It is with great pleasure that I announce that the successful applicant for the
West Belconnen Community Hub Project consultant is Mr Ken Morgan.
Ken brings a strong faith and extensive experience in missional analysis within
a variety of Christian settings. He comes highly recommended from the
Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, the Right Revd Bishop Richard Condie.
WHAT WILL THE CONSULTANCY DO?
The essential goal of this Anglicare funded consultancy is for Ken to make
recommendations about how best to utilise the combined resources of the
parishes Charnwood, Ginninderra and Holt to serve and reach out to the
community of West Belconnen with the love of Christ. These
recommendations will give consideration to the creation of a community hub
in partnership with Anglicare and/or other agencies.
Some of the ways that Ken will achieve this goal are by prayerfully:
- Gathering data on and evaluating parish potential, capacity and challenges
using a mission readiness evaluation tool, parish on-site visits, and
interviews with clergy - Consulting with community groups and parish ministries providing services
in the area - Identifying the needs and opportunities in the community that a
partnership between Anglicare and the parishes may be positioned to
address - Holding parish/Anglicare workshops where community needs and our
identified capabilities are matched with what the members of our three
parishes want/hope for/discern - Engaging the Diocesan Exploratory Ministry Unit in exploring possibilities
- After all the above analysis, presenting 2-3 broad options to the Parishes/
and Anglicare for consideration and identification of our first Priority option. - Drafting possible action recommendations for the first priority option, for
Anglicare and parishes to review and determine their response.
WHAT WON’T THE CONSULTANCY DO?
Ken’s final recommendations will be just that: recommendations. - They will not require us to do anything BUT they will give each parish a
firm foundation on which to help us to discern God’s mission in our
region and take actions accordingly. - They will not require us to amalgamate with Holt and Ginninderra BUT
they will show us where we may best use our combined resources for
God’s mission. This may include a broad range of options such as a
sharing of our clerical and other staff right through to some form of
combining the operation of the parishes, but, again, nothing will happen
unless we want it to. - They will not require us to change the way we run our services BUT they
will recommend to us how we may better organise the delivery of
services across the three parishes to have maximum outreach potential.
WHY DO WE NEED THE CONSULTANCY?
Through our Mission Action Plan last year we discerned a need for greater
collaboration between our three parishes. This has seen the setting up of a Tri-Parish combined quarterly service, as well as the Revd Ken Rampling (Ginninderra Parish), Revd Judy Douglas (Holt Parish) and myself meeting and praying together each fortnight seeking God’s guidance on how to work
effectively together for God’s mission in our community. From this, we have
sensed a strong push to put aside any territorial issues and openly consider
how God may wish to use our combined resources to achieve greater missional
outreach. The consultancy is a God-given opportunity to realistically assess the
circumstances in each of our Parishes so that this outreach door may be fully
opened, inviting the Holy Spirit to spark revival in our region.
As prayer is the foundation of all action, we three leaders are feeling led to
invite members of all our congregations to join in 6 days of intentional prayer
to guide us as we move forward. The dates and details are to be confirmed but
the basic idea is that a 24 hour roster will be drawn up and people can select
the times that suit them best to pray for one hour either at their own home or,
during the day, at our respective churches.