During the past few months, initial ideas for Doing Church Differently and applications for funding at the Bishop’s Den have arrived from a variety of parishes, clusters, deaneries and other groups across the diocese.

In all, 38 ideas were received by the deadline of the 31 October – ranging from family and youth projects, new technology ideas, ways to support different age groups, ideas of how to extend our faith to all sectors of society, as well as one or two initiatives to provide extra facilities for the local community and to encourage working together with other churches.

Following a ‘long-listing’ process and preliminary assessment by a panel including independent experts, 16 of the 38 applications have been selected and will be developed into more detailed business plans by the end of January. These will then be short-listed to the final six projects to be presented at the Bishop’s Den.

The Bishop’s Den will be a public event held at 4pm on 23 February at Truro College when the final six of these bids will be ‘pitched’ before a panel comprising:

  • Bishop Tim,
  • Daphne Skinnard (BBC Radio Cornwall)
  • Catherine Mead (Lynher Dairies)
  • Steve Ellis (CEO, St Petroc’s Society)
  • The Very Revd Dr Jonathan Draper (Dean of Exeter).

Tickets for this event will cost £5 and be on sale in January 2014.

More information here about Doing Church Differently and the Bishop’s Den or refer to the October edition of The Coracle.