Presidential Address September 2023

Nehemiah 1:11 At that time I was cupbearer to the King.

The Old Testament story of Nehemiah is well known. It describes a young Hebrew who has been deported from his homeland. In the city of Susa in modern day Iran, he learns that Jerusalem is in ruins and that the returned exiles are as broken as the city walls. In turn, he is devastated by the state of things. But tears become resolve, and this is where the story begins.

Recent readings of the narrative have pointed out some of the detrimental consequences of Nehemiah’s later work such as how he reasserted an overly racial understanding of inclusion in the people of God. But as a story of challenge and opportunity, it’s probably unparalleled in the Old Testament. And of course, in the focus on rebuilding walls it’s easy to miss deeper themes. This isn’t about the ills of cementitious mortar and the differences between list A or B applications!! There are strong themes about prayer, lament, responding well to opposition, holding one’s nerve in the face of hostility as well as team building and utilising the resources to hand.

I commend the story afresh to Governing Body.

Each of us might relate to the story, but at different levels: The Ministry Area Leader feeling beleaguered by the few resources to hand and the scale of the task. The phrase ‘running to stand still’ is no longer funny (if it ever was). The Archdeacon, standing in the gap between operational demands alongside the painful, if necessary, strategic decisions pulling in the opposite direction. The Bishop, managing an operation which expands even as the resources contract, wondering which of the tasks to complete before the next one comes left field. We could add to this list the staff in the National Office and colleagues in St Padarn’s too.

And yet the story is instructive. I want to frame some of the questions we face and priorities we are progressing from within this account. God willing, in the interaction between the Written Word and our context, we may hear a Living Word spoken to us afresh.

I want to pick up on the new funding made available for us in the dioceses to ‘break new ground’, that is, for the purpose of evangelism. The criteria which the Bishops, the Representative Body and Standing Committee have agreed allow for a wide expression of this task but hold us to it firmly. The bids which dioceses might make are of varying kinds but must retain that essential character of witnessing to the good news in Jesus Christ. This might be from within the Ministry Area and opportunities which arise through baptisms, funerals or weddings; they might be pioneering or even church planting. Some will be a direct expression of Diocesan plans. A mixed ecology of outreach is more likely to be contextually significant and provide a bigger base from which to share hope than a single form of outreach. But all must align to and sit within the broader strategic objectives of the diocese.

Let me return to Nehemiah. When the author saw that the walls were in ruins, he knew he needed a plan. And it was essential that this combined many elements: raw materials needed to be re-utilized, staff time allocated, tasks needed timelines. The story tells us there was a skills deficit requiring investment. Human ingenuity and creativity were critical. This became a shared enterprise involving the personal commitment of those brought together.

As we consider the potential for doing ‘church well’ across the province there are some quite specific challenges which are emerging. The first is recruitment: people with the capacity, the skills, the heart and mind to work with us in what is an exciting but demanding enterprise. There was a time when colleges of Higher Education, universities and other Christian foundations all produced a significant number of vocations and to diverse ministries too. This is less so today. A provincial strategy for recruitment appears critical if we are to find the numbers of pioneers, licensed lay ministers and others to work with us.

The second is that our existing workforce, our Ministry Area colleagues, need enormous support in the ministry they offer. What we are asking from them is significant. The period in which Christendom flourished is long past. We need a less reactive and more focused, articulated approach to ministry. A resilient and missional mindset like this is difficult to maintain, I think. It needs strong nurture and mentoring because institutions, by their nature, can create inertia. Maintaining the system becomes our default and hopes of breaking new ground recede beneath a mountain of tasks that seem unending. I have more to say about this in a minute.

But we have seen there are things we can develop. We have seen that teams, collaborating on ministerial tasks reduce a sense of isolation and create potential for tasks which could not be completed without the help of others. And this is why Mission and Ministry Areas are so important: they allow us to do together what we could not do apart. They invite the co-operation of clergy and laity who serve in teams in a way that has not been structured before nor provided for nationally.

Part of Nehemiah’s challenge was to assess accurately and comprehensively the scale of the task he faced. Asking the right questions allowed a better articulation of the situation and in turn some intelligent solutions. And two of the most significant developments in the last 6 months reflect this same approach. The first is that the Standing Committee and Representative Body have supported the formation of a Working Priorities Group. This is a task and finish group whose task has been to look at several key areas of church life. Firstly, our central governance structure and whether the work and practice of the Representative Body and Standing Committee can converge to bring the strategic and financial parts of the Church together. Secondly to identify key ministerial factors which allow Ministry Areas to flourish. In relation to this second area, it is becoming clear that a few simple but vital principles are critical: the spiritual health of the churches, simple governance arrangements, key collaborative relationships within the Ministry Area and a strong proactive commitment of engagement with the area (Mission Action Plan: MAP to use shorthand). Once our work is completed, we will commend these principles to the province and dioceses.

The second development will see the Diocesan/Provincial Learning Community convene later this year. This is also a new development bringing exemplars together from across the province in a listen and learn exercise. We have invited contributors from our cathedrals, urban and rural contexts as well as church planting so that best practice can be shared. There hasn’t been this kind of structured co-operation previously which allows us to share the things which have worked and where difficulties and challenges have been faced. Our history has not always involved healthy competition marked by generous sharing and honesty. A new culture of support for one another across the dioceses should become normative and not exceptional. We will ensure that lessons learned here feed back to the dioceses in a consistent manner.

One of the dynamics faced by Nehemiah was that of opposition. When he set about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem there were some who wanted him to fail. The text tells that this was experienced in part by ridicule and cynicism and at times by outright hostility. Nehemiah provided swords for the builders should it come to fisticuffs! I don’t anticipate needing the same in the Church in Wales! It’s easy of course to draw lines of demarcation and place some of us on the margins as those who oppose every innovation, who are ‘difficult’ and those who are helpful and supportive. But not every situation will allow easy, clear or even right or wrong answers. And living with uncertainty might be uncomfortable but is actually a sign of maturity and faith. The real opposition, the biggest threat, is that we do nothing - we fail to attend, in any hopeful way, to the challenges we all experience.

The walls are not in a good state and we do need to attend to them.

I want to update Governing Body on the work to assist the church to respond well to the climate emergency. There are of course things to celebrate: it is now 2 years since we divested from fossil fuels - a major achievement and act of public witness. That action did not seem likely a few years ago. We’ve set ambitious goals and have made some early good progress. The Governing Body also voted for our Net Zero ambition. We have a 10-Point Plan to spur us into action and a carbon calculator, the Energy Footprint Tool, to guide our plans. I have to report to Governing Body however that take up of the Energy Footprint Tool has been slow - fewer than 10% of our churches have completed the Energy Footprint Tool. This is an easy action for churches to take but a vital one as it shows us where we are and how we can get to where we want to be.

If we are serious about Net Zero, we need 100% take up. So, my challenge to the Church today is to complete this action by Christmas 2023. I look forward to reporting back to GB that the take up has indeed been 100% at next April’s GB.

We are also on course to host the All-Wales Climate Summit in the second part of 2024. This will focus essentially on the health of our waterways and the impact industry, agriculture and residential domestic use has on the Welsh landscape. I include a separate note on the meetings we have hosted this year of those who are either experts in this area or have a significant contribution to make to the debate. A Steering Group is assuming responsibility for drawing together the kind of programme that ought to engage us in an intelligent and honest conversation about one of the great challenges we face. A two-day event is planned that should allow activists, academics, pressure groups and stake holders groups to listen to one another and, God willing, find not only a common language but agree broad principles that allow policy and direction to emerge.

We might wonder why such an undertaking is happening? One of the things which constantly surprises me is how the Church in Wales is perceived. Of course, not universally so but on the whole our work is well regarded and our capacity and commitment to show what human society could look like is well understood and appreciated. We have seen that church must mean much more than prayers and gathering on Sunday, that our commitment to justice, to the creation, to the poor might take us into uncomfortable places. That is what the Kingdom of God invites and involves.

Nehemiah understood well the prophetic character of his work. Imagination was realized in some simple and basic steps. His story has an earthiness about it which is little different from the steps we need to take – in the church (and I want us in the Church in Wales to offer clear leadership here) and in Wales where we have the opportunity to redesign our approach to energy, water, land use and the sustainability of food supply and at a local level. We are not the experts save we know what good signposting looks like and what human flourishing involves. Our ability to bring people together in good conversation and partnership should never be underestimated.

And I want to end with Nehemiah once more because it is here that his greatest gift to us is offered. This ministry was a spiritual matter: when he heard about the state of the exiles and of the walls, he wept. When he gathered the inhabitants together, they prayed. When the tasks were identified, they worked together with focused energy. And yet he was, the narrative records, cupbearer to the King. Little to suggest he would rise to the challenge of renewing the physical and spiritual state of the nation.

What lies at the heart of our life is a belief that God loves us and this world, that a relationship with God is not only possible but opened to us in Jesus Christ. All else flows from this conviction. In the context of the Nehemiah story the walls were ancillary, they existed for a purpose. And so does the church which is to declare that the Kingdom of God has come, is in our midst and is breaking out around us. A church which is alive to this, will focus on the tasks and work to meet them well.

Governing Body, this is our task and calling. It falls to us to respond well.

+Andrew Cambrensis