Read Bishop John's Presidential address at Diocesan Synod

Last Saturday I was taking the wedding of my nephew in Lymington.

I get called in to take these services as a kind of family mascot, but it was a lovely thing to do.

I was thinking of how we don't tend to talk these days about something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

So I'm going to talk about them now, in the context of where we are in the diocese at the moment. Something old.

Well of course the gospel is old, in the sense of 2000 years and as powerful as ever.

It's still good news of a love beyond our wildest dreams, and a different life that can make a difference in the places we live and work. Our church buildings are old too, most of them, and yet in better nick now, probably, than for centuries.

Bishop Colin has commissioned a book on how 20 or so churches in our diocese have been adapted for contemporary needs and for the community.

Our congregations tend towards the older age-groups too, and with that come mountains of wisdom and experience, and opportunities for different ministries.

Something old. Something new.

Well there's lots of that.

Have you heard of the Mission Fund which we now have, administered through the Areas? We're using £100,000 of the money the Church Commissioners give us for mission and ministry (nor Share money) and that we've previously used for things like the Olympics Project and the Tourism Project.

But now we've got the Mission Fund that any parish or benefice can apply to for pump priming money.

I've had applications for some really exciting mission projects in my Area and we'll report back in the autumn. Something new: the Mission Action Plans that each deanery has worked hard on and which are now helping us to plan our mission with all this bottom-up wisdom.

A further stage is to take Mission Action Planning to parish and benefice level. New? Well, details of our 2014 year of conferences are now out in the leaflet you've got today.

The first diocesan residential clergy conference for 20 years in March, the LLM conference in June, a great diocesan Gathering for everyone taking place all over Oxford in September.

All part of a Living Faith year focusing on Shaping Confident Collaborative Leadership. New? Well, the Youth and Child Friendly Church Awards are stimulating much interest around the diocese.

Well done to Charlbury for winning the first award. New is Archdeacon Martin Gorick in Oxford and hopefully next week a new Archdeacon of Berkshire will be appointed.

And new in the next two weeks will be 29 new deacons and 29 new priests.

Do you know that we've had over 240 people in the pipeline for ordination this year? A huge number from just one diocese. New news too is that our weekly attendances went up last year by 3% and our Electoral Roles by 6% - good news! And new Messy Churches are springing up all over, and Street Angels and, sadly necessary, new Food Banks.

Lots that's new; lots to celebrate. Something borrowed.

I don't mind borrowing good ideas, do you? It's said only 10% of us have really new ideas; the rest of us borrow and adapt other ideas.

So Mission Action Plans started in York and London (I think) and we've been a bit stand-offish about adopting them.

We talked about Deanery Plans but they were really just about spreading clergy fairly over the deanery, not about how we're going to respond to God's mission movement in our patch and in our time.

So we've borrowed MAPingWe might borrow ideas from two diocesan DVDs as well.

London and Bristol have produced them to explain the financing of the diocese and the CofE - something that always seems to cause confusion.

We've seen their good examples and could adapt them to our own situation. Then there's a Canterbury diocesan booklet on setting up Friends Schemes for our churches which has been much admired around the country.

We've borrowed it and are producing our own.

How very useful Friends schemes can be in drawing in those who love our churches even if they don't go very much on Sundays. I do hope we'll borrow each other's good ideas and adapt them for our own use.

Why reinvent wheels? Perhaps you've had a deanery swapshop of best ideas at a deanery synod meeting.

Presentations, stalls with giveaways, time to wander with a glass in your hand - it makes for a very valuable and enjoyable evening. And something blue - in the sense of something less happy.

I think the same-sex marriage legislation is an own goal both for society and for the Church.

As you'll know from my website statement I've wanted to support permanent, faithful, loving relationships, straight and gay, but I do think gay marriage is a very unfortunate category confusion.

The implications are far reaching and will require much patience and wisdom from the Church as we respond in the manner of Christ. The debate on women bishops has been making the Church feel a bit blue as well since last November.

It moves back to General Synod early in July with a recommendation from the House of Bishops of an approach that has four elements: 1.

a simple Measure allowing women to be bishops, 2.

the repeal of the 1993 Measure and Act of Synod which have been so contentious, 3.

a Declaration by the House of Bishops establishing five clear principles it will follow, together with practical guidelines to provide pastoral and sacramental provision for those opposed, and 4.

a system of independent monitoring to ensure bishops honour the Declaration. This last part of the package, the independent monitoring system, is the new element and something really positive.

So we're asking everyone to compromise and move forward on the basis of a new trust and a new guarantee.

I truly hope this could give us the balance we need. So there we are: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

In other words, 'messy Church', the way it always is.

A great old gospel, many wonderful new things bubbling up, good ideas borrowed, and some things to keep us grounded in harder realities. But this to my mind is the diocese as a 'vibrant Christian community' (this year's Living Faith theme).

Always lots to celebrate; always much to work on; and always the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

What more could we want?+JohnJune 2013