Covid has taken its toll on the life of the Church, and we look to God to restore our health.
Bishop Christopher says:
"We’ve seen the power of death in our world, in our nation, in our communities over the last many months. We’re still doing battle through the long Covid months, against the bearer of death that has caused such disruption and damage to millions of people.
Covid has taken its toll on the life of the Church. Everything that makes for healthy church life has been disrupted – every essential quality. We have been deprived of many things.
It will take us some time to heal. We’ll need to allow God time to restore our health and regrow our life."
Healthy churches
Natural Church Development (NCD) uses the scriptural paradigm of the Church as a living organism, not just an organisation. Looking at the church "organically" gives us a different perspective on what “health” and "growth" mean. The growth of organisms focuses on their health, their capacity to reproduce, and how the individual 'body' parts interact. They are grown, not built. They are nurtured, not assembled.
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Growing Faith
Our Growing Faith strategy is focused on children, young people and families. Children and young people are not just the future of the church they are also the present. When they are missing from our church communities we notice their absence. A healthy family of God includes all ages and generations. As a diocese we use the key principles of Growing Faith when we approach children and young people to foster: connected communities, spiritual encounters and imaginative practices.
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Wellbeing
Our aim is the wellbeing of everyone, and our chaplains, parish clergy, readers, headteachers and many others are doing wonderful work in Christ’s name by caring for people in our hospitals, prisons, schools, churches and communities. However, this is demanding work, and we particularly want to develop strategies to care for our carers.
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