All Good Gifts Around Us

Introduction by Rt Revd John Flack, the former Bishop of Huntingdon

All Good Gifts Around Us brings together ideas and proposals from a number of different sources. The Diocese of Ely's Ministry Strategy Report (1995) and the vision document Towards 2005 have been obvious influences. General Synod and Ministry Division Reports have helped us; work by Bishop Anthony on the history of ministry and imaginative recent writing by Canon Robin Greenwood of the Church in Wales all surface in this Report.

A longer influence has been the famous Report by Canon John Tiller entitled A Strategy for the Church's Ministry (1983). Much of what he prophesied in that Report is coming to pass, and part of our task has been to restructure what he wrote for today's church and world.

But the biggest single influence is the Clergy, Readers, Churchwardens and People of the Diocese of Ely. During the preparation of this Report we held 25 consultations and received 75 submissions in writing. Much of the material from those submissions appears here. The challenge before us is to deploy our available ministerial resources to the maximum advantage to meet the challenge of ministry and mission in the Diocese over the next ten years. The days of “one parson per parish” are behind us; but we have fast-growing reservoirs of voluntary ministry at the ready, and we are well-placed to meet the challenges which lie ahead.

It is my hope that over the next year my colleagues and I will have the opportunity to discuss this Report with you and decide how it should be implemented.

Several colleagues have worked with me on the production of this Report - Tim Elbourne, Les Oglesby, Bridget Nichols, Julia Jones and Jim Rone. In addition we have received invaluable advice and assistance from Arnold Browne and Jane Charman, and many other contributors who wrote convincingly about their own situations.

I am also grateful to my PA Isabel Allen and our Communications Team led by Owen Spencer-Thomas for their help in the formatting and production of All Good Gifts Around Us. It will be published during the Harvest Season, with its evocation of the fruits of the earth and the harvest of souls.

September 2002

---

Contents

• Foreword by the Bishop of Ely
• Introduction by the former Bishop of Huntingdon
• Chapter One Context and Challenges
• Chapter Two Licensed and Authorised Ministry
• Chapter Three Local Ministry Teams
• Chapter Four Resourcing Ministry
• Chapter Five Structures
• Recommendations
• Bibliography
• Appendix

---

Downloads

• Report in PDF Format
• Report in Word Format