Tonight I have been to Bishop’s council where we have been discussing the joining of three dioceses: Bradford, Ripon and Leeds and Wakefield. It’s a very emotive subject, in other words in some ways everybody loses and so everybody is equally unhappy about it.
I must say that it was being discussed in quite a grown up way with a lot of humour and good grace. As if to emphasise the problems our diocese has in order to have this meeting of an hour and a half I had to go on a hour and a half journey.
There was an interesting discussion as to whether we ought to be turning three diocese into one or whether it would be better to have six diocese. It was pointed out that just as the rest of the world was abandoning mega organisations the church was discovering them.
Is small beautiful? In terms of effectiveness probably yes.
Is big beautiful? In terms of finances probably yes.
So what we need is a big organisation for finances and a small one for effectiveness.
Hmmmn.
It turns out that size does matter after all.
Anyone fancy medium sized?
