Pruning for Growth
Stage One of Pruning for Growth has been completed. What happens next? Archdeacon Paul Mackness, who chairs the Gardening Group, sets out the path ahead for the next stage.
The Gardening Group would like to thank everyone for the positive way in which they have engaged with the process. The results of Stage One will be sent out to each LMA. The scores are placed in deciles (1-10) and LMAs will be told which churches sit in which decile.
LMAs should also have received a pro-forma to be completed by each Church Committee for every church in the LMA. This is your first opportunity to tell us about your context, hopes, challenges, strengths and weaknesses etc. Churches are asked to complete this pro-forma and return them to archdeacon.stdavids@churchinwales.org.uk by 30th April at the latest. It would be wonderful to have 100% response. However, a failure to respond will mean that you will have lost your opportunity to tell your story – it will not prevent the interview stage or recommendations being made at Stage Three.
The Gardening Group will then use the information in this pro-forma to look at specific lines of enquiry for each church in the LMA. This will mean that the interviews held as part of Stage Two will be focused to a church’s particular context. Each church will have a 20-minute interview. It is likely that these will be conducted by Pastoral Area within an LMA. Please keep your eye out for dates when they are released. The Gardening Group is aiming to complete all Stage Two Interviews by the Diocesan Conference in October.
Alongside this work, the Gardening Group has established two working groups to look at Governance and Helping Churches to “end well”. The first will look at working to provide support, training and resources on matters of LMA Governance, Trusteeship and CIOs; the second will look at appropriate ways to celebrate the ministry and life of church buildings and how to allow their congregations use of those buildings to “end well”, recognising that the closure of a church building is a loss and for some requires space to grieve.