Missional Renewal Update

This is a lightly edited copy of the report provided to members of Diocesan Synod in May 2024. 

Purpose of the Structures Working Group

The primary purpose of the SWG, as articulated in its Terms of Reference, is to

…hold up an honest mirror to the structures and procedures of the Diocese and to critically examine what is working and not working. The SWG will make practical recommendations on restructuring or changes needed to enable the Diocese to adapt nimbly to serve Christ’s mission, now and in the generations to come. This work will be grounded in the 5 Marks of Mission.

Working Group Membership

The working group is chaired by Bev Biccum. Other members of the working group include Rick Pallen, The Very Rev. David Tiessen, The Ven. Christopher Parsons, and Andrew Stephens-Rennie. The committee is looking to replenish its membership after Synod. 

Evolution of Our Work Since Synod 2023

At last year’s special session of Synod, two resolutions were passed that impacted the work of the Structures Working Group. In adopting provisional diocesan Values, Vision, and Mission and an Implementation Plan, Synod provided additional shape, direction, and priority to our group’s work. At a high level, the Working Group oversees work that will help our diocesan community of communities to more faithfully and effectively live into its mission. This work takes place at both parish and diocesan levels, and includes: 

• Hiring a coordinator to facilitate the work of missional renewal
• Facilitating parish-led discernment processes in service of the following goals:
• Providing a reality check (where are we now?)
• Identifying community gifts and the world’s needs
• Setting and prioritizing missional objectives by discerning how God is inviting each community to use its gifts in response to the world’s needs
• Providing specific support to parishes wishing to set and prioritize missional objectives through
• Offering focused leadership formation opportunities 
• Compiling, developing and sharing tools for parishes 
• Seeding imagination through examples and case studies of imaginative, possible, and proven ministry transformations

A detailed view of this work and our progress to-date is included in the attached Implementation Plan Update. 

Highlights of Work Since Synod 2023

Supporting Baptismal Ministry

In discussing the Implementation Plan at the Special Synod in May 2023, delegates indicated a desire to be engaged in an ongoing way in this work. The Working Group has made it our goal – and worked with Diocesan staff – to engage with people throughout the Diocese as an intentional part of informing and evolving the implementation of this plan. This engagement has included consultation with and feedback from the Bishop and Diocesan Staff, Diocesan Council, BARDs, Clergy, Regional Councils, and increasingly, congregations and individuals through resources designed to support baptismal ministry, and the ministry of local congregations. 

We have worked with Diocesan Staff to ensure the provision of more learning opportunities related to Implementation Plan priorities including:

• New workshops to support lay people in their baptismal ministry: 
• Crafting and Leading Intercessions, 
• Creating Bulletins Workshop, 
• Gospel-Based Discipleship, 
• When Church Stops Working Book Study
  
  
• Upcoming courses to support congregational development: 
• Welcoming New Members with Intention (intro scheduled for June 10 & 11 with an expanded version to follow), 
• Provincial School for Parish Development (cohort beginning in September 2024), 
• Pray Without Ceasing: Leading Morning and Evening Prayer (dates TBD)

Supporting Congregations through Discernment

Working with the Director of Missional Renewal, we have developed tools to assist congregations in living into their sense of God’s invitation, through holding up an honest mirror, reflecting on who they are in this moment, and what God might be calling them into. These tools are being rolled out on a trial basis in a number of congregations, with full rollout coming later this year

• There are ten congregations who have begun working with these tools: St. Michael’s Cathedral, St. Edward’s Oliver, St. Christopher’ Osoyoos,  St. Saviour’s Penticton, St. Andrew’s Trail, St. David’s Castlegar, St. Stephen’s New Denver, St. John’s Fruitvale, St. Paul’s Salmo, and Christ Church Creston. 

Communications & Parish Support

Through congregational consultation, we have begun to identify needs for communications support. This includes support for congregations in their own communications activities (websites, advertisements, writing copy, prioritizing messaging). There has also been an articulated need for improved diocesan communications – specifically the usability of the website. Diocesan Staff has prioritized areas of the website that directly impact congregations and their leaders. While started, this work is not yet finished. Significant updates have been made to the following pages: 

• Clergy Resources 
• Emergency Preparedness, 
• Forms for Parish Administration, 
• Liturgical Resources, 
• Missional Renewal, 
• Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation. 

The Diocesan website is now regularly updated with upcoming events – learning opportunities, diocesan gatherings, and so-on. 

A cursory examination of parish web presence throughout the diocese indicates that not all parishes have websites. Of those who do have websites, many do not have up-to-date information, or do not prominently display key information (such as service times). This presents an opportunity to update information on the central Diocesan website to make congregations more searchable, as well as to provide training or assistance to congregations in creating simple user-friendly church websites and ensuring up-to-date information on their Google Profile. We are considering where this work fits into the implementation plan.

Structural Considerations

As this work continues to unfold, the Working Group has identified several key structural considerations requiring attention. These include:

Kootenay Fair Share / Diocesan Budget

The current approach employed to fund diocesan community’s shared services is working less effectively in the present environment. The funding of our shared services may require more than a revisioning of the formula by which parishes give to our shared diocesan budget (although this may be considered as a part of the solution). The challenge has at least two additional dimensions:

• First, as a diocesan community of communities, we do not appear to have a shared understanding of how a diocesan budget functions to support parish-based ministry in communities across the diocese. Whether due to ineffective communication or other factors, understanding of the concrete and specific ways these pooled funds support local congregations and underwrite shared ministry priorities is inconsistent from parish to parish. 
• Second, the decline in giving to Kootenay Fair Share is not solely a question of stewardship, although this may be one dimension. Changing demographics, aging infrastructure, increased ministry costs, cost of goods and services, cost of living, insurance rates, and so-on, may be impacting the ability of parishes to fulfill their Fair Share covenant. Looking at the funding of shared services through this lens helps us to better understand the variety of factors impacting both parish and diocesan balance sheets. 

Any approach to the diocese’s current budgetary challenges will have to contend with the complexity of this issue. That is to say, we need to consider the whole balance sheet, not just one budget line. This will require a principled, proactive, and strategic approach to diversifying diocesan income streams in support of local, community-based, and diocesan ministries. In addition to this work, there may be opportunities for parishes to reduce costs through regional collaboration (i.e. bulk buying, centralizing administrative functions such as bookkeeping or communications, a common website for churches in a region, etc.). Other possibilities include the development of guides to reasonable costs for particular services and/or recommended providers.

Exploring Shared Services and Policies – Provincially and Nationally

In November 2023, representatives from each diocese in the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia & Yukon gathered for two days of facilitated conversations designed to develop a vision for collaboration amongst the dioceses, and to delineate concrete next steps that will support local and diocesan churches through provincial collaboration. 

Support of local Anglicans, congregations, and ministries, was articulated as a priority, alongside seeking efficiencies and shared services (our shared approach to refugee sponsorship is one example of such an experiment in action). Three key deliverables emerged as immediate-term priorities:

• Develop a mobile Provincial School for Parish Development;
• Develop a Provincial misconduct policy;
• Focus Provincial Synod on prioritization and implementation of further partnership

Looking ahead, Provincial Synod reps and Diocesan Leadership including the Bishop’s office and Diocesan Council should explore and seek opportunities for collaboration that will empower local ministry while also seeking to reduce costs through shared services at a provincial level. This should include further investigation of administrative policy that could be more consistently and effectively addressed at Provincial or National levels (including but not limited to Safe Church, Insurance, HR, etc.).

Real Estate Strategy

The current canons provide scant direction on the buying, selling, leasing, trading, or re-development of real estate. As the church in Canada navigates a wave of church property transitions, the Diocese of Kootenay would benefit from a principled approach to property rooted in our Values, Vision, and Mission. This strategy should–with a theologically considered approach–propose ways to more faithfully relate to land and to property, as we seek to participate faithfully in God’s mission now and in the future.

The Role and Function of Regions

While the current regions do serve parish and community-based ministry in some ways in some areas of the diocese, this is not universally the case. One of the challenges articulated in some of the early Thriving Communities consultations is the challenge of doing ministry in isolation. In several consultations, congregations have articulated the desire for regions to support one another as more than administrative units. 

Some observations have included the need to engage with one another more frequently for mutual support and encouragement, the opportunity to gather in larger regional gatherings (spiritual retreats, workshops, celebration, worship, mutual encouragement). In addition, there are particular ministry dynamics that exist in particular types of ministries (i.e. Ecumenical Shared Ministries) that may benefit more from affinity-based groupings rather than those organized by geography. 

This issue can and should relate to the development and implementation of alternative approaches to deploying ministry leaders (Clergy, LLMs, and those with other areas of expertise) through the formation of area parishes, a team of circuit riders, or other means that suit particular situations.