A Work in Progress

The work of the group is, essentially, a three-stage process: audit, consultation, planning. The fourth stage, implementation, will be the responsibility of all of us, though the Vestry may decide that the Mission and Development Group should carry on in some form in order to co-ordinate things.

The group has now almost finished the first stage, the audit. The purpose of this audit has been to look at our life as a congregation, firstly past, and then present: notable events, things that worked, things that didn’t, strengths, weaknesses, how things were done, issues of power, authority, responsibility, relations with the wider world, etc. This has been demanding work and members of the group have each brought their own perspective and their own experiences of congregational life to bear which hasn’t always made for a comfortable ride but which has helped deepen our understanding greatly. Though we have used the Nine Marks of Mission to help us focus our thinking and discussions, this part of the process has been relatively unstructured and non-directive, and we have been able to explore and reflect freely. We are now at the stage of trying to draw together all the different strands that emerged from this part of the process in order to give us a coherent picture of where we think we are – of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges and of how we ‘measure up’ against the Nine Marks of Mission.