We are very excited to have received a grant of £6.5million from the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) for work over six years. We have been very clear as a Diocese that we would only apply for grants that helped us with our Vision and Strategy and this grant does exactly that. It re-enforces our commitment to our parishes by using the missional energy of our Resourcing Churches to help other churches to grow and thrive. It takes good practise and models from our Hub Churches to share with other churches; for example, St Barnabas Dulwich has built strong ministry to young families through music and they are seeking to help two other parishes with this model. The Estates Lay Pioneers is aimed at an incarnational model of ministry – looking to train and equip those living on estates to serve and minister to people on their estates.
The Estates Lay Pioneer training will be undertaken in two to three places to begin with, on a deanery or group of parishes basis. It is important that we work with potential Estates Lay Pioneers close to where they live and that the training is incarnational in approach and that it is aimed at their needs.

We use the term Resourcing Church in Southwark, not Resource churches. This is because we are not giving significant resources to the Resourcing Churches but to those who will be receiving skilled assistance from the Resourcing churches to establish a platform for growth. The aim is to use the resources and generosity of the Resourcing Churches to help other churches thrive. The resources that we have asked for have therefore been primarily directed to the churches that the Resourcing Churches are serving. For Holy Trinity w St Matthew, Elephant and Castle, this money is to help us to share the learnings of being a bi-lingual English/Spanish church with other churches. For St John the Divine, Kennington it is working with a deanery to grow a new Korean church – St John the Divine originally helped start the Korean Mission in the 19th Century – and to use their musical gifts and youth ministry to help another parish to grow. Both of these catholic examples are proof that we have a number of great missional churches across our diverse traditions and we are committed to encouraging this.

The 2016 Strategic Development Funding (SDF) grant was our first grant we received. It has had some important learning and outcomes. We now have over 100 Fresh Expressions of Church, and the Bishop decided to establish and embed a Pioneer and Fresh Expressions Department into the Diocese. This has enabled the Diocese to focus on a mixed ecology of church, resulting not only in the ongoing growth of Fresh Expressions, but also growing our Pioneer Curates and Lay Ministers. We now have a cohort of 19 Pioneer Curates, a growing number of churches involved in Greenhouse Training (which helps churches develop Fresh Expressions of church) and this year the appointment of a Dean of Estates Ministry, Gary Jenkins,  to help us focus on our Estates Ministry and help them thrive. In addition, the Nine Elms Ministry to the Arts has been something that is having an increasing impact as they work in the Battersea Fields area seeking to work with people of goodwill to express their faith through the arts.

The learnings from our 2019 SDF project continue to inform us and are helping us develop and grow. Our Eco Church in North Lambeth, in partnership with Lambeth Palace, has been a highlight in developing an understanding of reaching those outside the church who are passionate about the environment crisis. The great work of developing Holy Trinity w St Matthew, Elephant and Castle with a large Hispanic congregation has led us to seek resources to share this model. In Deptford, the growth and generosity of St Peter, Brockley has led other parishes to seek them out to ask for assistance to help them grow. The latest grant enables them to do this in a focused way. Other areas this grant has helped us is in learning about mission and pioneering into new build areas, working with students and how to do pioneering in new contexts.