Page 39 - The Church of Ireland Apologetic for Mission?
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communitiesbyprovidingtrainingand support at parish and diocesan levels and by supporting the development of a series of diocesan and parish level initiatives. The outcome is new initiatives by churches actively contributing to community development and peacebuilding, including youth initiatives, in a breadth of locations and levels.
• Theprojectdevelopeddemonstration projects that addressed key strategic issues in relation to the legacy of conflict and an increasingly multi-cultural Ireland. The projects on immigration and Loyalist communities were at the ‘cutting edge’
of contemporary diversity and inclusion issues in Ireland during the past three years. They engaged the Church of Ireland in these issues at a level and depth that had previously not been possible.
The external Evaluation points to significant learning for the Church of Ireland:57
• Thepaceoforganisationalchangeas
a result of the project has been slow. It has taken three years for the beginnings of change in structures, policies and practices to become apparent. In spite of substantial time and resources
• Theevaluationhasonemajor recommendation that the Church of Ireland should put in place the necessary structures, strategies and resources to continue its Hard Gospel process as a long-term mainstream initiative within the Church that will create both internal change and practical action in local communities on diversity issues.
The most recent phase of the Hard Gospel process was the establishment of a Hard Gospel Implementation Group. The purpose was to continue with the mainstreaming process of attendant issues. Comments in the Church of Ireland Gazette highlighted the challenge that would always be faced when moving from a funded and staffed project to reliance on volunteers, however gifted and committed:
When the Hard Gospel Project came to an end, the Church was left with the challenge of actually implementing theprioritiesthathademerged.Yet, the transition from a well-funded project, with staff, to a committee
of volunteers with responsibility for the causes which the Hard Gospel had espoused has shown that a momentum is lost when there are no designated staff. The current Hard Gospel Implementation Group is made up of good people and what has just been said is no reflection on their efforts and commitment. It is really all about time and resources – or, rather, the lack of both.58
Even in 2005 the Hard Gospel Report noted, “Respondents are pessimistic about the credibility and effectiveness of the church in contemporary society, but maintain a belief that there is a vital role for the Church to play”.59
Board for Social Responsibility (NI)
This is a Board set up by the General Synod. It is made up of clergy and laity from across Northern Ireland, who also represent different interests within the church e.g.
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being invested in research, discussion, committees and publications, this has produced limited change to date. Success can only be measured in terms of any change that actually takes place in the future.
Theprojectfacedchallengesincludingthe scale of the task, different expectations, barriers to change within the ‘culture’
of the Church and the danger of being reduced to the status of a marginal short- term project.
Amajorchallengewastobothstimulate and support activities to demonstrate new approaches and build capacity while at the same time influence organisational culture, policies, practices and structures so that the Hard Gospel would become
a mainstream and embedded long-term process within the Church.
p 3-4 Hard Gospel Project Evaluation Report https://gazette.ireland.anglican.org/coi-gazette-1st-november-2013/ p 12 Hard Gospel Report
57 58 59
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