Regional Councils and the Diocesan Constitution

Among the items of business coming before our Diocesan Synod, for decision at a subsequent Synod, concerns the way in which we are governed as a Diocese. Particular questions have been raised about how our Regions operate, and how they participate in diocesan business. This does not merely concern abstruse issues of wider church polity, but will impact very directly on our life as a congregation.

Being a synodically governed Church means that the people of the Diocese have a voice in the life not only of their particular congregations but of the Diocese as a whole. This role is exercised principally through the Lay Representative, who is elected annually with authority not only in the Vestry, but also to speak and vote on behalf of the congregation in Diocesan Synod. An Alternate Lay Representative is also elected, and is authorised to deputise in the absence of the Lay Representative. This much is enshrined in Canon Law, and is therefore beyond the power of Diocesan Synod to change.

The Diocese covers a vast geographical area, and includes about sixty congregations of various sizes – and St Aidan’s is not one of the smallest. It has been found convenient to group congregations into Regions, each with its own structures, to facilitate discussion and consultation in more local areas. Regional Councils have served both to keep neighbouring congregations informed of matters of interest and concern in particular charges, and also when appropriate to discuss issues coming before Diocesan and General Synods. To ensure that a cross-section of the Diocese is represented in General Synod, each Regional Council currently nominates a cleric and a lay person for election by Diocesan Synod to General Synod. Similarly, and at least as importantly, each Regional Council elects a clerical and a lay representative to the Diocesan Council, the standing committee of Diocesan Synod in which much of the authority of the Synod is in effect vested. In recent years, particularly since the Growth Strategy was launched in the Diocese, Regions have increasingly become a vehicle for collaboration between congregations and their clergy.

Our Region is a relatively small one, with five congregations within a fairly confined geographical area. Our size has enabled clergy and congregations to collaborate quite closely; we are able to worship together from time to time, and it is possible to get to know members of neighbouring charges. In short, our small Region works. A recent example of our effectiveness has been the establishment of a new type of “pioneering” ministry within the Region, with the recent appointment to St Oswald’s. This project has been the fruit of collaboration between the Rectors of St Margaret’s, St Ninian’s, and St Aidan’s, whose shared knowledge and experience, and analysis of the challenges and opportunities, enabled us to formulate the vision upon which this new venture was founded. The Vestry of St Oswald’s received, with a mixture of relief, enthusiasm, and trepidation, a vision outlined to them by clergy whom they knew and trusted, and they sought a Priest who had the gifts, training, and experience to realise that vision. The successful appointment has not merely breathed new life into St Oswald’s within a very short time, but has unlocked potential for further growth and a Christian presence in neglected areas in the Region.

There are two very significant points to be made here. The first is that close collaboration among the Rectors has given us a knowledge and understanding of the wider Region, while we each remain responsible for the charge in which we have been instituted to the cure of souls. When a vacancy has arisen, we have been able to identify both the needs and the possibilities, in the vacant congregation and the area it serves, and also wider challenges and opportunities in the Region, to be considered when making a new appointment. If this pattern continues, it would enable an even greater complementarity of gifts to be built up among the clergy, to strengthen all of us in our ministry. It would also create further possibilities for collaboration and mutual support, in ways we may not be able to foresee, but which would strengthen immeasurably our ministry and witness in our area. Whether this would be possible in a very much larger Region is, at the very least, open to doubt.

The second point to be made is that the clergy do not operate alone. The Church is not a clerical domain, and it is important that, where clergy are working together, the laity should also be engaged and collaborating. For this there needs to be a forum in which representatives of the different congregations can share ideas and reach collective decisions. Mission and governance are not incompatible functions, but are integrally related; those who are engaged in the work of the Church must have a voice in directing its life, at all levels. Regional Councils therefore play a vitally important role, not only in enabling congregations to work together in furthering the mission of the Church, but also in ensuring that the needs, concerns, and interests of each Region, and of the Charges which constitute it, are represented and heard at Diocesan level.

There can be no doubt that collaboration among neighbouring congregations will be increasingly important in the life of the Church in future years. Working relationships among clergy will evolve to reflect and to support this, and it will be vitally important that governance structures enable the laity to have an effective voice in the Region and in the Diocese.