As a diocese, we’re asking God for a bigger church to make a bigger difference and we believe that Fit for Mission is the discerned path to achieve this.
Becoming fitter and stronger to do God’s work is not about becoming a homogenised group but is instead about embracing our locality and rich diversity, supporting each other as we work towards our missional priorities, tackle key challenges and grow closer together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
What is Fit for Mission?
Working in this way brings many benefits to you, your church and your community. This includes greater support and collegiality for clergy members and lay officers. There will also be a streamlined approach to governance, freeing up time for mission and ministry, and the ability to work as a wider area on strategic mission portfolios, like youth and children’s work.
We hope and pray for thriving church communities, run by local leadership teams made up of passionate and skilled individuals who will help drive local mission and ministry. They’ll be supported by a committed team rector, and a wider PCC, who’ll look after governance tasks. We hope to establish a skilled support services team, who will boost our capacity.
Fit for Mission will enable us to work closer together, share our rich diversity of experience, tradition and skills, and tackle some key challenges, as we work towards a bigger church to make a bigger difference.
The essential elements of Fit For Mission are…
Four missional priorities
Five actions
2. Working to our strengths in larger teams and portfolios
3. High quality support and clear lines of accountability
4. Having the right buildings to support future mission
The Diocese of Liverpool feel that getting Fit for Mission is one of the most important and urgent tasks we face. As a Diocese we have invested much time listening to God and one another, discerning a way forward, and are now, working with groups of churches to help us move toward this shared vision. More details can be found on the Liverpool Diocese Website:
Why Fit for Mission, why now?
- A long-term decline in membership and attendance
- Under-resourcing of the frontline
- Pressure on people, especially leaders and key volunteers
- Unsustainable buildings
- A church that does not reflect the whole community
Fit For Mission In West Derby Deanery
West Derby deanery is currently made up of 13 small parishes. The map below shows the parish churches within the West Derby Deanery.
In 2021, the Deanery was introduced to the proposals of Fit for Mission and the opportunity these presented for deanery churches. Following various consultations, the churches were invited to vote on being involved. We continued to work together, and after consultation with the PCCs of the churches who were committed to this journey, we made the decision to be known collectively as Christ our Hope Liverpool. In time, we hope that this will be the name of the new larger single parish.
By 2024, the Deanery were ready to present a pastoral plan to the Church Commissioners regarding pastoral reorganisation to being a ‘Single Large Parish’. This included, St Andrew Clubmoor, St Anne Stanley, Christ Church Norris Green, St Christopher Norris Green, St Cuthbert Croxteth Park, St David Childwall, The Church of the Good Shepherd West Derby, The Church of the Holy Spirit (closing October 2024), St Paul’s Croxteth (closed) and All Saints Stoneycroft.
Open individual churches and worshipping communities will still exist, but the majority of the governance and administration will be shared across the larger parish. This will free clergy and laity to focus on the missional work of the church.
