Diocesan Synod Presidential Address June 2024 – Bishop Robert Innes

Those who have been coming to these synods for many years, as I have, will know what rich and remarkable occasions they can be. And I think I can safely say that the synod Bible Studies have been crucial to setting the tone of each of them. This year I’m delighted that Dr. Richard Briggs has kindly agree to lead our Bible Studies on the theme of Mission in Times of Conflict and Change. This is a theme which was suggested at a meeting of our archdeacons, and is one which I think captures our current context extremely well. 

A few weeks ago President Macron of France – much in the news today! - gave a major speech at the Sorbonne, which was both political and philosophical. He talked about the big economic and security challenges facing Europe – hostility from Russia, competition from China, potential lack of interest from the US. He said we are coming to the end of an era when the EU bought its energy and fertilizer from Russia, outsourced its production to China and depended on the US for security. He called attention to Europe’s unpreparedness for the major change ahead.

At several points during a long, two-hour, speech, President Macron emphasised: “We need to recognise that our Europe can die.’ And he concluded that beyond the external threats there is the real risk that Europe can die of itself. Europe can lose confidence in its own values and its own story. 

Macron portrays a continent which is doubting its own values – those values of course, being a particular synthesis of enlightened humanism and Christianity. He sets out starkly at the European political level the reality of conflict. And he talks of the radical change needed if Europe is going to be strong enough to succeed in the conflicts which are coming upon it. Macron’s speech reminded me of an address given by the Pope to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 2014. The pope described Europe as being like an elderly lady. He talked of Europe’s glorious past but said that it needed rejuvenation, to recover its true features. Now in 2024 the stakes feel higher and the urgency more intense. Europe has become elderly says Pope Francis; it could die, warns President Macron.  

The political, military and ecological threats Europe faces are creating a climate where people are pressurised and fearful. Playing on people’s fears, far-right parties are growing in strength across the continent. 

Military fears lead to economic costs. If you live in Estonia, you will already be paying an additional one percent in income tax to fund the supply of military equipment to Ukraine. If the conservatives are elected in the UK, then there will be £2.5billion per year to find for their mandatory national service scheme. We are all already paying more for our food because of the war in Ukraine.

Climate change and poor harvests are likely to make that worse. In Belgium, we have had our wettest winter and spring since the nineteenth century. One of our Belgian weather forecasters was recently sent a bullet in the post.  People are feeling poorer, fed up and anxious. There is uncertainty, unpredictability and change. 

It would be very nice if within the church it was different. The reality is that, though the reasons are not exactly the same, within the national Church of England, we are also finding ourselves in a period of significant uncertainty and change. The House of Bishops has never met as frequently as it has done over the last couple of years. Bishops and most central staff members are having to work very hard. There is an agenda of change on multiple fronts.  Without wishing to bamboozle you, here are some of the things that were on the agenda for our last House of Bishops meeting:

Clergy wellbeing is become a source of increasing concern. Poverty amongst English clergy is rising, particularly in clergy families where clergy spouses are not working. Survey evidence indicates English incumbents are struggling with many aspects of wellbeing with isolation being one of the main causes.  

Diocesan Finances. Most English dioceses are running at a deficit, despite measures to reduce costs and sell off assets. Yet on the other hand, the Church Commissioners have reserves of £11billion and local parishes are estimated to have aggregate reserves of £1billion. So some parts of the church are strapped for cash whilst other parts have full coffers. 

Living in Love and Faith. This is an issue where there is continuing deep disagreement and for some great anxiety and where huge effort is being deployed under the leadership of Bishop Martyn Snow to try to discern the right ways forward.

The future of church safeguarding. At a national level trust is not as high as we would like and there is concern about how we make sure safeguarding resources are properly and equitably provided across each of the 42 dioceses. 

The Seal of the Confessional: the question of retaining priestly confidentiality for sacramental confession is an acute issue of deep principle for people in a more anglo-catholic tradition.  

Major changes to governance: reducing the current seven different centres of church governance to four, with a new Church of England National Services body. This is a much needed change but has big implications for central structures and their staff. 

Along with all this, whilst numbers have recovered somewhat, church attendance fell dramatically during Covid. Numbers of young people and children have fallen particularly badly, and the annual numbers of candidates for ordained ministry have fallen from 630 to 330. 

Those are some of the complex issues that the House of Bishops are grappling with. And several of them are on the agenda of this synod. 

I want to say at this point, that our own diocese in Europe is doing relatively well, thanks be to God. But there is no room for complacency. And compared to the English dioceses, we have the specific challenge of Brexit, which is affecting the whole of the diocese and the southern archdeaconries particularly. I quite regularly hear stories of British people who have bought retirement properties in warmer parts of southern Europe finding they can only live in their homes for 90 in  every 180 days. That is very sad, and it is having an impact on attendance patterns in our chaplaincies. 

Over and above the external factors, within our own diocese, this year is one of notable internal change. In September last year, Bishop David announced that he would be retiring at the end of February this year. David had been Suffragan Bishop in this Diocese for 22 years, so his retirement has been deeply significant. His PA, Frances Hiller, who had been with the diocese for a similarly long period, also retired. Let me say something about how we marked Bishop David’s retirement, how we are managing the episcopal vacancy and where we are up to with finding a successor. 

In his last few months, Bishop David had an active programme of visits so that he could say as many personal goodbyes as possible. There were farewells to chaplaincies and to archdeaconry synods. On 20 February we held a delightful farewell meal at William Gulliford’s church, St. Mark’s Regent’s Park, for those who had worked closely with Bishop David on the Bishop’s Staff and ministry teams. A collection was taken from around the chaplaincies, and Bishop David was presented with an icon made at Turvey Abbey on the theme of Christian Unity along with a substantial cheque. See the picture on the front of our synod programme. On the 28th February we held a Zoom farewell service. That was attended by hundreds of people from across the diocese and was a deeply moving event. 

Since February, we have been in an interim situation. A team of half a dozen experienced honorary assistant bishops have been helping me with chaplaincy visits and confirmations. I know how much their ministry in retirement has been appreciated. Several of Bishop David’s key responsibilities have been delegated to archdeacons. Leslie Nathaniel has become lead archdeacon for safeguarding. Sam Van Leer has been the interim chair of the Ministry Team. 

David Waller has been acting Warden of Readers. Peter Hooper has been the archdeacon liaising with the London Office. My thanks to each of them for taking on these additional responsibilities. 

Looking to the future, we have been proceeding with the appointment of a new suffragan. As a first step, the Bishop’s Council meeting last October was required to decide whether it thought the suffragan post should be replaced. In the event the Council voted not just for one new suffragan bishop but for two, given the huge geographical area that we cover. 

Salary and office costs for bishops are paid by the central church, and it is the Dioceses Commission that effectively acts as gatekeeper to that valuable financial support. Last December, I was invited to present our case to this Commission. 

We marshalled our arguments, backed by evidence from a survey to which many of you here kindly responded. The Dioceses Commission was supportive, offering us three recommendations. The first recommendation was that we should consider locating the new suffragan in Brussels to work closely with and alongside the diocesan bishop, based at our existing office. The second was that, whilst taking note of the survey results urging a pastoral bishop who would prioritise chaplaincy visiting, we should also emphasise the bishop’s role in mission and evangelism. The third recommendation was that, before proceeding further with a request for a second suffragan, we should do some analysis of the nature of oversight in the diocese and how this is carried out by area deans, archdeacons and bishops. Overall, the Dioceses Commission was impressed with our work and the strength of our case and gave us the green light to go ahead with finding a successor to Bishop David. 

In our church’s polity, the responsibility for appointing a suffragan bishop lies with the diocesan bishop. To help me with this task, I was asked to form an advisory group meeting various kinds of criteria. This proved to be something that required a good deal of reflection and prayer. I wanted a group that would be reflective of the diversity of the diocese as far as possible. I was also asked to appoint someone from a senior position in public life from outside the diocese. The people I chose overlap with the membership of the Bishop’s Council and are a diverse group. They are: Angela Mirani from Italy, a selector of Readers; Charlotte Sullivan, Area Dean in France; Fr. Richard Seabrooke chaplain in Torrevieja, Geoff Read, Chaplain in Luxembourg and formerly Basel with experience as a Ministry Training officer; Joanna Udal, Senior Chaplain in Norway; Nathanial Nathanial chaplain in Prague and Rosette Muzigo-Morrison, lay member of The Hague chaplaincy and prosecuting lawyer at the International Criminal Court – though we’re not using Rosette in her professional capacity! 

The external senior member of the group is Lord Stephen Green, former chief executive of HSBC and UK minister for trade.  I have also received advice from our Diocesan Registrar and from the Archbishops Advisor for Appointments at Lambeth Palace. 

This advisory group, along with our archdeacons and communications staff, helped me draw up a 35 page Candidate Pack beautifully illustrated with photos from around the diocese. A vacancy notice was posted in the Church Times, and the candidate pack was sent to all those on a list of potential bishops maintained by Lambeth and to others whose names were recommended to me or to Lambeth. (Episcopal posts are such that one needs to be recommended to apply rather than making an outright application onself.) The specification for the role is quite demanding. Candidates have to have the spiritual and physical robustness to thrive in a role that can require working long hours and  being away from home 40-45% of the time. It requires a real sense of calling. 

I’m pleased to say we are now at the point where we have a longlist of strong candidates, and shortlisting will take place by Zoom next week. Shortlisted candidates will be given psychometric tests. We will take up references. And interviews for shortlisted candidates will take place in person in Brussels in the middle of next month. Do pray for our candidates and for discernment for all involved in the interviewing for what is a vital post for our diocese.    

Bishop David has retired. Frances Hiller has retired. There are other significant staff changes too. Ulla Monberg retires on 1st July. This marks exactly 34 years since Ulla was ordained deacon and 30 years since she was ordained priest. Why the gap of four years? Because Ulla was one of the very first women to be ordained as a priest. She has had a distinguished ministry, first as a dean of women’s ministry and director of ordinands in London Diocese, and for these last nearly 20 years in our diocese as director of training and then director of ministerial development. Ulla has had a decisive influence in the formation of newly ordained clergy over many years, and we produce some of the best clergy in the Church of England. Unfortunately, Ulla has been unable to come to this synod. But we do want to honour her remarkable ministry, to thank her warmly for all she has given to this diocese over two decades, and to wish her well as she enters retirement. 

At the end of next month, my Chaplain Alan Strange is retiring. Alan first came to the diocese in 1987 as assistant chaplain in Brussels. He continued his ministry in Norwich, where he was an Area Dean and then in 2016 became Chaplain of Christ Church Amsterdam. He has been my chaplain for the last three years. Alan has brought to the role a keen intellect, a dedication to good process and a compassionate interest in people. I will miss Alan’s wide knowledge of the diocese, his prayerful concern for individuals and his ability to get things done.

I wanted to mark Alan’s departure appropriately, and am pleased to present him with a couple of weighty theological tomes, which I hope will keep his mind active in the first few months of retirement at least. 

I have appointed Evelyn Sweerts to be my chaplain on an interim basis for the next year: Evelyn is here amongst us and please do take this opportunity to say hello and to get to know her. 

As we all know, this diocesan synod is masterminded by our synod secretary and chief operating officer Andrew Caspari. I think most or all of us will be aware Andrew was unwell for several months last summer and autumn. We are enormously thankful that Andrew has recovered and been able to resume the weighty responsibilities of being diocesan secretary. We all want to support him in that. 

One of the particularly trying elements of the last year for Andrew and for all our London office staff has been the ongoing renovation project in Church House Westminster. This has meant moving out of the Tufton Street office, moving into temporary offices, and then moving to other temporary offices before moving back into the first set of temporary offices, all the while waiting for an eventual return to a refurbished Tufton Street Office. 

By any standards, there has been and continues to be a lot of change to cope with. And I particularly want to pay tribute to our central staff for keeping our diocese running effectively over a challenging time. We have with us Bron, Susan, Ruth, Grace and Juliet from our London office; along with Gail and Caroline from my office in Brussels. I thank all of you on behalf of the members of this Synod for your work on our behalf, and please do take our thanks back to office colleagues who are not with us. Your work is very much appreciated.     

How are we to sustain life, ministry and mission in times of change, conflict and uncertainty? We will be looking forward to Richard Briggs sharing his insights with us. I want to remind you of three suggestions I mentioned last year but which I believe are of enduring importance. These are building resilience, strengthening interdependence and sustaining hope. 

 By building resilience I mean being a Church that lives into its identity as a body rooted and built up in Christ, trusting in the God who holds all things together, strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit. It is about building strong community through the way we love and care for each other, through our shared worship, through working together on community service projects. And within that, it means forming individual disciples who have personal spiritual strength through rules of life, patterns of prayer and the formation of Christian character. If we want a model for resilience in our own diocese, witness Christina Laschenko warden in Kyiv, whose testimony we have just heard.  

Next year, we celebrate exactly 1700 years since the formulation of the Nicene Creed, the defining statement of mainstream Christianity. Nicaea is in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey within our Diocese. James Buxton in Izmir and Ben Drury, our new chaplain in Athens, are organizing a Nicaea pilgrimage just after next Easter. You might think of joining it. Nicaea 1700 will stimulate lectures and seminars in various churches and universities. 2025 will be a golden opportunity for the church to deepen its faith in the Triune God. In an age marked by confusion and agnosticism, we have the opportunity to rebuild confident faith in the Creator God. When the person of Jesus is increasingly forgotten or marginalized we will celebrate afresh the the birth, life and death of the only-begotten Son of God. When our continent seems confused about its values we will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit who generates the fruit of Christlike character and lifestyle.    

Christian resilience belongs with interdependence. When times get tough one human response is to turn inwards, stock up on fuel and food, close the door on other people and take care of ourselves. At a national level, people become fearful of others who are different or don’t belong. But turning inwards, either individually or as nations, is completely inadequate in a world which is deeply and increasingly interconnected – economically, environmentally and militarily. It is truer than ever before that no man is an island entire unto himself.

Togetherness and unity between people sometimes seem impossibly hard, even in the church. Yet Jesus prayed that his followers might be one, in order that the world should believe. I have come to believe that Christian unity is very, very, very important. The oneness of the church reflects the unity of God, our one Lord, our shared faith, our common baptism. And we are called to be one for the sake of the world. The Church can and should bring people together across races and cultures and backgrounds to increase the world’s own possibilities and aspirations for togetherness and peace.  

Therefore in our mission, we are to renew our efforts to work for global justice, which is a foundation for true and lasting peace; pray for the victims of the many conflicts and wars that afflict our world; address ecological problems with imagination and energy; encourage international and ecumenical friendship; support the renewal and empowerment of international institutions, and bring interdependence closer. As the title of the racial justice conference we’ll be holding at the end of this year puts it: this is about ‘all of us or none of us’.  

Building resilience, strengthening interdependence, and thirdly, sustaining hope. 

I’m struck that in the Old Testament the strongest expressions of hope often occur at the point of deepest grief: the destruction of Jerusalem or exile in Babylon when everything has been lost. The Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann describes hope as a tenacious act of imagination rooted in absolute authority concerning divine purpose. Hope is an act of imagination because it goes beyond what we know. Hope is an audacious claim voicing a new reality out and beyond the present arrangements. And the pages of the Old Testament which are often full of deep tragedy and anguished lament are equally shot through with audacious hope. 

For New Testament believing Christians, hope is rooted in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In raising Jesus from the dead, God intervenes decisively in human affairs, bringing joy out of grief and light where there was deepest darkness. The resurrection of the Jesus is an anticipation of the last great day of resurrection when the end comes, the dead are raised and all authorities and powers are placed under God’s ordering rule. Christians look forward in hope to a new heaven and new earth when the nations will all walk by the light of the glory of God, and where there will be no more mourning or crying or tears. 

To begin to conclude, I have painted a picture of a Europe which is threatened militarily, economically, politically, where there is uncertainty, unpredictability and change. This is sufficiently serious that the values which make our continent what it is are in doubt. And I’ve recognized that the sense of fear, uncertainty and change exists within the church too. We are not immune from the forces that are affecting the world in general. I have talked too about some of the specific changes and pressures that we are facing in our diocese, particularly in our staffing.

By way of resisting these negative forces, I have wanted to encourage us to build resilience, strengthen our interdependence and sustain hope. I’ve mentioned 2025 as a particularly important year to build confidence in Christian faith. I’ve shared my own passion for Christian unity as a vital symbol of togetherness in a bitterly divided world. And I’ve encouraged us to find hope in the great arc of the Christian story through God’s leading of the people of Israel, the resurrection of Christ and the life of the world to come. 

I close with the collect prayer for the fourth Sunday in Epiphany, a prayer which is utterly realistic about the human situation and is at the same time completely confident in the power of God to hold us and sustain us. 

O GOD, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

+Robert Gibraltar in Europe

June 2024