Bishop's Conference at Probus Church on 12th June 2017

 The Bishops Conference Report to Ladock PCC.

During the past twelve months Canon Reverend Andrew Wade has spent several weeks attending a course on Accompanied Ministry Development (AMD) Upon his return after each week he has fed back to individuals from each Parish.

Each parish devised a questionnaire which was completed by church members looking at ‘church Life’, where we are at now and where we may go in the future as a church.

With the help of this, Sue and I put together a presentation which was presented to AW and at a later date to the Arch Deacon. One Sunday we presented the presentation to the congregation and asked for their input and were very grateful for the positive feed back and also for those that helped us add something further to the presentation.

The presentation is really a brief snapshot of where we are now and where we may go in the future.

On June 12^th at Probus church Sue and I presented our presentation of Ladock Parish to Bishop Tim.

Our Vision  For Growth

• Nuture and Discipleship
• To introduce several styles of worship
• To continue to grow all outreach activities
• To increase involvement with our two church schools to strengthen links.
• To look after our church

Nurture and Discipleship

• ‘Grave Talk’ conversation October 2017
• Bible study
• Discipleship Course

Worship

• Developing welcome and prayer area for visitors and all who use the church.
• More use of candles and increase prayer stations.
• Pray cards for all occasions. Greetings cards and Christmas cards in season.
• More variety of services, offering services to organisations in or out of the church building. Taize worship.
• Projector and screen to be installed.

Outreach Activities

• Expand social events ;August church lunch, Christmas tree Festival 2017. Flower festival 2018 to reflect upon the centenary ending of WW1. Looking back and remembering.
• Grow the existing Coffee morning in the community.
• Communication: developing the website and using the parish magazine. Facebook.
• Continually update the mailing list to send out information.
• Offer transport.

              Strengthen the links with our two church schools

• Encourage joint school and church services – Friday service
• Celebration of Ladock Schools 150^th Anniversary- June 2017 including a gift of a cross for all the children.
• Pledge to continue to support Grampound Road village church.
•  Support Messy church with man power and finances.

To look after our church

• To continue to ensure Ladock Parish church is well loved and in good repair for future generations to come.
• To care for our famous William Morris windows and the newly installed Holborow Window.
• To care for the exisiting churchyard with its wild flora and the new extension to the churchyard  where there are endless opportunities until such a time as it will be used for burial.
• Making full use of our wonderful kitchen facilities.
• To encourage and nurture our next generation.

This is a very brief snapshot.

Our presentation was well received by Bishop Tim who felt very encouraged by what he had seen and heard that morning.

He was particularly pleased with the excellent pictures that he had seen of church life and felt that they would be very useful when putting together the parish profile when tempting clergy to apply for AW post once he retires. The pictures show what our church actually does.

We were advised not to be afraid of stopping activities in the parish especially when introducing something new to the agenda.

The Bishop was pleased that we were working towards a Flower Festival that reflected upon WW1 next year and he felt that much would be happening as the centenary drew to a close next year.

We discussed better communication between our parishes within the team. This is moving forward already with a Facebook page.

We and our Pcc’s and congregation were thanked for all the hard work we do within our parishes.

If anyone would like to see the Power Point presentation please contact Sue (suzanne.smith321@gmail.com) for the most up to date version.

Thank you

Shirley A Soper