We praise and thank you, God of the journey,
For all your gifts to us in the past.
We look to you as fellow-traveller and faithful companion on the way ahead.
Shelter and protect us from all harm and anxiety;
Give us grace to let go of all that holds us back;
And grant us courage to meet the new life you have promised us
In Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Why have a Strategy?
We have a strategy to prepare for the future. We live at a time of rapid change in church and society. Strategic planning invites us to consider what we need to start doing (or stop) to be ready for an uncertain future.
A strategy also helps us work in partnership. The Diocese of Ely includes hundreds of organisations and many thousands of individuals. We are united in Christ, by personal ties and by a complex web of legal, structural and financial bonds. We will flourish when each part of the body is confident about its own calling, and knows how it fits into a wider whole. We hope that parishes, deaneries and the diocese as a whole will all have strategic plans, taking each other into account.
A particular role of the Diocesan Strategy is to provide leadership – a sense of direction, to which each parish, school or member of the church can respond in their own situation. A Startegy can also provide clarity about how the Bishops and central Diocesan team plan to support the Diocese as a whole.
The Diocese of Ely's Vision is 'to be generous and visible people of Jesus Christ'. Our current Strategy, People Fully Alive: Ely 2025, fleshes out that vision. For nearly a decade this Strategy has guided our short and medium term planning, including:
- Nurturing a confident people of God
- Developing healthy churches and leaders
- Serving the community
- Re-imagining our buildings
- Targeting support to key areas
In other terms, it commits us to:
- Engage fully and courageously with the needs of our communities, locally and globally
- Grow God's church by finding disciples and nurturing leaders
- Deepen our commitment to God through word, worship and prayer
Deanery Development
In response to the Diocesan invitation [Living Ely 2025 - click here], the fifteen Deaneries of the Diocese have set-out their own plans,to give effect to the Strategy. These plans are now in implementation.
Meanwhile, part of the central team’s work to welcome the new Diocesan Bishop includes developing extensive briefing materials about key issues facing the Diocese and options to address these. As is clear from its name, Ely 2025 has a ‘use-by’ date, and we anticipate our new Bishop will wish to set a new course, in time.
Parish plans
All Parishes in the Diocese are encouraged to form their own plans, and some suggestions about how to go about this can be found in the Development Action Plans section of the website - click here.
Unpacking our Vision
- We...
- God calls us be a part of Him and united with one another.
- We are people of Jesus Christ.
- The church is the primary way in which we are visible; as a 'we'.
- Pray...
- Our Christian life is made possible by God's presence and activity in us powered through prayer.
- All our activity and interaction needs to be underpinned in prayer.
- Generous...
- Generosity is a summary word for our response to God’s love for us.
- As God gave himself generously, unstintingly, to the world He loves, He calls us to reflect His nature.
- The gospel commands, 'Freely you have received, freely give' (Matt 10:8). Its implications run through our relationships with others in the church, with those outside the church, our use of money, and time, and so on.
- Visible...
- Daring to be out and about in the places where God has put us to work.
- Not taking refuge in our buildings, or always remaining where we are comfortable, but being present with people where they are, serving our communities, working with others for the common good.
- We are also very visible through our buildings. Often, they cannot be ignored.
- People of Jesus Christ...
- We belong to the God who bought us at a price (1Cor 6:20), the death of His Son.
- So, we do not live for ourselves, but as disciples of the one who died and rose again.
- We are His witnesses as we call others to join us to follow Him.
Diocese of Ely Growth Group
In July 2024, representatives of growing churches from the Diocese of Ely met to talk about how growth had happened for them, and what could be learned from those experiences. Invitations went to benefices whose annual statistical return suggested they were growing. The comparison was between the Worshipping Community as reported in 2016 and 2022.
This was analysed at benefice level, but then we also identified a number of individual parishes that were growing even though their benefice as a whole was not. It is recognised that church statistics are not always wholly reliable, so the Archdeacons were consulted, and added a few churches they knew to be growing.
Download the summary Report