Last week I attended the five day training on community organising put on by Citizens UK. It was a fascinating week with a range of people from churches, mosques, trade unions, charities and political parties. It was great to meet so many interesting people and learn with and from them.

The training began with some lessons in the importance of power. We re-enacted the dialogue between the powerful Athenians and the less powerful Melians - which eventually led to a war followed by death or slavery for the Melians. We learnt that power in itself is neither good nor bad, but it's important to analyse and understand power - or you might end up like the Melians...

We struggled a bit with the issue of power - particularly when we were asked, "Are you hungry for power?" This felt somehow 'dirty' but we were encouraged to think of 'power with' rather than 'power over'. In other words, it is important that power emerges out of relationships and common interests - which means that you first need to establish the self-interest of each person. What is it that they want?

We then spent some time working on the concept of a one-to-one - a person to person conversation with the aim of discovering common interests and developing leaders. Citizens may be about communities and institutions, but it seems to me that the basis of citizens (and the reason why it works) is that it is based on real relationships between real people. If the course did nothing else it reminded us of this.

On Wednesday night we headed off to Tower Hamlets for an 'Action'. The particular action in question involved a few hundred local residents meeting mayoral candidates - asking them publicly to support an agenda developed by the local community which included local affordable housing, the living wage and some very specific issues relating to young people. The candidates responded positively to most of the points put to them and the event was chalked up as a success by the organisers.

On Thursday morning we got to try an action out for ourselves, organising a mock meeting about a road junction. We only had forty minutes to prepare for this but I was impressed with the way we pulled together and made it happen - by following the Citizens methodology. You see, I think you could question the language, concepts and ideas that we were taught on the course but I think it is important to note that the model works and it achieves what it aims to do: it brings people together in mutually beneficial relationships; helps them to develop an agenda based on common interests; it gives them power because they work together and it has an impact on the decision-makers who control real resources. Thursday's mock action was a real high-point of the week for me because it demonstrated that ordinary people can make a difference by using a few simple tools.

After the high-point of the two 'actions' we spent the final two days looking at the way that the methodology of community organising can be used to help build up local institutions. The argument from Citizens is that if a local alliance of institutions like churches, synagogues, mosques and trade-unions is to function well - then the institutions themselves need to be healthy. This means that Citizens UK needs to encourage and nurture the local institutions that are its members.

We looked at a few tools and I think there are a lot of things that we could learn:

Individual Meetings: One-to-Ones
The heart of community organising is the idea of a face-to-face meeting to gain understanding of individuals, their concerns and their interests. These one-to-one meetings can lead to the discovery of shared interests and produce a working relationship that leads to more. One-to-ones are also necessary if you are to identify new leaders and grow the capacity of your organization.
I don't think this is a new idea, and many of us have been working in this way for years - but it is worth reminding ourselves of the importance that these simple open-ended face-to-face meetings have. They are worth planning and setting time aside for.

Training
Again, if an organization is to grow, then the leaders need to set aside time (and money) to train more leaders. New leaders need to be identified, mentored, supported, challenged and encouraged.
Once again, it is worth noting that there is nothing new here. It's what Jesus did - but in our busy bureaucratic church, it's easy to get caught up in tasks, projects and meetings. It's also all too easy to do things ourselves - rather than train other people - but training is essential if people (and institutions) are to grow.

Know your institution and your neighbourhood
On the five day course, we were often reminded of the need to map relationships, power and interests. It is clear than a good understanding of the relationships in your church and community is essential if you are to take action effectively. We often rush into action without thinking first, but it's important to know who has power to support or block a good idea.
Jesus said something about only building a tower when you know you have enough resources to finish the job... This kind of mapping is very wise if you want to achieve something rather than merely talk...

Action and Evaluation
Another piece of good advice from the Citizens methodology is to start with the reactions that you want and work back from them. Rather than have vague hopes, it is better to have specific goals and design your action with these goals in mind. It's also important to spend time evaluating your action so that you can build unity and strength for the future - and improve. Having a goal that you can celebrate makes you feel positive about taking on another challenge.

As a practical example of this methodology in action, the trainers told us about a church that they had worked with. This church used community organising tools to run a stewardship campaign. Firstly, a team of three were appointed. This team was trained and supported and then carried out one-to-ones with a larger group. This larger team was then trained to visit all the members of the church for one-to-one meetings at which stewardship was discussed. A specific target and time-scale was agreed, which was announced in church and then celebrated at its conclusion. The church raised the money it needed for a new building - and built a team of visitors who were keen to take on new tasks.

This example of a stewardship campaign is fairly pertinent in Milton Keynes since a number of churches are thinking about stewardship at the moment. There are lessons here for us to learn... but not just about stewardship. We could use some of these simple tools offered by community organizing to achieve things that we may think are too difficult at the moment...

I know that some people are still unsure about Citizens and think it may be a waste of time. I have to say that I am more convinced than ever that it's worth giving this a go. If we can get enough people together, we really could make a difference - and we will certainly learn a lot on the way - about each other - and about how to work more effectively as individuals and communities.

I started off my advent art project with a session at St Mary's in Shenley - joining people at the weekly Wednesday morning open church event. The first Sunday of Advent included the reading about the day of the Lord coming as a thief in the night. We discussed different images of thieves and security and put together a collage of images which I will (hopefully) turn into a painting...

The next session will be on Wednesday 20th October (again at St Mary's) but I'm open to taking Advent 3 and 4 elsewhere...

On Monday, I attended the quarterly Area Deans and Lay Chairs' Day. It included an opportunity to share experiences of 'Living Faith' - particularly in 'Sustaining the Sacred Centre'. The Area Deans discussed deanery web sites and schools work.

In the afternoon we met the new Human Resources adviser who will help us with the move towards Common Tenure - the new framework for the employment of clergy. Questions were raised and some tricky issues were discussed...

I took the service at All Saints' MK Village today (Sunday 19th). It was good to be back with them again. I preached on justice - dishing out sweets to a number of individuals indicated by a start on their notice sheet. Each 'winner' was then given a generous handful creating a situation of gross unfairness. We discussed possible responses to injustice, including being a door mat or engaging in some form of violence. We finished with the image of a garden - often used by the prophets as an image for God's people. This suggests a number of ideas including partnership, natural growth, support and the need for careful gardening. I then left them to work out what to do - which I hope suggested the way that local collaborative decision-making can solve a 'wicked' problem - and models solutions to bigger issues on a global scale...

Having encouraged colleagues at chapter to go to the financial consultations I felt that I should really go myself...

Brian Newey, chair of the board of finance, explained how their pre-recession financial planning helped keep share increases even but that this was difficult to do in the post-recession context. Church members incomes are under pressure, membership numbers are down and churches are dipping into reserves.
Brian did indicate that, over all, the church of England is coping well - particularly when good stewardship processes are in place. The commitment of our congregations is a strength and we reclaim a higher level of tax than other charities. He also pointed to big savings in staff costs at national and regional level.
As far as the Diocese of Oxford is convened, we are in a good position but there are real pressures. There are normally around 30 vacancies at any one time, but this has dropped to nearly nothing - possibly as a result of partners job insecurity. This change results in an extra £400,000 in expenditure. Challenges are also ahead due to the massive number of priests (40%) who will retire over the next 10 years.
The average share increase for the coming year will need to be 3% - partly to cope with the additional expenditure.
Brian challenged us to think ahead. Are there new things that we will want to do? There will be 20% fewer clergy in ten years time. There will be new areas of housing. Clergy need high moral to face the challenges and lead change. How will we adapt to this changing context?

Nigel Wearne explained the forecast and budget in detail. We have already been using these figures to calculate share allocation for 2011.
Nigel pointed out that most of the boards of the diocese have additional income streams that generate money to finance their work. The board of mission generates around £200,000 and the board of education generates £180,000...
Nigel worked through the assumptions that are used to calculate share. These are changing: stipends and salaries only to increase by 1%; pension contributions have gone up significantly but gave peaked; diocesan cost increases have dropped from 2% to 0%; building repair cost increases hve dropped from 6.7% to 2.7% and the average diocesan share increase is at 3%.
having said this, the stipend budget has actually gone up to 4.5% extra for 2010 - because of the unexpected drop in the number of vacancies - worth £45,000 per post! Overall, the increase in parish ministry costs have gone up by 5.1%! Nigel did make the point that there is no policy of keeping vacancies long to save money, but the effect of fewer vacancies is considerable. The diocesan budget for clergy costs in 2009 was £17,693,000 within an overall budget of £22,608,000 going up to £23,629,000 in 2010 - most of which must be found from the parishes. The forecast for deficit in 2010 is £828,000 up from £318,000 in 2009 - driven up by low number of vacancies and down by real terms cuts in salaries. This will need to be taken from reserves. Nigel warned that financial planning will need to drive deployment policy if the reserves run down much further...


Questions and comments from the floor:
- Q. how much do we have in reserves? A. 4 to 5 months of expenditure - dropping...
- Q. How much does each minister cost and how is it broken down? A. On web site
- 2011 figures look too optimistic in view of coming public sector cuts. Q. Is the budget realistic? A. So far things are holding up well. Increases have been kept down. We are in an austere situation. If things don't go as well as expected in 2011 we will survive through reserves... Further changes in budget, nationally and locally may still need to be made. We are not on 'steady as you go'.
- pressure will be high in 2011 with changes to gift and grant aid and increases in utilities and other costs. Meeting increases will be difficult.
- changes in vacancy level has hurt us financially. When will the advantage of a 20% cut in clergy due to retirement cut in? Julian Hubbard questioned the figures and pointed out that we may not see these reductions in Oxford Diocese. Rosemary Pierce pointed out that there is a real divide between dioceese that don't have vacancies and dioceese who can't recruit.

Rosemary said 35% churches had grown but 42% had reduced in membership. 46% of churches said that their income had increased. 58% of churches are dipping into reserves to pay share.

Brian Newey talked a bit about possible changes to share allocation between deaneries. Ideas are being developed. The diocese wants a more transparent system which indicates the spilt between running costs and training. Membership and income are the main factors but costs drive increases and reductions in some cases.

Brian also talked about the 'recovering deaneries' scheme and the issue of very large churches. Some deaneries are looking at ways of moderating the impact of fee income between parishes. This was particularly interesting to note since our DPC asked for something like this at it's last meeting. I'm going to ask Brian for details as to what schemes have been considered.

There was an interesting conversation about vacancies and share. The proposal was made that deaneries not allocate full share to churches who have vacancies but spread the ballance between the other parishes as an example of mutual support. Apparently we do get an 8% reduction when we have a vacancy. For example we could charge the vacant church 20% (equivalent to non-parochial costs) and the spread the rest evenly between all churches of the deanery. Could be worth considering in MK...

It was an interesting morning and I learnt more about our diocesan finances. Attendance from MK was low and none of my ordained colleagues came after all. I'd like to think that this means people are generally happy with the way things are going - and understand the details. I'm fairly sure this is not the case however but I suspect that people generally feel that there's not much they can do - or that they won't be heard.

On the other hand, I think that this consultation confirmed my suspicion that a real financial crisis is just around the corner - and will result in a major re-alignment of finance and deployment. I would like this to happen in an intentional way but I fear that decisions will be made through some process of crisis management.

It's been a slightly bizarre week. The summer is over and life is starting again with a vengeance. This feels particularly pointed this year, because I tried to keep things quiet in August - consciously keeping meetings to a minimum. There is great value in finding a good cycle of work and refreshment but it can be a bit of shock to come back to the business of ordinary life.

Since coming back from Greenbelt I've had a wedding (at All Saints' MK Village), a baptism (at Christ the Vine) and a Funeral (in Watling Valley). I attended Peter Ballantine's support group, and meetings of the pioneer minister project group, the Deanery Leadership Team and the Walton Team. I've been to morning prayer at St Mary's Shenley and met with people from Common Purpose and UCMK, and more...

In amongst the meetings and occasional offices, there was time for a farewell to Watling Valley - for both myself and Liz Baker - and for Dave Bell's licensing. It's been a busy week with lots of changes but that's September for you. It's time to rethink and refocus as a new year begins. I'm praying that it will be a good one.

I've just become a trustee of the Trinity Centre in Fishermead. This is a great privilege because it's a wonderful place with a lot going on. The centre is owned jointly by church and the council in one of those complicated arrangements that we have in Milton Keynes. I'm not sure I understand how it works, but I'm sure I'll work it out...

Trinity Church, who are based there, are a great bunch of people and seem to be going from strength to strength. It's great to see their continuing joy and passion - and their commitment to the area.

In the photo you can just about see the minister, Heather Pollard, who is working hard to develop the congregation, the building and their mission. John (on the left) is full of energy and is a real ambassador for the church. Well done all!

Odd project on today. I was asked to record a short 'vox pop' for the titles of the new BBC Sunday morning religious programme. We recorded it by Skype. I passed the details on to some other people in Milton Keynes, so we may have a few local faces on display. Tune in on Sunday morning... (or catch it on iplayer...)

Sunday was a good day. I really enjoyed seeing some of our projects in Milton Keynes bearing fruit - from the fresh and original to the familiar and traditional. It was great to see some of our diverse projects working well.

I visited Willen church in the morning. I had been asked to come and talk about fresh expressions. We had a great discussion about the importance of listening to your community, working within your resources and nurturing new life. It was great to be with the people of Willen in their lovely church - and it will be interesting to see how they develop...

Over at St Mary's Shenley the congregation were beginning a very particular form of 'fresh expression' as they explored their Anglo-catholic roots.

St Mary's was re-ordered at the turn of the twentieth century and was designed with more catholic worship in mind. During the latter part of the twentieth century there was a tenancy to think that this was all 'old hat' and that more 'modern' styles of worship would be more popular...

I think there is increasing realisation that diverse traditions are good things in worship and church. Different people respond to different things. Mystery and wonder can be explored in a variety of ways and some of the more traditional forms of worship have a great deal to teach and inspire us with...

So, St Mary's are trying a high mass four times a year. They're building up a new team of servers and trying to build up some expertise. It will be interesting to see how this develops...

Over at All Saints Loughton in the afternoon, I took my second baptism service there since the re-ordering was completed. The new position of the font makes baptism services more intimate - which is great for families, but a new challenge for worship leaders...

And finally - I finished the day in the pub in Woolstones. The congregation are now meeting there (experimentally) twice a month. They seem to have learned a lot about how to do church in a pub... Well done to them!

So it was quite a day. I'm really pleased to see things develop in so many different ways...

I had a great time at St Mary's Willen on Sunday 4th July. We talked about fresh expressions and shared ideas. It was good to be with them.
Here they are wishing everyone a happy 4th of July.

One of the things that has changed in the time I have known Milton Keynes is the massive increase in diversity. I remember my first visit to the city in 1988 when my parents moved back to MK. The thing I remember being most surprised by - coming up from a three week training course in the east end of London - was the huge number of white faces. Times have changed...

In 2010 we have a very diverse city which is really wonderful. There are now numerous black-led churches and the diversity of our congregations has increased. Unfortunately, however, there are still misunderstandings and suspicions.

Which is why it was so great to see Pastor Biya's presentation on African Spirituality at the Evangelical Church Leaders' meeting. He described the origin, roots and features of African spirituality in a clear and really helpful way. I was particularly struck by the high respect that there is for the 'Holy man' in the church. We agreed that things are generally a bit different in most white-majority churches... It was also interesting to note the challenge that black-majority churches have with fluidity and therefore capacity building... As I say, it was a very helpful presentation.

We all agreed that there is much more that could be done to break done barriers and create more opportunities for collaboration and partnership. I pray that we will have opportunities to do this across the Deanery. It will benefit us all!

On Monday 28th June I visited the OU Christian Forum and took a session on the discernment of spiritual gifts using the material we produced as part of the Viewpoints course in Watling Valley. We had a good discussion. I particularity appreciated the comment that, if God gives us the gifts we need to fulfil our mission, then if we knew how he was gifting our churches we could work out what he's calling us to do...

Many people in Milton Keynes will remember Alastair Wood who worked in Scripture Union but was also a member of Watling Valley Ecumenical Partnership.

On Sunday 27th June, I had the privilege of preaching at his first communion service at Holy Trinity in Headington Quary - the church attended by C.S. Lewis.

It was great to see how well he (and the whole family) were getting on and how warmly they had been welcomed.

Alastair is a pioneer ministry curate and is exploring new ways to reach out into the local community...

Diocesan Synod met on Saturday 26th June. Various things were discussed and decisions made - with some significance to Milton Keynes:

Heaven in Ordinary: Bishop John presented a new DVD on 'sustaining the sacred centre through creativity'. I've been given a number of copies which I can distribute through Chapter or Pastoral Committee.

Annual Reports: Annual reports for the various diocesan bodies (including the Board of Finance) were received.

Budget and Share: We looked at the forecast for finance in 2010 and noted that there has been very little movement of ministers, possibly because the wider economic climate makes it less likely that clergy partners will be willing to let go of their own jobs... There are normally around thirty vacancies at any one time so this can be a significant amount of money. The Diocese does not plan long vacancies to save money, but thirty vacancies represents a significant saving - so this represent the equivalent of thirty extra posts!

There will be no 'cost of living' salary increase for Church House staff and their wages will now be reviewed with clergy in 2011. The Diocese has committed to an average 3% increase in share for 2011 - capped at 5% for heavily subsidised deaneries like Milton Keynes. Our share for 2011 is therefore budgeted to be £566,265 (74.4% of costs). There are no detailed breakdowns available yet, so the Deanery Finance Committee will only be able to give draft prediction of parish share for 2011.

Building Better Neighbourhoods: There was a presentation about a research project called 'Building Better Neighbourhoods' which attempted to look at the way faith communities contribute to the well-being of local communities. Churches generally prioritise 1) Children and young people, 2) Older people and 3) Local communities. Government generally wants to co-opt faith groups to serve their own agenda but faith groups are driven by grass-roots passion, gifts and calling. Government needs to recognise this and work with faith groups on their own terms...

General Synod: Elections for general synod are coming up. Two retiring members spoke about the privilege and importance of standing...

Farewell to Bishop of Reading: Bishop John led a tribute and farewell to Stephen Cotterell who closed the meeting with reflection and prayer.

The Citizensmk listening campaign began at a meeting at the MK Academy on Thursday 24th. Seventeen communities made a commitment to listen to 1,600 people. This included five parishes/LEPs who have been involved in one way or other.

The aim of this next phase is to listen to the concerns of ordinary people across the city - through one to ones, small groups etc... - the communities will meet again in September to see if some issues arise from this on which action could be taken.

Although it was good to see a number of churches present at the meeting, there is a danger that we end up with too many churches so it will be really important to identify non-religious community groups who might become members. We need balance and diversity if this is going to work...

It was a good evening and many people felt quite excited about the next stage...

The Door is our diocesan newspaper and it comes out once a month. It is paid for by advertising and is targeted at church members. Some people love it and look forward to every issue - while others don't pick it up at all...

On Thursday 24th I was invited to a meeting at the Bishop's house in Great Missenden to meet the editorial team, review the last issue and talk about the months ahead. It was an interesting meeting and fascinating to see the thought process that goes in to creating this paper.

One major subject of discussion was distribution. More copies are sent to parishes than are usually distributed. In more than 70% of churches, the papers are left in a pile by the Door and may, or may not, be picked up. They are more likely to be read if someone stands by the door (with the Doors) and dishes them out. It's also helpful if it's mentioned from the front.

We also discussed a number of ideas for the future and it'll be interesting to see how many of these appear in the months ahead...

We're now into church visit season which means a whistle-stop tour of the churches in Milton Keynes... David, our new Lay Chair, and I have had two wonderful evenings this week visiting six churches... Bit by bit the team will get round all twenty-eight...

This is always a great privilege since we get to see the rich variety of church buildings and communities that exist in our city. We also get to meet some incredible people and find out what's going on around the place....

These visits leave me thinking...

...about the significance of demographic change and its impact on congregations...
...about the way we can learn from each other...
...about the challenges that our churches face...

...and so on...

It will be interesting to see what we learn when the challenges and celebrations are pulled together at the end...

Some of you will remember that I painted seven pictures during Lent - following the readings set for each week. I'm going to sell these over the Summer in aid of Trust Greenbelt - a charity which aims to use the arts to liberate creativity in face of exclusion, exploitation and injustice.

See: Lent Paintings

Let me know which picture you would like, how much you want to give for it - and what you plan to do with it.

I'll make my decision later in the term - there may need to be a couple of rounds if everyone wants the same picture.

I'll let you know how to make your donation since Trust Greenbelt will be able to claim gift aid.

On Tuesday morning I had the privilege of presiding at Communion in Holy Trinity Wolverton. Holy Trinity is a lovely church tucked away in Old Wolverton. It has an incredible round window - which for some reason always makes me think of hobbits...

There is a small but faithful congregation who meet at 10:00am each Tuesday morning. I'm sure they'd be delighted if you wanted to pop along and join them one week.

On Tuesday evening David Thom carried out his first church visit as Lay Chair. It was a joy to be with him on this visit because he decided to take his self-build car out for the evening. It was great to drive through the country lanes with the wind in my hair - although I'm glad their weren't too many bugs!

Church visits take place each year and are an opportunity for deanery officers to meet and get to know church wardens. There is a form that needs to be filled in and some checks which take place.

I do enjoy church visits because they do give you a real opportunity to see what's going on in our churches and what challenges people are facing. It's amazing what's going on across the deanery. I really wish more people had the opportunity to go and see...

The form we fill in has got longer this year - which is what forms tend to do... The questions are sensible however and worth asking but it does take a bit more time. We have always been required to check the church linen - a wonderful tradition! - but we now need to ask about health and safety, child protection, key holders and guidelines for people working in the church alone...

As I say, the questions and checks are all sensible and can be really helpful. Church wardens
work very hard and are incredibly committed - and also incredibly busy. The checks are a really helpful reminder of the things that ought to be done - but can be forgotten in the business of church life...

All Saints' Calverton is a beautiful country church and has been lovingly maintained and cared for by a small but committed congregation. On Tuesday evening David and I met the churchwardens Jane and Charlie who showed us around their wonderful building.

They made us feel very welcome and it was a joy to spend time with them.

Although the congregation is small they manage to keep the church in a really good state of repair. It looks loved and cared for. There's a new car park - which was given to the church - the wiring has been re-done and the new kitchen and toilets are very useful.

Apparently, the annual fete is well attended and is a good fund-raiser. The church tower is open for this and I'm sure the views are astonishing!

The challenge for All Saints' is the future. The congregation is small, but the population of the parish is about to rise dramatically with the new housing developments along Watling Street. A few years ago we redrew the parish boundaries to put the whole of this new area in Calverton parish. There is a real opportunity for All Saints to grow and develop as it seeks to serve this new community - but new opportunities bring new challenges...

Please pray for the church wardens and congregation of All Saints' Calverton as they prepare for the challenge ahead. Ask God to draw new members to the church who can share in its mission and ministry - and let's give thanks for those who have served it so faithfully over the years.

On Tuesday my grandmother celebrated her 90th Birthday.

She's been in Milton Keynes since 1981 and used to live in Bradwell. My grandparents were part of a musical group called the Belfounder Follies which put on shows in residential homes during the 1980's. She did the costumes and my grandfather did some silly songs...

Happy birthday nan!

When the last vicar left Water Eaton there was a great deal of discussion about how ministry should be provided in this parish. We couldn't justify putting another full time minister in and there was no sensible twinning arrangement that would suit the congregation. We tried to recruit a house for duty priest but couldn't find the right person...

In the end the suggestion was made that Water Eaton pilot a different way of doing ministry - adopting a local shared ministry style. Their plan was for two retired clergy to join the congregation - providing some priestly ministry - while the congregation developed a more collaborative approach. The bishop was very supportive and gave them his permission and encouragement - visiting the Church in October 2009 to give them his official seal of approval.

One of the terms of the pilot project was that there would be an annual review which would help with the development of the project and give the congregation an opportunity to say whether it is working or not - and therefore whether they want to continue with the experiment...

On Monday the second annual review took place (combined with the annual church visit).

It was great to see how many of their previous priorities (which they had set themselves) had been achieved over the past eighteen months! Andrew Gear (Parish Development Officer) pointed out that this was a great achievement. Many churches set priorities but don't follow through. Over twenty people turned up for the two hour meeting. The atmosphere was good and a number of new ideas and further thoughts were discussed...

I was pleased to have this affirmation that things had been going well. The congregation of St Frideswide have demonstrated that a low maintenance model of church is possible and can be amazingly productive. It was also good to see them thinking of the future and looking for further ways to grow and develop.

Well done St Frideswide! - and good luck for the next phase of your development!

I went to one of the Community Organising training sessions organised by Citizens:mk on Saturday. It was good to meet up with people from all sorts of communities in Milton Keynes and I left with some invitations to visit.