We are delighted to inform you that over £17.8m of funding has been awarded for the next phase of our strategy that will support us in ‘Growing churches at the heart of each community’. This is good news for Birmingham and the region.
As Bishop Michael has previously articulated, this is to underpin the four key themes within our strategy:
Sustainability – £2.4m has been awarded to support us in becoming financially sustainable. This will include the creation of a dedicated Generosity Team to support our parishes.
Parish Growth - £3.6m has been awarded to support all of our parishes to missionally grow.
Leadership – £6.1m has been awarded to help us find, form and deploy additional missional leaders across Church of England Birmingham.
Church Planting and Revitalisation - £5.7m has been awarded for new church plants and revitalisations.
These figures further breakdown into specific projects and initiatives that we will be communicating about in the coming months as we move into the next level of detail and implementation for each theme.
This strategy will both help us deliver our vision, moving us to a place of growth and sustainability, whilst also delivering against the National Church’s six bold outcomes. This is a partnership between the Church of England nationally and Church of England Birmingham including our parishes and schools. As can be seen from the figures above over 65% of the funding awarded has been designed to be of benefit to every parish within Church of England Birmingham.
35% of the funding is for our church planting and revitalisation theme. We are encouraging more parishes to actively be involved in giving away people and resource to revitalise parishes and areas. Parishes, for this phase, are:
- Christ Church Summerfield
- St Barnabas Erdington
- St John’s Harborne
- St Luke’s Gas Street
- St Mary’s Bearwood
- St Philip’s Dorridge & St James’ Bentley Heath
- St Stephen’s and St Wulstan’s
All have detailed plans, and we are prayerfully working with all the parishes involved, using processes that have been tried and tested in recent years. We will communicate more as progress is made in each case.
In addition to the award outlined above, the national church is providing short term relief to help dioceses with their structural deficits and give breathing space. It is important to be clear from the outset that this award is intended to be a bridge towards long-term sustainability.
We will be praying and working together for growth in our Common Fund, trusting God to provide through the generosity of our communities. We are already looking to recruit a Head of Generosity. This person will lead the new Generosity Team and be the Bishop’s Advisor for Common Fund. If you are interested in the role, or know anyone who would be, please visit CofEB vacancies.
Some of the amount awarded within the Leadership theme will enable us to recruit and train more curates every year for the next six years. Alongside this will be specific projects and roles to find and form new lay leaders too.
One of the streams within our Parish Growth theme will be Flourish which establishes worshipping communities in schools, building on our existing pilots with St George’s Edgbaston and St Philip’s Dorridge and St James’ Bentley Heath.
This is an exciting time for Church of England Birmingham, and we thank the Lord and the National Church, for the provision of this resource. It will take a number of months to work through details with the National Church, and local stakeholders, before we can share all of the plans, thank you for your patience.
The Bishop of Birmingham, Michael Volland said,
“This significant investment is a great encouragement. It will enable our Diocese to support churches across Birmingham, especially in overlooked communities, to grow in confidence, deepen faith, and share the love of Jesus Christ. I’m excited by the focus on young people, leadership, and diversity, and I pray this will bear lasting fruit for God’s kingdom."