Dear Friends,
Our diocesan Synod last week – “Chosen to tell the good story” – was a wonderful time of fellowship, worship and visioning for the future of our Diocese and God’s Church. I am so grateful to all the clergy and lay members of Synod who came to discuss and discern how the Holy Spirit is calling us to live as faithful disciples and witnesses to God’s saving work in the world. Important conversations were had, some hard decisions were made, and there is lots of work left to do. God grant that we be blessed with energy and skill to meet the challenges and opportunities in the years ahead.
Although we did pretty well in keeping to time on our agenda, we had to cut out a couple of items that I wish we could have included. One of these was the presentation on regional ministry.
Nothing illustrates the intention and possibilities of our Cast the Net strategic visioning more than regional ministry. It invites congregations to work together to sustain and expand our Anglican ministry and mission. Five years ago, leaders in the parishes in the eastern side of our Diocese began to discuss regionalization. Today, we have eight regional ministries and ministry partnerships, and this number is growing in both rural and urban areas. In these places, our Cast the Net Call #9, which asks us to actively embrace collaboration among congregations and innovation in new forms of ministry, is coming to life.
We are learning a lot. Regionalizations take time, fortitude, creativity and resources. Regional ministries are full of “this and that” dynamics. (As I like to say, “On the one hand, on the other hand…”) They are motivated by both scarcity and hope, care for the future of our individual congregations and the stewardship of our Anglican presence within a larger geography, preserving what we love and stretching ourselves in mission.
What is emerging is a vision of regionalized ministry that takes the shape of a community of churches – congregations with distinctive identities bound together by a shared understanding of what it means to be the Church, what God is calling us to in our region, and the practices of worship, outreach, education and pastoral care that embody this vision.
Our Diocese has a long and successful history of multi-point parishes, and sometimes it is hard to understand what makes regional ministry different. A few things: a community of churches always has a team ministry – priests, deacons, lay readers and lay professionals who work together from the viewpoint of the whole region. We have already placed two curates into regions to provide training in these specialized ministries. Additionally, there is an intentionality and trust among the people of the whole area, so that the network supports a vision for the whole – the churches and the spaces between the churches. New governance models are being developed to support this vision, which will hopefully reduce the administrative and management workload of leaders. And when one part of a regionalization has to contract or a congregation close, the rest of the region steps up to reimagine how ministry can happen in that place, perhaps in an innovative way.
Our Diocese’s Congregational Development and Mission department and the Regional Ministry Working Group are committed to seeing where God is leading and following with curiosity, support and resources.
Regional ministry is one of the “good stories” that I wish we could have told at Synod. But when we consider the many, many good stories that we have to tell, we know that “the world itself could not contain the books” – or rather the Synod agenda could never cover them all.
Bless you in our continuing journey.
Yours in Christ,
The Right Reverend Andrew Asbil
Bishop of Toronto
P.S. Once again, the bishops will be offering a four-week Advent Retreat series on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 25, Dec. 2, Dec. 9 and Dec. 16. We hope that you will consider joining us. You can register and receive the Zoom links HERE.
