Learning Community focuses on Ministry and Mission Areas

People from across Wales will meet next month to pool their experience of the new form of church structures called Ministry or Mission Areas.

More than 70 people, including representatives from each of our six dioceses, will gather for the two-day Diocesan Learning Community to share their stories, both the challenges and opportunities, and to address common issues.

It is more than a decade since the process of changing the ancient model of parishes into Ministry and Mission Areas began, following an independent, root and branch review of the Church in Wales in 2012.

All parishes have now been amalgamated into larger areas which are served by a team of lay and ordained ministers, offering both traditional and pioneering ministry and sharing resources. The term Mission Areas has been adopted in the Diocese of St Asaph, covering North-East Wales, with the rest of Wales using the term Ministry Areas.

The focus of this year’s Diocesan Learning Community (DLC) will be to hear how the Areas are operating and how they could serve their communities with hope and energy. Those attending include bishops, team leaders, diocesan officers and provincial advisers.

On the agenda are six sessions which include presentations on emotional resilience and well-being, personal perspectives from a range of people, leadership vocation and training, finance and administration, and care of church buildings. One session will focus on what a health Ministry/Mission area could look like. Each day will end with a reflection by Bishop Tim Thornton, who served as Bishop at Lambeth before his retirement. Time will also be set aside for prayer and worship on both days.

The Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John, pictured, who will introduce the meeting, says it is an opportunity for people to “meet, pray, listen and learn from each other”.

He says, “Mission and Ministry Areas are now embedded in all the dioceses, but we are still learning how to live most fruitfully within this new configuration. What does it mean to share resources, buildings, ministry and share a common hope for one another? What is the value of the particular church within this larger grouping? These are questions we will need to explore if we are to mature with energy and focus.”

This DLC meeting is the second such gathering, following one last year. It will take place on November 4-5 at the Albrighton Hall Hotel, Shrewsbury.

• Read the report from the first DLC meeting Telling A Hopeful Story