resonate with the public - banking excesses, payday loans and credit unions, restraint at Christmas, Catholic social teaching on the common good, and so on.

He's the right man at the right time (obviously very well trained at Cranmer Hall…. )And then there are all the encouraging things nationwide that have arisen not from central policies but from local initiatives, and are really making a difference - Messy Church is being messy everywhere, food banks are regrettably thriving in every large town and city, street angels have flown in to loads of town centres and received much praise from the police, Open the Book has enabled hundreds of ordinary Christians to marry their love of the Bible to their love of children.

And there are now around a thousand Fresh Expressions of church working out new ways of meeting, exploring and serving - which involve about the number of people in a whole new diocese. So lots to encourage.

But the first word I used was anxiety and the first subject I attached that word to was finance.

So I want us to have a look at the new DVD we've produced on money and mission.

You may have seen it already, but if so, all to the good, because I think you see more the second time through.

Many thanks to Phil Hind and Sarah Meyrick for producing it.

We did it very cheaply (for less than £200), aware of financial constraints, but it seems to me to have a simple message and to tell it well.

Please use it in PCCs, deanery synods, anywhere that people gather - pubs, leisure centres - no, perhaps not, but wherever you think it might be useful. In the meantime - 'do not be afraid. '