THE diocese of Carlisle has been awarded £6.8 million by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment (SMMI) Board for plans that include the creation of virtually 90 “recent Christian communities” across Cumbria over the subsequent five years.
A press release issued on Monday said that there could be “a specific give attention to helping local established churches to plant recent Christian congregations in Barrow, Carlisle and in rural Derwent Deanery”, and investment in training greater than 200 recent leaders. Extra support could be offered to assist under-25s to “spiritually flourish, grow in faith and turn into adult disciples”.
The latest award follows a grant of virtually £600,000 agreed by the SMMI Board last yr, a few of which will likely be used to fund a recent church-planting lead post within the diocese. Church-plants were “within the preparatory phase”, a diocesan spokesman said.
There are plans to support the expansion of the church-plant St Aidan’s, Cumbria, which meets at St Bridget’s, Bridekirk. Part of the Binsey Benefice, it launched at the top of last yr to serving the towns and rural communities across the A66 corridor within the northern Lake District, with a specific give attention to those not currently engaging with the Church. It currently has a 3 p.m. Sunday service and has a children and families minister funded by the Norwegian Mission Society, a diocesan partner.
The almost 90 recent Christian communities comprise five church-plants or revitalisations, 55 youth-, children-, and family-focused recent worshipping communities (NWCs), and 29 other NWCs. The diocese’s reference to “recent Christian communities” quite than Fresh Expressions follows a broader shift in language documented in a report by Cranmer Hall last yr, New Things (News, 16 August 2024).
Only considered one of the 11 dioceses studied used “fresh expressions” or “pioneering” to explain what was happening, adopting as an alternative language that allowed for “maximum breadth”, the report said. Under the Archbishop of York’s Faith within the North programme, there’s a goal of 3000 recent worshipping communities within the Northern Province by 2030 (News, 17 January).
The grant represents further national support for the ecumenical “God for All” strategy launched in Carlisle in 2015 as a “covenanted partnership” with the Methodist and United Reformed Churches. This involved establishing recent ecumenical “mission communities”, which now number 34, incorporating 235 C of E parishes. The strategy was supported by a Strategic Development Funding (SDF) grant of £850,000, and sought to incorporate the establishment of not less than one recent Fresh Expression in each community, resulting in 1500 recent churchgoers.
Between 2015 and 2019, greater than 110 Fresh Expressions were established, and, in 2019, a Church Army study reported that they accounted for one in 4 people attending church within the diocese: 3100 people (News, 6 September 2019). In 2019, the diocese secured a £1.6-million SDF grant for its “Reaching Deeper” strategy, set to conclude next yr, which sought to further the work of Fresh Expressions, particularly in deprived areas, including Barrow and Carlisle, and supporting the Northern Pioneer Centre: a collaboration between the diocese and Church Mission Society. The grant has helped to fund 4 “pioneer practitioner enablers”.
The statement of needs produced by the diocese, which is currently in emptiness, states that, “although impacted by the pandemic, recent Christian communities proceed to emerge and our latest report shows around 2600 people attend a Fresh Expression across 120 groups.” About 1300 young Christians are reported to be involved in Network Youth Church, which operates local groups that occasionally take part larger celebrations.
The document notes that numbers worshipping on Sunday within the diocese fell by 27 per cent, to 9500, between 2010 and 2019; the decline disproportionately affects churches of between 100 and 200. The total stood at 7000 in 2023: 1.4 per cent of the population.
The decline in parish share over time has led to a considerable fall within the variety of stipendiary ordained posts, from 115 to 75, between 2007 and 2021. Recruitment is a challenge, including finding people to guide and develop mission communities, who’re expected to tackle an oversight position. It also describes “a transparent challenge in attempting to implement a far-reaching vision and strategy with limited resources in a big and sparsely populated Diocese”.
About half of the five hundred,000 people in Cumbria live in rural locations. The recent SMMI project features a three-year pilot to support parish growth and leadership development in three “deeply rural” mission communities as yet to be named. Duncan Poundbury, a church-planting specialist, has advised the diocese on the bid.
The diocesan director of mission and ministry, support, and innovation, Rachel Head, said: “We have spent nearly two years developing and honing our vision for this bid — ‘The Cumbria Way’ — and for a lot of months colleagues have worked intensively with local leaders and churches across the county to develop the detail of our locally owned plans for mission and growth. . .
“Our commitment to listening and dealing together will likely be an integral and vital a part of our approach, in addition to often communicating with people across the diocese about what’s happening. It is our intention to share each what goes well, and what we learn along the way in which, as together we attempt to achieve recent people in a breadth of other ways. It is imperative that the brand new resources available to the diocese through this award are put to best use within the service of God’s work here on this distinctive and delightful county.”
The Church Army Research Unit recently accomplished a study of missional initiatives across Cumbria, but only a one-paragraph summary has been published.
