Reconciling Mission programme

The church currently faces a significant missional challenge:

• There’s a need to respond to social hardship, which has:
  - increased since the economic crash of 2008;
  - been compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic;
  - intensified through the recent cost-of-living crisis.
• There is also a need to address:
  - the ongoing climate emergency; and
  - persisting racial inequalities.

The Reconciling Mission programme has been developed to address this context. We offer:

• a vision for the emerging future of the church, following the Covid disruption;
• an approach which connects with the enduring Anglican Five Marks of Mission; 
• a distinctive asset-based, treasure-seeking approach focussed on local partnerships. 

Programme participants are:

• Experienced parish and cathedral clergy, or diocesan officers, of diverse theological traditions;
• Clergy from both rural and urban ministry contexts;
• Leaders wanting to explore fresh approaches to missional engagement with local neighbourhoods, in a learning community with others; and/or
• Anglican Dioceses wanting to incorporate diverse approaches to the current missional challenge, and draw on external resourcing.

Each diocesan group will be made up of four or five participants, including ideally one from the Cathedral. They will be identified by the Bishop, Dean and senior staff against criteria such as:

• An even mix of genders;
• Experienced leaders, people of emotional maturity;
• Collaborative leaders, who welcome working in partnership with those outside the church;
• Participants representing the ethnic and other diversity of their Diocese;
• Participants of relative geographical proximity, for ease of face-to-face meetings;

In addition participants will ideally previously have:

• Completed foundational training in handling conflict; and
• Developed group process and facilitation skills.

Each programme starts with a week-long residential learning course at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire. Facilitated by a highly experienced team, this incorporates a dynamic adult learning process, integrating:

• Theoretical input;
• Theological and Biblical reflection;
• Experiential learning; and
• Anglican worship.

Following the initial residential course, the programme continues with:

• On-going coaching over 18 months, meeting online every couple of months in small groups;
• Two additional online webinars;
• Two in-person day-conferences at Coventry Cathedral, mid-way and at the end of the process.

We find it's best if participants have:

• A commitment to learning, and to engaging with the entire programme, over a 2-year process;
• An enthusiasm for reaching out to local neighbours and organisations;
• A desktop or laptop computer with a webcam, for online Zoom meetings; and
• A mobile phone with the WhatsApp app, for communication with facilitators and diocesan group.

The Reconciling Mission programme seeks:

1. To introduce a vision for the church’s mission within a wider understanding of God’s reconciling work in the world;
2. To offer key frameworks and practical tools to enable the church to engage deeply with local neighbourhoods, using an asset-based approach;
3. To resource participants for taking action in their local context, grounded in listening to the community;
4. To nurture collegiality and contribute to a creative missional movement in Anglican Provinces in Britain and Ireland.

The planned learning outcomes for the residential are that participants will have:

• Reflected theologically and located the church’s mission within the arc of God’s reconciling work, connecting with the Five Marks of Mission;
• Worked with a theoretical framework for engaging with social divisions and injustices, and mapped existing outreach onto this;
• Explored an ABCD model, drawing on a community’s gifts and strengths;
• Connected with the approach of HeartEdge, an associated network;
• Developed a provisional plan to begin implementing a collaborative community-building approach in their own context.

Participants are supported in the implementation of what they've learned on the initial residential via an 18-month process of follow-up coaching, in which:

• Participants provide regular short video updates, to enhance accountability; 
• Participants form part of regular online gatherings, at two-monthly intervals, with a group from another Diocese;
• Groups meet on a rotational basis to facilitate dialogue with all groups in the cohort;
• These gatherings are action learning groups, using a group coaching process, led by an RI facilitator.

By the end of the process, each group should also develop a plan for sharing some of their learning with others in their Diocese.

Distinctive features of the programme include:

• A hopeful and practical theology, drawing on an asset-based approach; 
• A focus on serving local neighbourhoods and addressing issues of injustice;
• An investment in leaders who can share learning with others;
• Intentional mixing of diverse people to form a supportive learning community together;
• Designed for small groups attending together for more effective support, follow-through and implementation; and
• A setting to develop good practice, identify next steps, share learning, and move churches into a deeper engagement with their local communities.

Participants will form:

• an emerging network of potentially influential Anglicans;
• who have journeyed through a shared learning experience and built relationships across theological and social divides;
• with a vision for the church's contribution to God's reconciling work in the world.

Independent researcher, Dr Joanna Sadgrove, has carried out extensive evaluation of the completed Reconciling Mission programmes using the following sources:

1. Individual interviews, either one-to-one, or in a diocesan/provincial group;
2. Video updates submitted by each participant via dedicated WhatsApp groups, prior to the Action Learning Groups;
3. Recordings of online Action Learning Group sessions; and
4. Written concluding survey responses.

Her research has highlighted the following benefits of the programme:

• Peer support and non-competitive collegiality in the process of addressing missional challenges;
• Connection with fundamental questions about mission, ministry and sharing good news, and articulation of the value of working with local people;
• Prioritising the work of listening, to peers, congregation members, local people and the Holy Spirit, to discern how God is at work; and
• The evolution and development of existing and new outreach to local neighbourhoods, in partnership with a wide range of organisations outside the church.

The Executive Summary of her research on each programme is available to download:

• Reconciling Mission programme 2020 - cohort 1
• Reconciling Mission programme 2021 - cohort 2
• Reconciling Mission programme 2022 - cohort 3

(Please note that comments quoted in the reports are from programme participants, and the executive summary is the work of Dr Joanna Sadgrove. Neither necessarily reflect RI's own views.)