A life in ministry

On June 29th I retired from Stipendiary Ministry having served some 26 years in the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. During that time, I have been honoured to have served in a number of places and in a variety of roles. My time as a Curate in Morriston, as Vicar of Gwastedyn and later Three Cliffs have all been so rewarding. I have been honoured in that time to also have been the Bishop's Officer for World Mission, Healing and Deliverance as well as a Ministry Area Leader and Area Dean and a member of the Cathedral Chapter. All of these positions were challenging and stimulating and provided a deeper and wider insight into the ministry of the Church that we all serve.

To be asked three years ago to serve the Diocese as Archdeacon with Responsibility for Ministry Areas came as a great surprise and one that I trust I have been able to carry out to the best of the abilities that God has given me to I hope sensitively but with direction help lead this process of radical change within our Diocese.

Working Through Change

As I look back over this time I realise that is not been easy for many to work through the changes that we have seen happen. Gone are the Parishes to which we served and were raised with and instead we have a wider grouping of churches with a central council to achieve good governance and a greater sharing of gifts and skills as well as a more closer working relationship for the clergy.

There has been an increase in the initial administrative tasks we have faced as we became CIO and worked through our Working Agreements as well as changes to our annual reporting and where we moved from Parishes dealing with their own admin to centralise it with our new Ministry Area Administrators. There have been challenges with our banking and insurances but these would have happened sooner or later as the Diocese moved to catch up with the rest of the Church in Wales and the way the church has reorganised itself.

There is still work to be done in many of these areas and no doubt working with the Office, Archdeacons, Ministry Area Leaders and the skills of your Administrators and the Ministry Area Councils many of the things we now see as challenging will become second nature as time goes by.

The Future is What We Are All About

You also as Ministry Areas have an amazing resource in Mandy Bayton who can help you work through your Mission Action Plans and to help Map out the future. Indeed the future is what we are all about. When you look at Ministry Areas they are simply larger Parishes and many of the things that we are doing now in Ministry Areas and as Ministry Area Councils we would and should have been doing as PCC's and Parishes. I know we are all facing the same challenges of numbers and finance but there have always been challenges with these things but possibly they are more acute now.

There are churches that are growing and there are churches that are facing these challenges head on as well as many projects that are up and running and many in the pipe line across our Diocese that will look to the future and how we attract the next generation of Christians as well as building on what we have already.

Ultimately as we look past the changes we see that we are still about the same core 'business' of our church. We baptise, We marry, we bury, we preach, we teach, and we pray. We bring joy and comfort and we are a presence as old as our faith itself in some many communities. Whatever we call ourselves, however we are structured these are the things that we do best and are called upon by God to do as best we can, each of us in our own context...

Leading Your Church into Growth

Let's not forget the wonderful asset that is LYCIG (Leading Your Church into Growth) that the Diocese has invested in by sending groups of people from your Ministry Areas to attend and come back to share these time tested and trusted principles in their congregations.

We Pray, We are a Presence, We Proclaim and We Persuade.

Are we doing this and do we pray the LYCIG Prayer?

God of Mission, Who alone brings growth to your Church, Send your Holy Spirit to give vision to our planning, Wisdom to our actions, And power to our witness. Help our church to grow in numbers in spiritual commitment to you, And in service to our local community, Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

However we do this and whenever or wherever we do this these are the things of God's Kingdom and this is what we should be endeavouring to do to grow our Church so that beyond the changes of this present time we will still be a relevant church of Word and Sacrament in our Communities for many years to come.

Thanks and Looking Forward

My thanks to all of you who have prayed for me and supported me during this ministry not just in the last three years but since 1999. My thanks to my family for their support and encouragement over the past decades and for keeping me grounded. My thanks also to my church family..the congregations I have been given the care of and their support that has enabled me to undertake the ministries I have been called to serve in.

I now look forward to serving the people of Gower as a House for Duty Cleric for the next three years and I look forward to the opportunities to minister that will bring.

Many Blessings

Peter