THE largest grant made by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment (SMMI) Board to date — £33.16 million — has been awarded to the diocese of Southwell & Nottingham.
It will fund a decade-long programme of investment in parishes, focusing on “evangelism, discipleship, vocations and the development of younger leaders”. This will include the deployment of more than 40 “frontline lay and ordained leaders”, as well as children and youth workers. Plans include a pilot to “renew” groups of rural churches in the diocese, including expansion of the “Connect” initiative, an after-school gathering developed at St Michael’s, Farnsfield, a rural village in the diocese, where primary-school children gather for food, games, and teaching.
Investment in schools work is a theme of the latest tranche of SMMI funding, reflecting the national goal to double the number of children and young people in the Church by 2030.
A press release from the diocese said that the grant would build on the strategic development funding (SDF) received since 2016, which totalled £10.4 million (towards a total projects cost of £21.6 million). Among these earlier goals was the establishment of 25 resource churches by 2025, each with usual Sunday attendance of 150 (a total of 3750 people). It envisaged that the diocese would have 7000 “new disciples” by 2023.
Statistics for Mission suggests that, between 2016 and 2022, the worshipping community in the diocese fell from 18,700 to 17,300 while usual Sunday attendance fell from 11,900 to 9,700 (18 per cent — lower than the national average of 24 per cent). But the diocese records a rise in overall weekly attendance for all ages by eight per cent between 2022 and 2023, including a 14.6 per cent increase in children and young people.
Its latest annual report highlights the establishment of five “youth hubs”, ten “children and family flagship” churches, and a further 25 churches in receipt of funding, with the majority appointing children and family and youth workers. It records 203 “new youth” and 315 “new children”, and an increase in volunteers working with them to 175. The revitalisation of four churches has led to an increase in attendance of 276, while the diocesan internship scheme continues to recruit.
The SMMI announcement includes further funding for church-plants in the Holy Trinity, Brompton, network. In the diocese of Birmingham, £1.6 million has been awarded for a “church revitalisation”, at St Mary and St Ambrose, Edgbaston, which has been in vacancy since 2020. It will “combine with” Anchor Church, a plant from St Luke’s, Gas Street, in Birmingham, an HTB plant. A press release said: “The congregation of the Gas Street church in Birmingham, will gain a permanent home while St Mary and St Ambrose will welcome younger congregation members.” The funds will pay for renovation works at the church, and staff costs.
The diocese of Portsmouth will receive £5.3 million towards its “rejuvenate” strategy, following an earlier award of £1.2 million for investment on the Isle of Wight (News, 5 January). Plans include two further plants from Harbour Church, part of the HTB network, in central Portsmouth and Copnor, and a plant into St Peter and St Paul, Fareham (which has just rescinded its Resolutions) from St John’s, Fareham.
Money will also be invested to create new worshipping communities in Leigh Park, home to a large council estate. An earlier proposal to merge parishes in the area, as part of an SDF programme, was rejected by the Church Commissioners. Two pioneer Baptist ministers involved in this earlier programme moved on in 2019 (News, 26 October 2018). The new plan is to create a worshipping community of about 60 people based at Park Community School, led by a pioneer chaplain working with the longstanding Vicar of St Francis’s, Leigh Park, the Revd Jonathan Jeffery. There are also plans to expand on the Choir Church initiative in the diocese (News, 28 June 2019).
The diocese of Lichfield has been awarded £5.9 million for work on “revitalising the Christian presence in Stoke on Trent, largely among younger communities”. A press release spoke of the desire to “respond more creatively and effectively than we do now to those in our parishes who experience poverty, conflict and isolation”.
The work will be based at All Saints’, Joiners Square, in Hanley, which is ranked by the Church Urban Fund as one of the 100 most deprived parishes in the country (from a total of 12,239). The church will be refurbished, with funding for lay and clergy posts. The aim is to create ten new worshipping communities, with a focus on school partnership. Earlier this year, the Church Commissioners confirmed that a covenant would prevent plans to turn St John’s, Hanley, closed in 1985, into a mosque (News, 30 August).