Page 62 - The Church of Ireland Apologetic for Mission?

by structures and a process that are adequately resourced, otherwise nothing happens.
6. Clergy
Clergy meet the challenge of leadership in a remarkably changed context. In doing so they often display remarkable resilience, courage and compassion.
As new models of parish ministry develop the same skills of adaptive leadership will be required in those who exercise it, along with the need to train and equip them. The Council for Mission observed this when it identified “... the need for a joined-up view of mission in the Church, with the mission agencies, the Theological Institute and the dioceses having a key role in training and communication”.93
8. Agents for mission
There are a range of agencies within the Church of Ireland that seek to promote mission, both local and global. These include:
a. Mission societies that provide resources and support to parishes in the outworking of their involvement in mission and encourage parishes to be strategic.
b. The Council for Mission, which has a clear and unambiguous remit:
• To stimulate within the Church of Ireland a sense of the priority and urgency of mission;
• To advocate the complementary nature of mission globally and locally
• To maintain close relationships with other bodies concerned with mission, in particular Diocesan Boards of Mission, the Association of Missionary Societies, mission and overseas development agencies
• To promote effective models of mission and evangelism
• To encourage reflection on the theology of mission
c. The Association of Mission Societies (AMS) is an informal forum for representatives of mission agencies.
The changed financial circumstances of recent years have been challenging to boards, mission agencies as well as every other part of the Church. They force every organisation to go back to the fundamental question: What are we for / Why do we exist?
The challenges of providing adaptive leadership are for anyone in leadership within the Church of Ireland. This includes clergy and those training in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.
If the ability to provide adaptive leadership is vital for Episcopal leadership it is no less so for clergy at parish level. Within the Church of Ireland if something is not happening at parish level then it is not happening. Clergy are, and have been, trained to be pastors. But are they equipped with the skills and expertise to be adaptive leaders?
To be a pastor or to provide adaptive leadership requires quite different skills
and competencies. This suggests that training and serious support mechanisms to enhance skills for adaptive leadership should be a given:
• ForthosegoingthroughtheChurchof Ireland Theological Institute.
• Forclergywhoarenowinparishministry by a serious process of Continuing Professional Development. This may be provided at denominational level. It should certainly be included at diocesan level.
7. Resourcing leaders
Changing economic fortunes and patterns of church attendance, as demonstrated in the 2012 census, suggest a need for the Church of Ireland to think creatively about how it is to provide sustainable models of parish ministry in the future. It also serves
as a reminder that ministry and vocation are not unique to stipendiary clergy. They are to be exercised by every member of the church. The model of every member ministry is both biblical and Anglican.
62 93 p 436 Report to General Synod 2010