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Emerging
Regional Bishoprics |
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A
REGIONAL DIOCESE AND BISHOPRIC FOR THE NORTH OF THE
UK AND IRELAND
TOWARDS
THE CREATION/DEVELOPMENT OF A BIBLICALLY ORTHODOX
AND PENTECOSTAL DIOCESE FOR GOD'S WORK IN THE NORTHERN
AREAS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
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1.
PREAMBLE |
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1.1. This document sets out directions towards the
creation/development of a biblically informed Orthodox
and Pentecostal diocese for God's work in the Greater
Manchester area and the northern areas of the United
Kingdom, under the Apostolic Congress of Great Britain.
The diocese will also serve as a regional see of the
Global Orthodox Missions.
1.2. The regional diocese will initially cover a wide
geographical area to be known as the North of England
and Ireland. As the work of the regional bishop increases,
other bishops will be consecrated to look after specific
areas in the region.
1.3. The diocese will be headed by a regional Bishopric
that will be enabled to engage the sections, depths,
and heights of the society and open grounds for a
generation. This wider diocese has within it the potential
of incubating smaller manageable units that will be
developed to seat other Bishops in the future.
1.4. It is envisaged that the diocese will be led
by The Reverend (Dr) Doye Teido Agama, currently a
Bishop Elect and who is proving leadership in the
diocese-preparation team, under the general oversight
of the Most Reverend Metropolitan Henry Paul Kontor,
Chair of the Apostolic Congress of Great Britain and
the Primate of the Global Orthodox Missions.
1.5.
The regional bishopric will be facing the fact that
there are three great world faiths who name a personal
God and a special revelation of this personal God.
These faiths are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Each claims to be a custodian of God's revelation
for the rest of the world. The regional bishopric
will need to be well informed to foster and direct
relevant conversations that address inter-faith in
a positive spirit towards the articulation of facets
of mission in contemporary and significantly relevant
expressions of true Christian faith.
1.6. While serving the entire population at large,
the diocese will give a measure of attention to the
needs of the faithful, local leadership, educational
and development projects, and the disadvantaged; including
the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME).
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2.
AREAS COVERED AND SOME PARTICULARITIES |
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2.1.
The regional diocese will initially cover the following
areas:
2.2. North East England, including:
· Durham
· Northumberland
· Teeside
· Tyne and Wear
2.3. North West England, including:
· Cheshire
· Cumbria
· Greater Manchester
· Lancashire
· Merseyside
2.4. Yorkshire & Humberside, including:
· North Yorkshire
· West Yorkshire
· South Yorkshire
· East Riding
2.5. Northern Ireland & The Republic of Ireland
2.5.1. The regional diocese will uncover historical
connections of the various areas in Church work. The
diocese will also express some relevance of some of
the areas in the region to the struggles of other
nations in the world.
2.5.2. The diocese will express the historic links
between Irish Celtic Christianity and the northern
areas of the United Kingdom as it works with The Republic
of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
2.5.3. The diocese will encourage awareness and studies
of the work of British church fathers such as Apostle
Patrick, Saint Columba, Saint Ninian and Aidan of
Iona whose work and services relate to areas in the
region. The lives of the saints are a treasure of
inspiration and insights for God's work in the region
and UK as a whole.
2.5.4.
The diocese will endeavour to educate on the positive
contributions of the experience of Ireland to God's
work in many developing countries. Ireland has received
a great deal of inward-investment as a result of the
emigration of her citizens to other parts of the world
with a sense of purpose. The diocese will draw lessons
from Ireland's emigration experience and encourage
studies in the area of positive, emigration-based
development as one way to help less developed nations
particularly in Africa learn from other countries'
experiences.
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3.
THE PLACE OF GREATER MANCHESTER |
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3.1.
The seat of the regional diocese will be at Greater
Manchester.
3.2. Manchester is the regional capital of the North
West of England, which is the UK's largest economic
region outside London. It was the birthplace of the
industrial revolution, and today is one of Britain's
most lively and dynamic cities. The region comprises
some 2.5 million households, has a population of over
six million and a GDP of £50 billion (source
Manchester City Council).
3.3. Over centuries, Greater Manchester and the North
West have related with and contributed to the wider
nation and to the entire world. Technology and people
from this region have been sown into the success of
other regions and indeed other nations. In addition,
Greater Manchester like other cities across the globe
has become increasingly multicultural.
3.4. The diocese will work towards enabling the invigorating/advancing
of the capacities within the industries/community
groups in Greater Manchester (particularly those in
regeneration and adjacent areas), with an emphasis
on black and other ethnic minorities (BME) and other
disadvantaged groups.
3.5. From this base in Manchester, the regional diocese
will serve the North of the United Kingdom, Northern
Ireland and the Republic of Ireland till such a time
as other bishops are raised up by God to assist in
the work.
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4.
CHURCH DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH |
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4.1.
Churches within the regional diocese will be encouraged
to be biblical in orthodoxy, relevant in propagating
the gospel of Jesus Christ in 21st century, dynamic
in evangelical convictions, strong in pentecostal
gifts, and visible in the struggles of the communities.
4.2. The diocese will encourage the planting of churches
within the region as a means of strengthening the
people in the face of the life pressures in modern
society.
4.3. The bishopric will encourage vibrant worship,
profound liturgy, sound expository biblical teaching,
access to sacraments and membership of the wider Christian
Communion.
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5.
ECUMENICAL & COMMUNITY OUTREACH |
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5.1. The regional bishop will work extensively towards
bridging the ecumenical gap by bringing together various
streams of Biblical Christianity in the Northern UK,
including the Orthodox, Coptic, Catholic, Anglican,
Evangelical, Black Majority and others, to work in
love and in partnership for far reaching purposes
like community regeneration.
5.2. In this regard, the regional bishopric would
work to build cooperation among a variety of Christian
churches and institutions in the regional diocese
who share a common understanding as to how community
capacity building can happen from within the community.
5.3. The bishopric will help to establish mechanisms
for the development and sustainability of such regeneration
partnerships and will assist in fostering the evolution
of a grassroots movement of faith-based community
development in the area.
5.4. In addition, the bishopric will also seek to
enable a wider interfaith dialogue between the Church
groups and partnerships (on the one hand) and similar
programmes by other faiths in the region (on the other).
5.5. In all these, the regional bishopric will strive
to the assist the harnessing of the spiritual and
physical resources available to accelerate the regeneration
and transformation of the region.
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6.
PROMOTION OF EDUCATION |
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6.1.
The regional diocese will promote education as a key
tool for enabling lifelong personal development as
part of the regeneration process.
6.2. The diocese will facilitate the establishing
of a community development Library as a resource base
for practitioners and researchers in the area.
6.3. The diocese will also examine ways of working
with the ICDS and SBTU to encourage the establishment
of educational programs as part of the diocesan services
to the community.
6.4. The educational and training programs to be established
will be encouraged to reflect the following among
others:
· Enabling and encouraging regeneration of
the community, by the community through assessment
and enhancement of internal and external potentials
· Enabling and encouraging trainees to work
at their own pace through extremely flexible and relevant
courses
· Enabling and encouraging trainees and their
communities to resource funds to establish their own
projects
· Enabling and encouraging trainees/communities
to use all the major areas of mass media (radio, video/filming,
web page design, design & print and ICT) effectively
· Engagement and empowerment of individual
members of their communities
· Dissemination of balanced information in
and about their communities
· Acceleration of the development of their
communities
6.5. The training will also be fashioned to foster
partnership between local community projects and between
these projects and:
· Community media practitioners
· National and locally registered media houses/corporations
· Development organizations
6.6.
The diocese will also work with the Archbishopric
of Metropolitan Henry Paul Kontor towards the accreditation
of other smaller BME and other minority educational
projects throughout the North of the UK and elsewhere.
There will also be focussed efforts to enable and
increase collaboration of other smaller BME and other
minority educational projects with other existing
educational institutions.
6.7. The diocesan educational projects will be feeder
institutions to a number of other institutions, including:
· The Manchester College of Arts and Technology
· The Leeds Metropolitan University
· Manchester Metropolitan University
· Samuel Benjamin Thomas University
· The Institute for Community and Development
Studies and
· The Community Work Training Company
6.8.
In addition the diocese will seek to encourage the
provision of a number of other facilities and services:
· Christian Resource Centre/Bookshop
· Gymnasium & Sports facilities
· Medical services
· Conference/Training Rooms
· Radio and Television Studios
· Community Server Hosting Etc.
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7.
NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATION |
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7.1.
The regional diocese will serve as one of the catalysts
to coalesce and step up the efforts at regeneration
in the region through the use of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT).
7.2. One major contribution of the regional diocese
will be Interactive Community Networking.
7.3. To do this, the diocese will be involved over
the next few years in enabling the building of digital
networks of community groups, and facilitating interaction
between members of these groups, right across the
region.
7.4. The bishopric will therefore work to help actualise
a substantial increase in the speed of information
technology (IT) solutions delivery, and on-going change
within the diocese as it works to bring the various
business, faith and community groups into relationships
and joint ventures for regeneration.
7.5. A study of membership and clients of community
groups will also be encouraged to measure the level
of broadband penetration. This information could form
part of a plan to use these groups to increase such
penetration in the area. The ICT can then be leveraged
in a massive self development drive.
7.6. In addition the diocese will assist statutory
bodies in looking into planning development modalities
and pricing structure for this area of community development.
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8.
SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS WITH EXECUTIVES & MID-LEVEL
MANAGERS |
8.1.
The diocese will work strategically with a number
of institutions including ICDS and SBTU to facilitate
the provision of several training seminars and workshops
each year, primarily as a means of maintaining links
with and influence on the executive level of the community.
8.2. These seminars and workshops will be of a high
professional standard in organisation and intense
relevance in content, and will therefore attract participation
from industry and the public service, in addition
to the clergy.
8.3. These seminars and workshops will therefore provide
an extension to the aim of bringing the church and
industry together by focussing on pressing issues
of importance to local and regional regeneration and
job creation, as well as beneficial corporate social
responsibility.
8.4. These specially formulated programs will include:
8.5. High level interactions and networking for strategic
capacity building with Bishops, Senior Pastors, Senior
Management in Government and Community Groups, Charities
etc.
8.6. These high level interactions will help to inform
that level of Strategic Management, by enabling clearer
determination of the long term direction and performance
of each organisation, within the context of the local
and regional regeneration. There will be at least
one of these in the first year of operation of the
diocese.
8.7. There will also be intermediate level interactions
and networking for operational capacity building with
Priests, Presbyters, Pastors, and Middle level Management
in Government Departments, Community Group and Charity
Managers etc.
8.8. These intermediate level interactions will help
to provide skills for Operational Management, geared
towards the day-to-day running of each organisation.
8.9. The focus at this level will be on effective
administration of the elements that better enable
a successful and sustainable operation within the
strategic directions dictated by the local and regional
regeneration. There will be at least one of these
in the first year of operation of the diocese.
8.10. There will also be project level interactions
and networking with Deacons, Church Workers, Community
Workers, Project managers etc; geared towards management
responsibilities for specific projects that deliver
changes at the cutting edge of the local and regional
regeneration.
8.11. There will be at least one of these project
level interactions in the first year of operation
of the diocese.
8.12. To achieve these levels of networking, the diocese
itself will have to be a vanguard of change to accommodate
wider civic and secular partnerships, internal business
process re-engineering, devolution of decision and
responsibility, all within a well articulated and
uncompromising biblically orthodox theological expression.
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9.
CHURCH, INDUSTRY, AND WEALTH CREATION |
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9.1.
Beyond the ecumenical and interfaith role, the regional
diocese shall take interest in inter-sectoral matters,
including the links between church and industry, as
it does its wider pastoral work in the region.
9.2. There are convictions that Christian business
ethics are beneficial to the society, and that the
establishment or encouragement of local entrepreneurships
based on biblical ethics of faith, diligence, integrity
and social conscience is a viable way of strengthening
local community.
9.3. The diocese will support the building and strengthening
of links between church and business, faith and industry.
The outcomes will be made available to social enterprises
that are based on a biblical business ethic.
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10.
SOLIDARITY |
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10.1.
The regional diocese shall appreciate the spiritual
and human struggles of the region, and build solidarity
with spiritual and human aspirations in other places.
10.2. The diocese shall support the need for orthodox
apostolicity to re-establish and re-express itself
in all parts of Europe and the wider world as one
key to moral, spiritual and economic regeneration
of society
10.3. The diocese shall support a fundamental understanding
that a further development of the Black and Minority
Ethnic and other disadvantaged communities in the
UK and Europe is very essential, and that their success
lies largely on how they are able to web themselves
as key participants in directing the skills improvement
of their own people
10.4. The diocese shall support those who encourage
public education in appreciating the fact that the
proprietorship of the state is the responsibility
of all citizens, and that the means to increased democratic
participation by Black and Minority Ethnic and other
disadvantaged communities in the UK depends on the
awareness of their individuals.
10.5. The regional diocese will support the energising
and mobilisation of civic society, to become partners
in education and regional development.
10.6. The diocese will encourage, through the networked
involvement of existing network of Churches as well
as churches and community groups in the region, and
offer support for such spiritual and human aspirations.
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11.
PRAYER |
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11.1.
It is the prayer of the regional diocese development
team that the focus of the diocese will always be
towards the revival and revitalisation of the Christian
heritage of the United Kingdom, and particularly the
promotion of biblical teaching that fosters unity
in the British Church. The team prays that such a
direction would positively impact local communities
and indeed the wider world in which our society is
partly shaped.
11.2. The team prays that Churches and Christians
will maintain a focus on Jesus Christ and the original
doctrines of the Bible while boldly seeking relevant
contemporary expressions of that Christian gospel
for the society of today.
11.3. The team prays that the establishment of the
regional diocese serves as a part of a wider spiritual
awakening in the UK and Europe, with the purpose of
restoring the true relevance of the church to society
through dynamic, contemporary and practical applications
of the Christian faith.
11.4. The team has observed that this restoration
has already begun within the Churches, and prays that
the continuation will produce the effect of enabling
the Church to become increasingly more significant
to the reality of today's world through the rediscovery
of the power of biblical unity of vision and purpose.
Click
here for the Profile of the Bishop Elect for this
Regional Diocese.
TO
GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!!
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