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The Strategic Development money will further our shared priority of spiritual and numerical growth across all age groups over the next five years, funding Intergenerational Missioners to work in six strategic parishes across the diocese for five years. They will focus in particular on reaching children and young people with each missioner leading the formation of new worshipping communities and nurturing faith among all generations. Each Intergenerational Missioner will be a member of the parish leadership team and work alongside clergy and parish staff. The Intergenerational Missioners are based in:
Aims & Objectives
The diocese anticipates the following key outcomes by the end of 2022:
Funding our Intergenerational Missioners
The Diocese has successfully bid for funding in the latest round of Strategic Development Funding under Renewal and Reform – a national Church of England initiative to increase the number of Christians. Diocesan Secretary, Sam Pratley explains how the funding and bid system works: “Due to changes in the way funds are distributed to dioceses by the Church Commissioners there is a greater emphasis on bidding for money and demonstrating that we can provide match funding from within the diocese. “In this instance £525,000 is coming from the Church Commissioners which works out as £105,000 per year. “The remaining money is coming from the six parishes where the Intergenerational Missioners will be based. Their contribution is £8,750 above what their annual Parish Offer would ordinarily be. “The diocese is putting up the remaining £52,500, which has been made possible by refocusing resources following feedback from Mission Action Planning in our deaneries and stopping other non-priority work.” The cash from the Church Commissioners is specifically ring fenced for the intergenerational growth strategy and cannot be spent elsewhere. Strategic Development Funding aims to support major change projects that fit with dioceses' strategic plans, which have a clear evangelistic focus and are designed to lead to a significant difference in achieving numerical and spiritual growth. You can read more about the Strategic Development Fund here. The overall cost of the project is £1.05m. The Strategic Development Funding of £525,000 was awarded in June 2017. What about the future?
The posts are limited to five years so the missioners stimulate growth rather than becoming the focus of the developments. An important part of their work will be ensuring that others in parish learn the skills to continue to offer intergenerational worship and outreach. In this way, it is anticipated they will hand over the responsibility to the expanding congregation and clergy at the end of the fixed term. What if my church isn't getting an Intergenerational Missioner?
The six Intergenerational Missioners will be deployed across the diocese in six strategic parish locations. 20% of their time will be spent contributing to the wider work of the Diocesan Mission team. Their wider support work may include:
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