There's a sign in our village that annonces that an old factory is blenders and sliverers. I'm not sure waht they did but someone once explained that by the blending and slivering process they brought together different wools and threads to make a stronger one.
Today has been a day for picking up threads and at the end of it I am already beginning to feel a bit more confident in my abilities to live my multitasking life.
The day started with a visit to Scout Road which is two thirds of the way through a £1,600,000 project. It’s looking lovely and the children are already beginning to fill the spaces well. I doubt anyone but parents are aware in our community of the work we are doing there preferring instead to live with a virtual image of schools as “Failing places that don’t teach tables anymore.”
From there it was to a meeting with the wonderful Louise who is currently helping to keep the Renaissance Process moving in the valley. She had good news of new people who are getting involved and longer serving people who were energised in our latest project to call our canal a linear park.
Some time was spent organising a gathering of my Deanery Clergy which will happen next week and will discuss the serious business of keeping our churches moving and growing: with stretched resources and growing demands.
Finally tonight it was down to church for an update on the St Michael’s Project which is about to move into the dynamic building phase.
The threads come together… and weaving and twisting, blending and slivering, become the stronger for it.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Monday, 29 September 2008
Here's an idea
I have an idea.
I have been thinking about getting faith communities to become involved in regeneration but maybe we need to turn it round. Why don’t we put ourselves in the Renaissance Process?
Visiting faith communities with consultants who work alongside people to look to the future. Who produce twenty five year plans that look beyond the horizon… Who empower people and see the possibilities of what they might be…Who take a longer term view and enable others take a longer term view too…
I wonder if anyone will let me do it?
I have been thinking about getting faith communities to become involved in regeneration but maybe we need to turn it round. Why don’t we put ourselves in the Renaissance Process?
Visiting faith communities with consultants who work alongside people to look to the future. Who produce twenty five year plans that look beyond the horizon… Who empower people and see the possibilities of what they might be…Who take a longer term view and enable others take a longer term view too…
I wonder if anyone will let me do it?
Sunday, 28 September 2008
a liturgical cold shower
It's my last Sunday before returning to duty and so I give myself a liturgical cold shower: 8:00a.m. Prayer book communion. Nobody talked to me on the way in, or the way out. There was no sermon, so no talking their either. You're probably expecting me to say, as is the way on the occassions that it was amazing, that I was transported to heaven by the amazing depth of silence...
However for an extrovert like me it was a kind of hell!
I wanted to scream...
I felt homesick which is good because this week I come home.
Was it worship... Yes
Was it what some needed... Yes
Will I be conducting a very similar at my own church next Sunday morning?
Probably!
Because from now on, once again it's not about me but those whom God has called to serve.
Having discovered so much about me on my travels its time for that "me" to step back for a while...
Probably.
However for an extrovert like me it was a kind of hell!
I wanted to scream...
I felt homesick which is good because this week I come home.
Was it worship... Yes
Was it what some needed... Yes
Will I be conducting a very similar at my own church next Sunday morning?
Probably!
Because from now on, once again it's not about me but those whom God has called to serve.
Having discovered so much about me on my travels its time for that "me" to step back for a while...
Probably.
Saturday, 27 September 2008
Two Marys
A good nights sleep in a travelodge and the sun is shining in Durham and the world feels a better place. I feel better too. I have to say that the Christian Resource Exhibition is a bit depressing.
As churches we all need stuff but the selling of the stuff we need and the buying is deeply depressing somehow.
I played the I want one of those but I am not sure why game. I saved myself, just, from buying a life sized cardboard cut out nativity to put outside the church. It was two for the price of one... I didn't buy it because I couldn't work out why you would need two lifesized Marys!
My suspicion is that we have two Jesus already but only one is a cardboard cutout.
As churches we all need stuff but the selling of the stuff we need and the buying is deeply depressing somehow.
I played the I want one of those but I am not sure why game. I saved myself, just, from buying a life sized cardboard cut out nativity to put outside the church. It was two for the price of one... I didn't buy it because I couldn't work out why you would need two lifesized Marys!
My suspicion is that we have two Jesus already but only one is a cardboard cutout.
Friday, 26 September 2008
Christian Resource Exhibition
Having wandered around for several hours and moved Rebecca into her new house in Durham I am now...
a bit tired!
and overloaded with leaflets.
a bit tired!
and overloaded with leaflets.
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Attending a training programme tonight with the lovely people of Todmorden Pride. It was brought to us by the Partnership Skills progamme of Yorkshire Forward... which is why it's ironic that it's on projects and not partnerships!
Still it's good and practical and well delivered... but it's about projects and not partnerships.
Which leaves you with a building but not a community collective.
It is also difficult to identify an end point.
My own preference would be that at the end of the process is when you help another project to begin.
Cloning or reproduction is the end point.
Still it's good and practical and well delivered... but it's about projects and not partnerships.
Which leaves you with a building but not a community collective.
It is also difficult to identify an end point.
My own preference would be that at the end of the process is when you help another project to begin.
Cloning or reproduction is the end point.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Cinderella's Big Yorkshrie Forward Shopping List
I have spent all today, when not feeling the effects of a mild cold trying to put something together for tomorrows board meeting with Yorkshire Forward. It was longer, it was shorter, it is now, well judge for yourself.
Cinderella's Big Yorkshrie Forward Shopping List
1 Turning up
My Big Fraser Teal Question: Why don’t people of faith join renaissance teams?
They are there but they are invisible!
Significant because they tend not to bring their resources to the discussion.
1. They currently have unmanaged workspaces which could have been managed and could grow in their capacity to support local entrepreneurs. How often have you heard someone say: "we started in a church hall."
2. They have a huge volunteer base and are significant small businesses in the communities they serve.
Case Studies
1. Methodists in Knaresborough—£1M project
2. Anglicare SA—third largest employer
3. Gateshead Metrocentre—built by church Commissioners
2 Projects, Programmes or Partners?
Key to what works well in working with communities is partnership.
UK government is brilliant at working in partnerships with faith groups but only in other countries. In this country they only want to fund projects.
e.g. Sheik Noah 1998 – helped to buy a boat
2003 – expanding the fleet
2008 – building a harbour
Could we adopt a similar approach here?
We do already in Renaissance but for how long?
Yorkshire Forward through Renaissance has been adopting a similar partnership process but is in danger of losing that original vision of community engagement at all stages of the renaissance process as it matures.
Case Studies of partnership work
1. Men’s Shed in Adelaide– growth from enthusiasm
2. Dearne Valley Ventures– Church set it up
3. Skara Diocese in Sweden—too close a partnership
3 Vision and Scaling up
e.g. Michigan Food Bank & Habitat for Humanity.
Everything I saw in America happens somewhere in Britain but it doesn’t happen everywhere. Faith Communities need skills in scaling up.
Tom said at the CDT conference the other day “Lack of ambition and aspiration is the biggest problem we face.”
For faith communities we also need vision, we don’t see that we have anything to contribute so we don’t turn up, we don’t scale up because we don’t realise how good is what we are doing.
Could we not use our Renaissance networks to find out what faith groups are doing economically and what more they could do if they were "allowed in."
Following on from the Faith and Regeneration conference that I spoke at in Halifax there is a request to do some proper research… could you helps us find funding for it?
In Sheffield they have received funding from Lottery to fund a Faith and Regeneration worker, advertised this week, it will be interesting to see what comes out of it.
Scaling up could be very simple…
Case Study
Faithworks in Scarborough
4 Renaissance Identity
Six years of community engagement in Renaissance is really beginning to work…
There lessons for faith communities in the Renaissance process which I have already tried out with a number of parishes. e.g. St Marks
Problems:
The open day and problems with your building really shows that there is a disconnectedness in your organisation which doesn’t help faith communities who tend to be seen as not fitting into any particular department well.
Local Authorities will be a barrier to faith involvement because they work on an outdated view of faith as a problem. My worry is that as in the new arrangements you are expected to deliver more closely with Local authorities you may end up losing the Renaissance advantage.
But
National Government is in policy ahead of local government in stating:
“At times there has been reluctance on the part of local authorities and agencies to commission services from faith-based groups, in part because of some confusion about the propriety of doing so. Building on the Faithworks Charter, we intend to work with faith communities to clarify the issues and to remove the barriers to commissioning services from faith-based groups.”
If we are serious about implementing government policy on this we may need to be more proactive.
e.g. Wakefield Cathedral
5 Cinderella with Amnesia
Why don’t people faith turn up?
· They are not invited
· They lack confidence
· They are not asked in the right way
But...
Faith communities are key asset holders in any community.
In the countryside they often hold the keys of two out of three key institutions –church and hall and school,… the only one they don’t hold is the pub and in one of my churches we have one of those as well.
They are there for the long term.
We are the hole in the rural donut.
People of Faith are key community asset holders but often they don’t realise it.
The Renaissance process for my church helped us to see what we had and how significant it could be for our community. This has lead to us forming a partnership with Calderdale, UCVR, Yorkshire Forward and the Church to create a market Square and Enterprise hub for our Town.
All I long to see is that process happen for other faith communities… I hope that you will continue to help us.
Faith Communities are like Cinderella with amnesia we need a prince to recognise our beauty and invite us to the ball.
Yorkshire Forward has kissed Sleeping Beauty in Scarborough could it take Cinderella to the ball in the rest of Yorkshire by finding a better way to include the Faith Communities in its approach.
Books you might find useful if you want to dig deeper.
“The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work” Andrew Mawson 2008.
“Moral, but no Compass: Government, Church and the Future of Welfare” Von Hugel Institute 2008
“Communities in Control: Real People, real power.” Communities and local Government Report 2008
Revd Cllr James Allison Chair of UCVR
Cinderella's Big Yorkshrie Forward Shopping List
1 Turning up
My Big Fraser Teal Question: Why don’t people of faith join renaissance teams?
They are there but they are invisible!
Significant because they tend not to bring their resources to the discussion.
1. They currently have unmanaged workspaces which could have been managed and could grow in their capacity to support local entrepreneurs. How often have you heard someone say: "we started in a church hall."
2. They have a huge volunteer base and are significant small businesses in the communities they serve.
Case Studies
1. Methodists in Knaresborough—£1M project
2. Anglicare SA—third largest employer
3. Gateshead Metrocentre—built by church Commissioners
2 Projects, Programmes or Partners?
Key to what works well in working with communities is partnership.
UK government is brilliant at working in partnerships with faith groups but only in other countries. In this country they only want to fund projects.
e.g. Sheik Noah 1998 – helped to buy a boat
2003 – expanding the fleet
2008 – building a harbour
Could we adopt a similar approach here?
We do already in Renaissance but for how long?
Yorkshire Forward through Renaissance has been adopting a similar partnership process but is in danger of losing that original vision of community engagement at all stages of the renaissance process as it matures.
Case Studies of partnership work
1. Men’s Shed in Adelaide– growth from enthusiasm
2. Dearne Valley Ventures– Church set it up
3. Skara Diocese in Sweden—too close a partnership
3 Vision and Scaling up
e.g. Michigan Food Bank & Habitat for Humanity.
Everything I saw in America happens somewhere in Britain but it doesn’t happen everywhere. Faith Communities need skills in scaling up.
Tom said at the CDT conference the other day “Lack of ambition and aspiration is the biggest problem we face.”
For faith communities we also need vision, we don’t see that we have anything to contribute so we don’t turn up, we don’t scale up because we don’t realise how good is what we are doing.
Could we not use our Renaissance networks to find out what faith groups are doing economically and what more they could do if they were "allowed in."
Following on from the Faith and Regeneration conference that I spoke at in Halifax there is a request to do some proper research… could you helps us find funding for it?
In Sheffield they have received funding from Lottery to fund a Faith and Regeneration worker, advertised this week, it will be interesting to see what comes out of it.
Scaling up could be very simple…
Case Study
Faithworks in Scarborough
4 Renaissance Identity
Six years of community engagement in Renaissance is really beginning to work…
There lessons for faith communities in the Renaissance process which I have already tried out with a number of parishes. e.g. St Marks
Problems:
The open day and problems with your building really shows that there is a disconnectedness in your organisation which doesn’t help faith communities who tend to be seen as not fitting into any particular department well.
Local Authorities will be a barrier to faith involvement because they work on an outdated view of faith as a problem. My worry is that as in the new arrangements you are expected to deliver more closely with Local authorities you may end up losing the Renaissance advantage.
But
National Government is in policy ahead of local government in stating:
“At times there has been reluctance on the part of local authorities and agencies to commission services from faith-based groups, in part because of some confusion about the propriety of doing so. Building on the Faithworks Charter, we intend to work with faith communities to clarify the issues and to remove the barriers to commissioning services from faith-based groups.”
If we are serious about implementing government policy on this we may need to be more proactive.
e.g. Wakefield Cathedral
5 Cinderella with Amnesia
Why don’t people faith turn up?
· They are not invited
· They lack confidence
· They are not asked in the right way
But...
Faith communities are key asset holders in any community.
In the countryside they often hold the keys of two out of three key institutions –church and hall and school,… the only one they don’t hold is the pub and in one of my churches we have one of those as well.
They are there for the long term.
We are the hole in the rural donut.
People of Faith are key community asset holders but often they don’t realise it.
The Renaissance process for my church helped us to see what we had and how significant it could be for our community. This has lead to us forming a partnership with Calderdale, UCVR, Yorkshire Forward and the Church to create a market Square and Enterprise hub for our Town.
All I long to see is that process happen for other faith communities… I hope that you will continue to help us.
Faith Communities are like Cinderella with amnesia we need a prince to recognise our beauty and invite us to the ball.
Yorkshire Forward has kissed Sleeping Beauty in Scarborough could it take Cinderella to the ball in the rest of Yorkshire by finding a better way to include the Faith Communities in its approach.
Books you might find useful if you want to dig deeper.
“The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work” Andrew Mawson 2008.
“Moral, but no Compass: Government, Church and the Future of Welfare” Von Hugel Institute 2008
“Communities in Control: Real People, real power.” Communities and local Government Report 2008
Revd Cllr James Allison Chair of UCVR
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