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Synod Snippets

Synod Snippets Autumn 2021

Synod Snippets is designed to help Synod members communicate what’s happening at Swindon Deanery Synod with their PCCs and wider congregations and provide points for discussion at and feedback from PCCs.

Please share all the information below widely in your parishes.  Cutting and pasting the information into notice sheets and parish magazines as appropriate is encouraged!

If you want further information about anything below where there is not a contact listed, please email

rev.trudie@wigley.org.uk or Sally.robertson27@btinternet.com

Post-Covid recovery

At Deanery Synod in May we identified 5 areas where help and coordination across the Deanery could be helpful in the post-Covid (or at least post-lockdown) period.  Here’s an update on each

  • Live streaming Services
    • Many churches still have some presence on-line, though not all
    • Advice can be shared by churches which are using different technologies
    • Church of England Digital labs website (https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/church-england-digital-labs) has lots of useful information and runs webinars on various issues.
  • Children’s work
    • There is concern across the deanery about the number of children’s leaders who have stepped down.
    • Is there anyone who could produce (with support) a video to aid recruitment of children’s workers across the deanery?
  • Schools work
    • Watch out for details of an Education focussed synod next year
    •  Liz Townend (Director of Education for Bristol Diocese) has produced a really helpful guide to good church engagement with schools and how to develop it.  You will find it here
  • Engaging with those we have lost touch with -  which is similar to
  • Outreach and Pastoral care –
    • We would love to explore a social media presence for the deanery, so that information and events can be more easily shared, so we are looking for a deanery social media advisor and content manager.  Who in your congregation could fill this role?
    • The Diocesan Communications team are very keen to engage if there are press releases etc we want to put out about events or good news stories.  You can contact them on comms@bristoldiocese.org.

Racial Justice

At our July Synod, we discussed how to make our churches more welcoming by engaging in inter-cultural worship.  In October, Revd Anjali Kanagaratnam, a curate in the Bybrook Benefice near Chippenham, challenged us in a video (watch it here) to take 2 small steps to increase our inter-cultural welcome.

  1. Include a small act of cultural hospitality in services, for example
  • using part of a liturgy from another culture
  • using images or music drawn from non-western culture

Anjali recommends the following links to resources to help with this

Songs2Serve - www.songs2serve.eu 

S2S Worship Network UK - www.facebook.com/groups/s2suk 

IC-UK - http://www.icuk.network/ 

Arts Release - https://artsrelease.org/ 

  • Inclusion of global theological perspectives in sermon

It helps to ask any minority ethnic members of your congregation in planning this but even if you have none including one of these elements regularly still widens the expectations and awareness of congregation.

  1. Choose one thing you can do personally and regularly to learn about racial diversity today, for example
  • Read a book from a different ethnic theological perspective
  • Use a commentary written by someone of a different race
  • Speak to someone and listen well to their perspective on spiritual and moral issues.

On October 23rd There is an inter cultural worship workshop in Bristol Cathedral.  Details and tickets here https://bristol-cathedral.co.uk/whats-on/global-praise-an-intercultural-worship-workshop

More locally, Swindon New Town Parish provides a monthly Mass with readings and prayers in Konkani (the language of the Goan community).  The forthcoming Masses, all at St Luke’s on Broad Street, are on Saturday 20th November at 6pm, Friday 3rd December at 7pm and Saturday 1st January at 10am.  You would be very welcome to join them.  You can find a poster here

Eco church

We are keen to share best practice and encourage one another in our attempts to be more eco-friendly in our churches and beyond.  Phil Mansfield who worships at Christ Church, has taken on the role of Deanery Eco-Champion but in order to share ideas he needs to know who to contact in each church.  Please let him know the best person to contact in your church by emailing him psjabulani@gmail.com

The Diocese produces an eco bulletin every quarter, the most recent one is here

https://www.bristol.anglican.org/content/pages/documents/sept-2021-bristol-diocese-environment-briefing.pdf

There’s a series of seminars on zoom starting on 21st October with Revd Dr Mark Siddall exploring the book ‘Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World’ by Douglas J. Moo and Jonathan A. Moo.  Full details here . https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creation-care-a-biblical-theology-of-the-natural-world-tickets-165108902171

 

Living in Love and Faith

2 Deanery wide courses are starting before the end of October and more will be running early in the new year.  Some benefices are arranging courses themselves.

 

Transforming Church. Together

The Values, vision and organising Idea have been shared with Deanery Synod who discussed their initial reactions ahead of more detailed work on the strategy for the diocese in the coming years.  There will be a video available in November to share these. 

Deanery Leadership Team are discussing the strategy and how it might relate to Swindon in more detail on 4th November.  Let us know if you would like to be involved in this discussion.

 

Actions:

  1. Consider if anyone in your congregation could and let Trudie or Sally know
  • Produce a children’s worker recruitment video for the deanery
  • Be the Deanery social Media advisor and content manager
  • Link up with Phil as your parish or benefice eco-champion and let him know their contact details psjabulani@gmail.com
  1. What story or upcoming event from your benefice would be interesting to local people?  Contact comms@bristoldiocese.org for help with a press release.
  2. What 2 actions will you take towards being more racially inclusive and aware?

 

 

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