Our Vision

Our plans are likely to take 10 years to implement, and will lead to a diocese in which:

• There are more Christians of every age and background, worshipping God and serving the people of Cornwall, especially the poorest.
• Church communities in Cornwall of every size, tradition, character and style are confident in their calling to worship, witness and service.
• There is significant investment of time, money, prayer, gifts and love in missional service to and with young people and families, and communities and people experiencing deprivation.
• We are more financially sustainable, so that reserves can be focussed on discerned priorities.
• The parish church is both developing, and working in partnership with, other forms of church including fresh expressions, pioneering, planting and chaplaincy, to connect and share faith with people and communities that we don’t currently see in church.
• The majority of church communities are led by Local Ministers (both lay and ordained), with stipendiary priests in oversight roles, leading, enabling and ministering to groups of churches, communities and missional activities of different kinds.
• Lay and ordained people are working in closer partnership with each other for fruitfulness and sustainability, with new models of lay ministry, appropriate vocational pathways, patterns of training and ways of supporting them all.

In this section you will find more information about what those two terms mean, both theologically and practically, as well as resources for listening to each other, the communities we serve and the Lord we follow, as we seek to become more fruitful and sustainable.

We know that we will not reach fruitful and sustainable by writing a strategy for fruitfulness and sustainability, which is then given to churches to put into action. The Holy Spirit is much more likely to be at work in and around local communities, and the fruitful and sustainable future we long for is most likely to be discerned by local churches, working together in deaneries, seeking the Spirit and looking to join in.

The original On The Way plan was not designed by others for the local church – instead it was an invitation to meet together for prayer, listening, dreaming and discussion, with support to do that, with the hopeful expectation that it would result in a clear plan for fruitful and sustainable church communities for the future God is calling us towards.