Diocese of Bristol
DIOCESAN SYNOD
Bishop’s Council/Standing Committee and Board of Directors report
5th February 2015.
Business of the Council
Church buildings
In September 2014, the Council had set up a working group to look at the range of issues related
to church buildings and how they might better support mission. At the February meeting, Canon
Michael Johnson, who chaired the Review Group, presented the approach that the Group was
recommending.
Any review of a church’s buildings and resources should be seen in the light of the whole of its life,
mission and growth. The group had therefore developed a self-assessment for a PCC and
leadership team to understand its effectiveness in mission, to be followed by a Toolkit
Questionnaire that focused on the use and sustainability of each church building and how it might
be used more effectively going forward, to enable the mission of the Church.
The approach was welcomed and the need for an initial pilot that had deanery and parish
ownership was endorsed. However, it was also recognised that some further work needed to be
done to ensure it was integrated with the new diocesan strategy and coordinated with the
Accessibility Audits and Diocesan Safe & Welcome Award.
Diocesan Strategy 2016-18
Significant time was given to the Draft Outline Diocesan Strategy 2016-18, which Synod is
considering and debating on 28th February. Bishop Mike addressed the need for a global vision for
the Church, driven by a commitment to the world that God loves. However, many of our churches
are far removed from the culture in which we find ourselves and the Church was now seeking to
minister in a post-Christendom context. Our Church’s parochialism and the lack of healthy
accountability is hindering the Church from effectively addressing that gap.
The Council spent some time in small groups to discuss the analysis of the challenge and the
approach to overcome it, before offering feedback in plenary discussion.
The Council was substantially in agreement of the analysis of the challenge as expressed in the
draft paper. Members also voted on a scale of 5-1 to indicate their degree of ownership of the
proposed strategy. This resulted in a majority expressing support, albeit with some indicating
reservations, and with no-one opposed.
Matters arising – Diocesan Synod
Members received an update from the Diocesan Secretary on the Parish Share consultation at
Synod which had indicated broad continuing support for the offer/pledge system. It was clear that
a more transparent level of challenge to individual parishes was required and would be welcomed,
but the relative success of the 2015 campaign had helped in terms of practice and engagement.
Although a small number of more recent pledges had been reductions, overall, the increase in
pledge was £235k, to £5.185m. It was noted that 16 parishes had yet to pledge, which made up
5% of the total parish share income.
In the light of the decision to have an enlarged Diocesan Synod, Bishop Mike highlighted the
importance of encouraging clergy and church members to stand for election, making Synod a more
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representative body. Proposals would be brought forward to the next Bishop’s Council for some
potential reforms to make the Council more effective.
Education leadership
The Diocesan Secretary and David McGregor introduced a proposal to appoint a Deputy Director
of Education & Deputy CEO of the Diocese of Bristol Academies Trust (DBAT) to succeed the
Senior School Effectiveness Officer who had resigned in January.
This proposal would maintain the integration of DBE and DBAT, resolve questions being asked by
the Regional Schools Commissioner concerning MAT succession planning, meet leadership
capacity issues for both DBE and DBAT and ensure school improvement services were
maintained. The role would be split approximately 30:70 between DBE and DBAT but would be a
DBF employee.
The Bishop’s Council approved the proposal. DBAT Directors and DBE Standing Committee had
already given their approval and the post is currently being advertised.
Business of the Directors
Diocesan Support Services Review
The Diocesan Secretary introduced a paper regarding the review and the proposed reorganisation
of the Diocesan Support Services authorised at the November meeting.
The proposals were designed to create a clear, coherent and robust organisational structure. The
result would be to distribute teams and management responsibilities more effectively, particularly
reducing the quantity of line management responsibility held by the Diocesan Secretary; clarifying
and simplifying reporting lines; diminishing isolation, compartmentalization and resilience/single
point of failure issues; aligning activity and structure to core support service purpose and strategy.
The proposal outlined five teams plus HR and Safeguarding reporting separately to the Diocesan
Secretary, rather than the existing 12 sections. These teams are: Education, Ministry
Development, Finance, Governance & Property, Parish & External Relations.
The major changes are bringing property, schools building and office facilities management
together with synodical and Mission & Pastoral Committee support; and creating a new Parish &
External Relations team to ensure coordinated communication and support to parishes, including
Youth & Children’s Adviser, Disability Adviser, Ecumenical & Global Partnership Officer,
Communications, Church Buildings and other commissioned support. A new post of Head of
Parish & External Relations would be recruited to lead that team with a particular brief of offering
and coordinating mission support as part of the Diocesan Strategy.
Most other changes involved amendments to reporting lines, teams and job descriptions and redesignations of job titles.
The Diocesan Secretary confirmed that, as a result of reductions in staffing at the end of 2014, all
proposals were within the 2015 budget. The Diocesan Support Services staffing budget has
reduced by 18.5% in real terms between the beginning of 2013 and 2015.
The proposals were welcomed as clear and appropriate and the Diocesan Secretary was
authorised to implement them and develop a recruitment plan for the Head of Parish & External
Relations.
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