Archdeacon in the Dales

After Liverpool, back to Ripon and my final meeting with a colleague archdeacon. Janet Henderson, Archdeacon of Richmond (Ripon and Leeds Diocese), lives just outside Ripon in the village of Hutton Conyers. She's not, of course, an urban archdeacon, but the diocese includes the city of Leeds and she has been longer in post than her colleague in Leeds, whose diary unfortunately didn't fit with mine. 

Janet Henderson

I look up to Janet for two reasons. First, because she was one of the archdeacons involved  in the training event for new archdeacons that I attended shortly before coming into post four years ago, and secondly because she writes a proper blog - Archdeacon in the Dales. It is a good read, and Janet tells me that it helps her foster a sense of belonging among the parishes and people of her rural archdeaconry.

She not only gave me a generous allowance of her time, but  with her husband, Dave, entertained me to supper at their home. She had some interesting stories to share of mission initiatives in her diocese. For example, three posts have been created in the city of Leeds, including a lay post as 'Pioneer Minister to the Night Time Economy', and there is a network church, Kairos, in Harrogate, based on the 'missional communities' principle.

I cannot express too strongly how grateful I am to all the archdeacons and others, from 7 dioceses, who have given me their time this month. It has been an extremely encouraging and worthwhile exercise. I need to spend a little longer reflecting on our conversations and drawing together the threads, but it has been heartening to see creative mission touching the lives of people who would be extremely unlikely to have contact with the church in any other way. And it's not just a case of reaching individuals. The Church is giving a message to the world that we are not necessarily locked into ways of being church that many have come to see as irrelevant. A common thread, though, is that most of the projects and initiatives I have heard about are being questioned by others, either locally or in a diocese, who are less than convinced that they represent the best use of resources. This does place a responsibility on dioceses to monitor and evaluate projects carefully, but I am saddened if any of this questioning arises from fear or insecurity about inherited forms of church that remain rich in mission opportunities. I am certain that both approaches have a place and should be developed and supported appropriately. It has been helpful to see how dioceses are doing this.

So, with the tour of dioceses complete, I pick up the pace of reading once again, reflecting that Charles Simeon, in his day, was not afraid to adopt different approaches, and was criticised for it. He set up, for example, 'societies' in his parish, of a similar size to 'missional communities' today. Their purpose, in a Christendom context, was somewhat different, and he had difficulties with independently-minded leaders, but he was determined to make sure they flourished within the structure of the established church despite those who who saw them as foreign to it.

Anyway, it was back from Ripon via Headingley, where Yorkshire succeeded in reaching 20/20 Finals Day for the first time. It was a decent game of 20/20 cricket against Worcestershire, so it was a small consolation for the loss of so much cricket over the last couple of months. Shame about all the noise.

And back in Bury we welcomed back Jessica, accompanied by boyfriend Nick and his mother who were visiting Manchester for the Olympic football matches at Old Trafford, and had fun taking them round the area earlier in the day.

Proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable.

2 Timothy 4:2

P.S. For those of you 'collecting' the Bible verses at the end of each post, a couple of missing ones from earlier in the month have been restored!