12-13 September 2018 Governing Body Agendum 15. Ministry Development Report

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1 12-13 September 2018 Governing Body Agendum 15 Ministry Development Report General synopsis This paper informs the Governing Body of various ministry development-related work currently being undertaken at a provincial level in the Church in Wales. The Ministry Development Group, which advises the Bench of Bishops on ministry matters, met in May, a meeting which, as well as the usual diocesan updates and general discussions, included a detailed discussion of the provincial discernment process, together with a discussion of how the discernment process would need to accommodate the recent changes to data protection legislation. Also, members of the Standing Doctrinal Commission gave a day-long series of presentations of their recent work exploring the nature of ordained ministry. In June the Diocesan Directors of Ministry, the Chair of the Provincial Discernment Board, the Principal of St. Padarn s Institute and the in-coming Chair of the Standing Doctrinal Commission attended part of the Bench of Bishops meeting for a wide-ranging discussion of ministry and ministry matters, which included discussion about the framework for the development of lay ministry in the Church in Wales: Church Serving God s World. Some matters arising from these meetings are highlighted below for the Governing Body s information: 1. Curacy At its meeting in March the Bench asked the Ministry Development Group to undertake some work mapping different approaches to curacy across the province. The nature of curacy has changed much in recent years, and continues to change, and the bishops would like to form an accurate picture of the models of curacy in use around the Church in Wales and assess how the realities of modern ministry and lifestyle are reflected and accommodated by the Church in Wales. In advance of the Ministry Development Group s planned discussion of curacy at its meeting at the end of September a smaller working group, Chaired by Canon Richard Lowndes (Llandaff) and made up of diocesan IME officers, curates and some training incumbents, met in late July to give this matter detailed thought. 2. Continual Ministerial Development (CMD) Canon Dr Rosie Dymond, Strategist for Continual Ministerial Development at St. Padarn s Institute, attended part of the Ministry Development Group s meeting to talk about her work planning the new CMD programme at St. Padarn s. A series of listening days had been organised in dioceses to establish what the CMD programme should aim to achieve, what training should be prioritised, and how it should be arranged. Planning for this was underway. 1

2 3. Standing Doctrinal Commission The Standing Doctrinal Commission had been asked by the Bench to explore the theology of ordained ministry, particularly in light of recent changes to the nature of ministry prompted by the 2012 Church in Wales Review and the ensuing move to structure ministerial deployment on the basis of ministry areas, in line with the 2020 Vision strategy. The Doctrinal Commission s work was undertaken to provide theological ballast to these changes in ministry. Members of the Doctrinal Commission presented this work to the Ministry Development Group in May, presentations which were very well-received: a summary of the work was then presented to the Bench in June. It is intended that the papers prepared by the Doctrinal Commission members are published as an edition of Theology Wales. 4. Provincial discernment process At both the Ministry Development Group and Bench of Bishops meetings the provincial discernment process was discussed in detail. The new Chair of the Provincial Discernment Board, the Very Reverend Dr Paul Shackerley, attended both of these meetings and reflected on his experience of his first discernment conference which had taken place in April. The discussions were detailed and wide-ranging and included discussion of the format of Provincial Discernment Board meetings, co-ordination of the discernment process to ensure all parts link coherently, and due consideration to the pastoral care of candidates throughout the process. Of particular importance was to ensure that the final interviews and other activities that took place during the final Discernment Board meeting complemented the rest of the discernment process, and did not merely re-tread ground which had already been dealt with at other points during the process. Not only was this considered a waste of time it was also pastorally hazardous as sometimes candidates were expected to revisit traumatic events in the lives during the final interviews unnecessarily. Final reports should also draw on the whole process and not be weighted too heavily towards the Discernment Board meeting. During each stage of the discernment process it should be clear what information needed to be captured and what outcomes should be achieved: each stage of the process should add value to the overall. Also, clarity of roles of all those involved in the discernment process (including the DDO, the bishop, the Chair and Secretary of the Provincial Discernment Board) was important to ensure that each understands what they need to contribute, and what is contributed by others: this will help ensure all contributors have a full understanding of the entire process. Following these discussions, it was agreed that the Ministry Development Group would convene a small group to explore the whole discernment process, the constituent people involved and their respective roles, the purpose of each stage of the discernment process and the outcomes expected at each stage. This would help improve the efficiency of the process and allow training to be focussed as needed. Clearly setting out the role of discerners was important as it would help the recruitment and training of discerners. 2

3 Discernment process should be an evolving process which changes to keep pace with the changes to ministry generally. The Ministry Development Group will participate in this process as required in order to ensure candidates going forward for any type of ministry within the Church in Wales are effectively discerned for the roles they will be undertaking. The Ministry Development Group will next meet on September in Cardiff, a meeting which will include the consideration of the nature of curacy: future work for the Group will include an examination of the distinctive nature of Reader ministry. 5. Ministry statistics A variety of graphs and charts providing ministry-related statistical information (as at 31 December 2017), broken down by diocese, are appended to this paper for the Governing Body s information. August

4 Section 1 Total number of Church in Wales clergy - 31 December 2017 St Asaph Bangor Swansea St Davids Llandaff Monmouth& Brecon Total Benefices Stipendiary clerics NSM clerics Clerics Totals 31 December December Stipend NSMStipendTotal NSM Total

5 Section 2 Summary of movements of stipendiary clerics Year-end figures Cause of increase Ordained Deacon Moved from another province *Transfers Total increase Cause of decrease Retirements Deaths Moved to another province Other resignations Total decrease Total increase/decrease *Transfers into stipendiary ministry from NSM/PTO and retired stipendiary 5

6 Section 3 Age profile of all active clerics (NSM and stipendiary) at 31 December

7 Section 4 Information abo Number ordained in 2017 St Asaph Bangor St Davids Llandaff Monmouth Swansea & Brecon Total Other changes * during 2017 Number of candidates training at 31 December 2017 *Transfers from stipendiary to NSM and NSM to stipendiary 7

8 Section 5 Information about deacons Ordination to transitional diaconate* - as at year-end St Asaph Bangor St Davids Llandaff Monmouth Swansea and Brecon Total *The term transitional diaconate is used to denote the ministry of those in the Order of Deacons who seek ordination to the priesthood in due course. Number in the vocational diaconate St Asaph 0 Bangor 1 St Davids 1 Llandaff 1 Monmouth 2 Swansea & Brecon 0 8

9 Section 6 Numbers of ordinands in training for ministry Stipendiary Ordination candidates in training for stipendiary ministry Year-end Ordinands at beginning of period New ordinands Total Transferred from NSM Minus ordinands ordained during the period Transferred to NSM Total of candidates training for stipendiary ministry Year-end NSM at beginning of period New NSMs starting training Total Ordinations Left Wales -1 Transferred to tipendiary Cleric ordained training ended Cleric ordained 2016 still in training until Cleric ordained 2017 still in training until Cleric ordained 2017 still in training until Transferred from stipendiary Total of candidates training for nonstipendiary ministry

10 Section 7 Age profile of all ordinands in training as at 31 December

11 Section 8 Licensed Readers Licensed lay ministry St Asaph Bangor St Davids Llandaff Monmouth Swansea & Brecon Total Readers in training St Asaph Bangor St Davids Llandaff Monmouth Swansea and Brecon Total *Where boxes are blank information is unavailable 11