"With prayer and gratitude"

A message from Bishop Patrick McKinney, Bishop of Nottingham

Launch of a Diocesan Mission Enabling Team

The long talked about Mission Enabling Team (MET), a sub-committee of the Diocesan Board of Directors, is now established and has agreed its Terms of Reference. The team will provide a report to the Board of Trustees, at least annually, and will ensure good two-way communication with the Finance sub-committee of the Board of Trustees, and with the whole diocese through reports and an ongoing conversation

To begin with, there is a small interim membership of the MET who will serve for a 1 year term It is very deliberately a small group made up of a Dean (Fr Dominic O’Connor) a Lay Diocesan Trustee (Anne Morton) a Lay person (Ann Neale) a Deacon (Warren Peachey) the COO (David Lawes) and myself as Chair It is hoped that our new Director of Youth Services (Erin Doughty) will join the team once she has had a chance to settle in Several diocesan Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will provide input to the MET (such as, their expertise, best practice from elsewhere, insights on possible new initiatives, etc) They are Joe Hopkins (Director of Adult Formation for Mission), Tom Baptist (Director of Chaplaincy for the Our Lady of Lourdes CMAT, Paul Bodenham (Programme Leader for Social Action - Caritas), Karen Foong our Director for OGF and Naomi Roberts, our Director of Communications

The SMEs will offer insights on potential new initiatives, propose ideas, be consulted and provide updates on their work, its progress and impact; they will act as champions for the 3 diocesan themes: Encounter, discipleship and mission; they will encourage and support the cross fertilisation of ideas and best practice and support the underpinning of all our diocesan work in prayer and firm reliance upon the Holy Spirit.

In turn, these key people will receive direction from the MET whose purpose is three-fold:

To set direction and priorities for the diocese to help enable it to become more missionary and outwardfacing with the three themes of ENCOUNTER, DISCIPLESHIP and MISSION acting as guideposts for this work of evangelisation; the team will seek to foster a culture of mission and evangelisation that is grounded in prayer and openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit; and to help encourage a closer working together by diocesan agencies on the priorities that will be drawn up by the MET, in dialogue with these agencies, so that it becomes clearer what our mission priorities are at any given moment in the life of the diocese

To drive forward this culture of mission and evangelisation within the diocese by reviewing what’s bearing fruit and what isn’t; encouraging collaboration between diocesan teams, curia departments, and parishes and schools; and to help to create ways of measuring the impact of the various initiatives that are going on at any given time in the diocese.

It will agree criteria and make recommendations to the Finance sub-committee of the Diocesan Trustees with regard to the funding of bids for mission projects and initiatives.

The MET will meet at least nine times each year. For the first six months (beginning next month, June 2023) it will meet monthly, which may be in-person or on-line, so as to get it off to a good, focussed, start. The frequency of the meetings will then be reviewed.

The purpose of this Mission Enabling Team, as a sub-committee of the diocesan Board of Directors, is to support and advise the Board on the progress of the diocese towards becoming more missionary, and to receive feedback. In addition to giving a report to the Diocesan Board at least once a year, it will share updates with the Deans, the Council of Priests, Bishops’ Council, the whole diocese, at least annually and also seek input from each of those groups, so that there is a true dialogue going on within the diocese - a presenting and a listening.

We have reached this point thanks to the facilitation of Fiona O’Reilly, working in her capacity as a freelance facilitator with experience of supporting dioceses in many different countries.

Find out more about Erin in the next edition!

New Director of Youth Services – Erin Doughty

Erin Doughty, the new Director of Youth Services based at the Briars, the diocesan Youth Retreat Centre in Crich, Derbyshire, comes from the Archdiocese of Birmingham Erin brings a huge amount of experience of working in Soli House, a similar Retreat House to The Briars, and also of outreach into schools and into parishes (formation of Parish Youth Workers) She takes up her post next month on 1st June, but already has been meeting with the staff at The Briars and the Trustees The Diocesan Youth Services Trustees have also had a very fruitful meeting with Erin We look forward to welcoming Erin! I welcome this opportunity to thank Joe Farmer for the great work he has done as interim Director while awaiting the appointment of the new postholder

In the next issue I’ll share with you a few more aspects of what’s currently happening throughout the diocese in terms of becoming more outward looking and missionary We still face many challenges, but there’s some good things happening!

With prayer and gratitude,