Parishes across West Derby and St Helens have voted on whether to be part of the next stages of Fit for Mission following months of consultation, debate and discussion. In West Derby 12 of 13 parishes, and in St Helens 12 of 18 parishes voted to be part of the first cohort.
Mike Eastwood, Diocesan Secretary commented ““this result enables those parishes to move forward with the Church Commission funded plans and we will work together on the next stages. We recognise that not all parishes feel able to be part of this at this stage and Archdeacons and others will continue to listen and work with their plans as they seek to build a bigger church making a bigger difference”.
The next stages will involve teams being formed in both St Helens and West Derby deanery to coordinate the development of the mission and ministry plans across those areas. Other teams will follow on in the summer. These will include the Growth team (growing leaders and worshipping communities through the Cultivate pathway) and the Right Buildings team (looking at which buildings will best serve the mission and ministry for the future).
Fit for Mission aims to deal with the longstanding issues we have faced as the Church of England – decline, lack of diversity, buildings, increasing admin burden. All this is works towards continuing in our long obedience as we ask God for a bigger church to make a bigger difference with more people knowing Jesus and more justice in the world. This means we are focusing our capacity on 4 mission priorities:
- Introducing people to Jesus
- Deepening discipleship
- Developing Christian leaders
- Working for justice
Bishop Bev said “Fit for Mission is about courageously addressing the issues that prevent us in mission and truly releasing people to their God-given calling for the sake of the gospel and Christ’s church. We have now reached another milestone in this process and I thank everyone for their diligent and prayerful contemplation of the challenges we face and the best ways to meet these challenges. This is just a step and much needs to be done as we work together to become Fit for Mission”
www.liverpool.anglican.org/fitformission
Together we can become Fit for Mission