Southwark Diocesan Conference 2022

For many people now, the small wrongs of life are too trivial to need forgiving and the big ones are too serious to be forgiven. This makes forgiveness look like either a fuss about nothing or an excuse for being soft on evil. The result is an unhappy perfectionism and the Church needs to learn who to engage with.

Mission to the Church’s missing generation starts with listening to today’s unchurched young people to discover what wisdom is already alive among them. There is nowhere better to find Jesus than on the margins and the Church might discover Christ already among those we seek to invite into the faith.

Life is getting harder for too many children and Mark drew on The Children’s Society’s 15 years of research into children’s well-being to show why we should be concerned. He reflected on the challenges facing children and young people, and how Christ Centred and Outward Focused parishes across the Diocese can make a difference in children’s lives.

All God’s people are precious; all are necessary for the Body of Christ to live fully. Drawing on his forthcoming book, Ghost Ship, Azariah observes that to be truly Christ Centred and Outward Focused none of God’s people can be left behind – as, unfortunately, some of Christ’s flock are at the moment.

“What does it look like to be Christ Centred and Outward Focused in the places that we find ourselves day by day?”

My professional life is in the creative arts: it’s where my gifts lie. In my second year of training in Southwark to be a Reader with the Bishop’s licence – colloquially called Lay Reader training – the priest in charge where I was on placement told me that, frankly, he didn’t understand the point of Lay Readers. We got on very well nonetheless and I have reflected a lot on that perspective since then. As we each bring our different gifts in service to our faith – to God’s miraculous Kingdom Come and the abundance it offers – what is the point of Lay Readers?