PIONEER ministry had made great strides in its first 12 months of existence, the Synod was told on Thursday evening.
Members were first shown a video presentation about pioneer ministry, which had been formally launched within the Church in February 2023. Much of the groundwork in establishing the ministry has got under way, including a way for churches to use for funding for pioneering projects. Eight projects have now been chosen and submitted for final approval to start later this 12 months, 4 of which might be funded by the Church.
Eight pioneer ministers will begin their deployments in September, as they minister alongside part-time study. Pioneer-ministry hubs are being arrange, in addition to a pioneer-ministry advocate appointed in each diocese. A cross-Church conference in November will cement these exciting early stages, the Synod heard.
Canon Maurice Elliott (Down & Dromore) said that the beginning of pioneer ministry was “potentially one of the significant moments for the Church of Ireland since disestablishment”. Anglicanism had at all times been a mix of traditions, and the introduction of pioneering into its bloodstream in Ireland was the most recent recent considering in a protracted line of innovation. Pioneer ministry aimed to succeed in those with little or no connection to church, and its expressions needs to be “missional, contextual, ecclesial, and formational”. Pioneering projects shouldn’t grow to be semi-detached but work in lockstep with diocesan and parochial structures, Canon Elliott said.
Pioneer ministry shouldn’t be seen as a “silver bullet” for tackling church decline, he said, which had accelerated for the reason that pandemic. It would in fact contribute to the re-evangelisation of Ireland, but couldn’t, by itself, be the answer. It must also not be something delegated to pioneer ministers and ignored by the mainstream of the Church, he said: the purpose was to alter the culture of the entire Church. Dioceses shouldn’t expect to get chunks of pioneer funding for his or her existing projects, and pioneer ministry was not an automatic pathway towards ordination, either. “By the grace of God, this recent facet of ministry might help to re-envision all of us by way of mission,” he concluded.
Seconding the report, Joe Kelly (Dublin & Glendalough) said that he was excited by the prospect of pioneer ministries collaborating with other groups with similar visions, akin to the Missional Youth Church Network. He also urged members whose dioceses had not yet arrange an area diocesan pioneer ministry hub to contact the central team and get the ball rolling.
The Archdeacon of Armagh, the Ven. Peter Thompson (Armagh), urged that pioneer ministry be allowed to reinvigorate the entire Church and never grow to be a parachurch organisation which progressively accrues its own structures. The similar Methodist movement within the 18th and nineteenth centuries had not been clasped tightly by the established Churches, leading to the separate denominations we all know today.
The Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin & Ardagh, the Rt Revd Ferran Glenfield, spoke of the “synergy” between pioneer ministry and Fresh Expressions. He recently visited a Fresh Expression hub in Sligo that was growing exponentially, growing leaders, and running Alpha courses across all secondary schools within the town. It had been embraced by the Anglican parishes and the RC diocese also, he reported.
The Revd Robert Jones (Dublin & Glendalough), the national director of pioneer ministry, thanked the dioceses for his or her openness in facilitating this recent enterprise. It was vital that pioneer ministry was certain up in a mixed ecology with the remaining of the inherited Church from the very starting, he said.
The Synod received the Pioneer Ministry Council’s first report.
Representative body: Funding for pioneer ministry
MORE money for pioneer ministry, and a comparatively healthy investment return, were matters raised within the report from the Representative Body (RB) on Saturday morning.
Lyndon MacCann (Dublin & Glendalough), the deputy chair of the RB, introduced the report by informing the Synod that the RB’s chair, Henry Algeo, was unable to guide the controversy, owing to a “life-threatening medical event” that he suffered last October. He had, nevertheless, recovered enough to be present on the Synod.
The RB’s core task was to administer the Church’s investments and supply funding for its mission, including paying stipends and pensions.
After the turmoil of 2022, the markets had performed higher in 2023, and this had led to a 9.8-per-cent return on the RB’s general fund, which now stood at €235 million. This had fallen wanting the market benchmark of 14 per cent, largely due to an “underweight exposure to technology stocks”. The RB had decided to extend its withdrawal rate from 3.5 to three.6 per cent: a modest rise that might nevertheless end in €200,000 more to spend on the Church’s activities annually. The total income for the RB was €7.8 million, and its spending amounted to €7.2 million, leaving a €600,000 surplus.
The dividends in each the Republic and Northern Ireland trust funds were also barely raised over the past 12 months, Mr MacCann reported. When it got here to spending, about half went on staff costs, and the remaining was spread between the Theological Institute, the bishops, and the General Synod and its various committees. In the approaching years, recent costs, akin to pioneer ministry, curacy reforms, and safeguarding, are expected to arise, he said.
Pioneer ministry can be supported to the tune of €200,000 a 12 months, to enable a national leadership team, Mr MacCann said. Once the scheme was fully operational, it was expected to cost €500,000 a 12 months. Fifty thousand euros had been given towards the mental-health Mind Matters Project, and he also urged parishes affected by flooding to use for assistance from the RB’s appeal fund, which had loads of money left.
The RB continued to pursue its climate-change policy, and remained one in all the biggest funders of the EcoCongregation scheme in Ireland. Pension payments on either side of the border had been increased significantly, Mr MacCann said, adding that work had begun to attempt to consolidate a number of the hundreds of tiny trusts managed by the RB into larger, more productive units.
Seconding the report, the Dean of Kilmore, the Very Revd Nigel Crossey (Kilmore, Elphin & Ardagh), said that the RB’s priorities were shifting from maintenance towards mission, and from preservation towards outreach — pointing to the substantial support for Pioneer Ministry for instance of this. But this didn’t mean any neglect of traditional parishes, and the RB was exploring grants to support curacies. The Safeguarding Board had requested an independent review of how safeguarding was overseen within the Church, and this was as a result of be considered by the Executive Committee, he said. A second review of the Church’s property portfolio and their best use had also been initiated.
The Bishop of Derry & Raphoe, the Rt Revd Andrew Forster, welcomed how mission sat at the center of the RB’s work, and praised specifically the work around curacies, which were becoming harder and harder to fund.
The Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne & Ross, the Ven. Andrew Orr (Cork, Cloyne & Ross) thanked the RB on behalf of EcoCongregation for its funding of the project, which had helped parishes to push ahead with climate-change work at an area level. EcoCongregation was particularly focused on helping parishes to chop their energy usage at present, he explained.
The Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin & Ardagh, Dr Ferran Glenfield, suggested that parishes explore putting solar panels on their roofs, which he described as a “no-brainer”.
The Archdeacon of Armagh, the Ven. Dr Peter Thompson (Armagh), reiterated his concerns in regards to the coming wave of retirements of clergy, which, he warned, weren’t being replaced by recent ordinations. He asked how the RB was involved in planning for this future and resourcing the Church to administer a predicted 50 per cent drop in stipendiary clergy.
The Synod then authorised the RB’s allocations motion.
