Bishop visits to learn about social action
THE Bishop of Kagera, in the diocese of Tanzania, the Rt Revd Darlington Bendankeha, visited the diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich last month, and spent time learning about social action projects. Chris and Anji Dawkins, Kagera Link Co-ordinators in Suffolk, said that the visits (a delegation from Suffolk went to Kagera earlier this year) “helps us all put our own challenges into perspective”. Both dioceses were rural, they said. In Kagera, 70 per cent of the population were subsistence farmers living off their land for food to eat. The Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, the Rt Revd Martin Seeley, said that the Kagera delegation had been seeing “what can be adapted and used in their context to improve lives in Kagera. These visits are always mutual: we learn as much from their reflections on our life here as they do from the visits they make.”
Commissioners plan more houses in Lincolnshire
THE Church Commissioners have submitted a planning application to build to 150 homes in the village of Fiskerton, Lincolnshire, of which 25 per cent will be “affordable”. It follows plans for a development of 1087 homes in Bracebridge Heath, another area near Lincoln (News, 30 June). The Central Lincolnshire Local Plan seeks to increased housing in the wider area by more than 30,000. In 2021, the report of the Archbishops’ Commission on Housing, Church and Community called on the Church to use its land assets — it held 6000 acres with “development potential” — to “promote more truly affordable homes” (News, 26 February 2021).
Strategic funding for church-growth programme
THE Strategic Ministry and Mission Investment Board (SMMIB) has awarded £755,100 to Leading your Church into Growth “to increase its provision of training for parishes in mission, attracting and nurturing new congregants”, Church House announced last week. Over the next three years, it will support 1000 parishes, while funding more courses for church leaders, in partnership with Youthscape.
Dean of Southwell to retire
THE Dean of Southwell, the Very Revd Nicola Sullivan, will retire this year, after eight years in the post. Her last day at the cathedral will be Sunday 29 September, when a service of festal evensong will be held at 3.30 p.m. She will then take a period of leave, to allow for recovery from scheduled eye surgery in November. “Cathedral ministry is hugely rewarding,” she told the congregation on Sunday. “It is also immensely demanding and requires significant reserves of energy and stamina, and I have come to the conclusion that I no longer have sufficient of these to give the cathedral and diocese everything it needs from its Dean.” Dean Sullivan, who will be 65 this year, was ordained in 1995, after working as a midwife.