Roots & Shoots
Community News
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Welcome to our newsletter with highlights of this year's St Boniface Awards, Bishop Nick's Farewell Service, the lowdown on Lambeth, a new safeguarding survey and a Plymouth church's beach day out!
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St Boniface Awards Highlight Help for Those in Need in Devon
Church members helping those in need during the Cos-of-Living crisis are among this year's recipients of the Diocese of Exeter's St Boniface Award. They include Scott McJohnston, who runs a homeless outreach charity after himself experiencing homelessness, Judith Taylor, who runs an initiative teaching people to cook on a budget and 13-year-old Susannah Grace Hardy who helps serve breakfast to 80 children and their families each week. The St Boniface Awards honour lay people who have gone above and beyond to serve their churches, communities or church schools with joy. This year's new Company of St Boniface members were presented with their medals by the Bishop of Exeter during a special service at Exeter Cathedral on Saturday. Read the story.
View our photo gallery. Listen to a powerful BBC Radio Devon interview with Scott McJohnston (at 2hrs, 5mins into the programme).
Dr Jon Curtis, Lay Discipleship Project Manager for the Diocese, said, "It's so important as a Diocese we recognise all the many ways that the members of our churches are serving the Kingdom of God in our county.
 It was a real privilege to meet these people and hear their stories. We know they are just the tip of the iceberg throughout our Church. We thank God for everyone who is called to work in all these ways."
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Watch our video interviews with some of the 2022 Companions of St Boniface
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Tributes to Bishop Nick at his Farewell Service
Tributes have been paid to the Bishop of Plymouth at a farewell service to mark his retirement after 42 years in ministry. The Rt. Rev’d Nick McKinnel has been a bishop in the Diocese of Exeter since 2012 and was previously a parish vicar. Friends, family and colleagues gathered at Exeter Cathedral on Sunday 24 July for a Choral Evensong to say goodbye. During his sermon, Bishop Nick thanked them for their support and said “Not many people get to play the part of a piece on a chessboard.” He also said it was important to “rejoice in hope” and said as a bishop he had often found hope in unexpected places. After the service there were speeches and Bishop Nick was presented with a number of gifts on behalf of the Diocese and the Cathedral. Read the tributes to Bishop Nick here. View a photo gallery of the service here.
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Bishop Nick reflects on his ministry and forthcoming retirement in this video interview with Diocese Communications Director Chloe Axford
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Lambeth Conference Starts
The Lambeth Conference starts today in Canterbury and runs until 8 August. It is a once-in-a-decade gathering of around 650 Anglican bishops from 150 countries (known as the worldwide Anglican Communion). This year's theme is "God’s Church for God’s World - walking, listening and witnessing together," During the conference a number of topics will be discussed, including climate change, mission and evangelism, human dignity and science and faith. You can read more here. There has been some controversy surrounding one of the draft Lambeth ‘Calls’ about Human Dignity. You can read a statement from the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith Next Steps Group about it here.
Bishop Robert, Bishop Jackie, Bishop Nick and Assistant Bishop Mark Rylands are all attending the conference. Bishop Robert writes: "Please pray for our conversations and discussions at the conference, and for us to be able to share experiences and learn together in a way which will strengthen the mission and unity of the Anglican Communion and the diverse communities it seeks to serve around the world. We are particularly glad to be joining at the conference with the bishops of our link dioceses: Bishop Julius from Thika, Kenya, Archbishop Michael of Cyprus and the Gulf and Archbishop Leonard and the bishops of Melanesia." You can download a prayer diary for the conference here.
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Reminder to do Safer Recruitment Online Training
New Safer Recruitment guidance was issued by the National Safeguarding Team in January . Safer recruitment practice is an essential part of the CofE’s approach to safeguarding. The policy and guidance sets out safer recruitment practices for people working or volunteering with children and adults. The guidance addresses two key areas – the recruitment process and criminal record checks (DBS). This is just to remind you that if you are involved in Recruitment in any way you are encouraged to attend the Safer Recruitment training course that sits alongside the new guidance. The course can be completed online and takes 1.5 - 2hrs to complete. Find it on the National Safeguarding Training portal. If you are a new user of the portal you will need to follow the on-screen instructions to register and create an account. Once you have logged in, click on the tab that says ‘Online Courses’, then select the ‘Safer Recruitment’ module.
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New Dignity in Ministry Policy
The Diocese of Exeter is committed to healthy working relationships and the dignity of everyone in the workplace. We want our workplace culture to reflect our values. The People Team has developed a new Dignity in Ministry policy which sets out the expected standards of behaviour and offers guidance about what to do if you feel you are being bullied or harassed. You can read the new policy here.
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Events, resources or campaigns we would love you to make the most of and share with your church community...
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Survivor Engagement Survey
The National Church of England Safeguarding Team is committed to the development and implementation of a survivor engagement framework for the Church, to support meaningful, transparent and impactful survivor engagement work. A survey is being run between 19 July and 18 September 2022 that aims to listen to victims and survivors, including those who have not engaged with the Church of England previously, about how they would like to work with the Church to develop and implement a framework that will enable greater participation and interaction.
Survivors’ voices and participation are invaluable in protecting others, developing services, producing policies, assuring quality, working together with church officers and leaders and other survivors to find solutions and make changes in safeguarding. The survey is open for any victim or survivor, including children and young people, and all responses will be anonymous. It takes approximately 13-15 minutes to complete.
For more information on the Survivor Engagement Survey, see here.
To complete the survey, click here.
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5 Days Left to Calculate Your Church's Carbon Footprint
The Church of England has a target to achieve net carbon zero by 2030. The Energy Footprint Tool helps us monitor how, as a diocese, we are progressing. Click here to use the footprint tool You just need to enter your church's 2021 utility bills to find out your church "carbon footprint". It is only open until July 31st, so don't miss the chance to find find out what your environmental impact is. Lydia Perris, Social Justice and Creation Care Officer for the Diocese, says "This is the single most helpful action churches can take to care for creation right now." For advice, please contact our Net Carbon Zero officer Sophie Phillips.
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Give Young Christian Climate Network a hand at Lambeth!
During the Lambeth Conference the Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN) will be holding a prayer vigil at Lambeth Palace to make their voices heard. They want the Church to work together for climate justice, by taking decisive action on climate planning, cutting ties with fossil fuels and financially supporting vulnerable nations. YCCN is making a chain of hands to represent climate justice fellowship. Find out how you can take part.
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New Eden Way Pilgrimage Route Launch Weekend: 6-7 August
Just a reminder that the new Eden Way 18-mile pilgrimage will be launching soon. Created by the Teign Valley and Haldon Hill Mission Community and supported by Devon Pilgrim (a Diocese of Exeter project), walkers are invited to pause at each church on the journey along the Teign Valley for a guided reflection. For more information about the launch events on Saturday 6th - Sunday 7th August, see here or email Rev'd Eleanor Oelmann.
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LET'S STAY IN TOUCH
We have 5 Facebook Groups to help us keep in touch.
They are a brilliant place to ask questions, share tips and ideas and feel part of the church community across Devon.
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Stories and experiences from around the Diocese and beyond ...
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Spotted in the Visitors' Book...
Thanks to the team at St Thomas of Canterbury church in Kingswear for this photo of their visitors' book showing they had an unexpected visit from the Archbishop of Calgary, Canada, on a trip to Devon ahead of the Lambeth Conference. Jo Griffin writes: "As volunteers we try to keep church open at least 10am-3pm daily. Looks like we had a VIP visitor and it was a good job our 'Help Yourself' hospitality (wrapped biscuits and drinks) were out, along with our prayer request and visitor books!" It looks like the warm welcome offered worked, the Archbishop has written 'Lovely, peaceful' as a comment!
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St Chad's Beach Baptism Service
To make the most of the beautiful weather, St Chad's Church in Whitleigh, Plymouth, went to Goodrington Sands in Paignton for their Sunday service. Over 200 attended the beach service, and whilst many were present from St Chad's congregation, many also came along from the local community and with no connection to church. Rev'd Rob Fowler gave a sermon, and then together they gathered for 8 baptisms - the youngest person being baptised aged 8, and the eldest being 58! The service was followed by swimming, paddle boarding, fellowship and fun!
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And the whinney-er is...
Our winner for the caption competition is Paul Ramsbotton with the caption, ‘Despite the choir being the mane event at Islington animal service, they sounded a bit horse.’
Paul has won a copy of How Village Churches Thrive. Our runner-up is Rev'd Karl Freeman, from Emmanuel Church Plymouth, with the caption, ‘I meant ‘bride’ not ‘bridle’!'
Other good entries include...
'A remarkable Pony Tale' - Pat Beadle, St Peters Church Fremington
'Learning to be good neigh-bours'- Rev'd Chris Routledge, Eggbuckland
'I will try to stay in key and drown any others out'- Patricia Kingford
Thank you to all those who entered our competition!
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LET'S SHARE
If you have a story, resource or an experience (positive or negative) that could feature in the next newsletter, please email us. We also welcome constructive feedback about what you would like to see in Roots & Shoots!
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