Sheffield Diocese pay for MCN membership
Zoe Kemp, Resourcing Churches Building Officer for Diocese of Sheffield, writes:
In the Diocese of Sheffield we are keen to support all of our churches and we do this through the work of our Mission Action Support Team. We recognise, however, that our Major Parish Churches face particular challenges and opportunities and so we have recently set up a specific Diocesan Major Churches Group. The aim of this is to provide a forum where our seven Major Churches and Cathedral can meet together to share ideas and discuss concerns, and where we can bring together local and national expertise to address key issues affecting these very significant buildings.
The first meeting was held at the beginning of October and the Revd Canon Adrian Daffern, Cathedrals and Major Churches Officer, kindly agreed to be our keynote speaker. Adrian shared information about the national support available, including the Major Churches Network. Revd Canon Phil Batchford, from Rotherham Minster, had just returned from the MCN conference and spoke enthusiastically about how useful it had been and how much he had valued the opportunity to meet with other people involved in caring for Major Churches from around the country.
Our churches have decided they would like to meet twice a year within the diocese and will identify the topics they wish to explore; the next meeting will be in April and will focus on the challenges of meeting the net zero target as a major parish church. We are also keen for our Major Churches to benefit from the national support available to them and so, on the back of the success of the first meeting, the Diocese took the decision to offer to pay for a year’s membership of the Major Churches Network for those churches that were not already members. This offer has been warmly embraced and four new churches from the Diocese of Sheffield have recently joined the network.
Our Major Churches reach out to their local communities through the wide range of activities, events and services they organise and host. These include much needed social action projects, world-class cultural events and opportunities to learn new skills and meet new people. By investing in these churches we are investing in our mission. We hope that this new group; a mix of clergy, church staff, churchwardens, PCC members and office holders; supported by key members of the diocesan staff team, will grow and develop, sharing ideas and good practice and supporting each other to encourage a proactive and innovative approach to mission in the Diocese.
Our aim in setting up this group is to ensure that our Major Churches thrive and flourish through the week and that the dedicated teams who are responsible for them feel supported, valued and well resourced. Rotherham Minster hosted the first meeting of the group and Canon Phil summed up the mood of the group by saying, 'This is a really helpful initiative that provides a forum to share together with those who are responsible for looking after similar church buildings within our Diocese. It was good to explore both the challenges and opportunities we face’.