I

the Diocese of Ripon and LeedsNews from TogetherTogether

Inside this month’s Together:p II Extremism challengep III Synod newsp IV Mission-shapedp V Wellspring centrep VI Vocations Sundayp VIII Ripon College

Which direction now for the Diocese?Archbishop of York will decide whether the reorganisation process continues

‘Army move will damage the city’

Ripon fears closure

www.riponleeds.anglican.org

april 2013

Bishop John Packer has expressed his concern in the House of Lords at the Govern-ment announcement that the Claro barracks in Ripon which houses 21 Engineer Regiment is to close by 2017, as part of a reorganisation by the Ministry of Defence.

While welcoming some of the initiatives planned for Cat-terick, particularly for spouses and families, he said the news would be damaging for Ripon. “The damage to Ripon of the closure of Claro barracks will be substantial in terms of the economic effect, friendships and the pride of the city...That will be the same for other places where barracks are be-ing closed.” (Continued on Page 2)

The future of the plan for a single new Diocese of Leeds, bringing together Bradford, Wakefield and Ripon and Leeds, now rests with the Archbishop of York, after voting was split across the dioceses which met in three separate meetings on March 2nd. While Bradford and Ripon and Leeds Synods voted in favour of the Scheme, Wakefield Synod voted against.

Dr John Sentamu will decide in mid-April whether he should send the propos-als on to General Synod after one more diocese, marginally affected by the proposals, Blackburn, has its say at a Synod meeting on April 13th.

Bishop John said afterwards, “I hope that this will mean the Archbishop of York can take the Scheme to General Synod

in July – further delay and indecision would be damaging to the mission of the church in this region. The votes here and in Bradford send a posi-tive message to the Dioceses Commission and to General Synod.”

Synod voted to approve the reoganisation by 70 votes to 18 with 2 abstentions. “I welcome the clear approval of the Diocesan Synod for the Scheme,” said Bishop John. But he acknowledged, “There is still work to be done both in establishing the financial basis for the new diocese and in making sure that the northern (Continued on Page 2)

Waiting for directions from the Archbishop of York

News......News.....News.....News.....News.....News

II

News... News... News... News... News... News...

Which way now? Ripon fears

Christian leaders challenge extremism Leaders of the churches throughout West Yorkshire, including Bishop John, joined together on Ash Wednesday, February 13th, in an act of public witness to signify their opposition to far-right political extremists.

The West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council (WYEC), which in-cludes bishops, modera-tors, senior pastors and ministers, joined members of 'Churches Together in Dews-bury' in an act of ‘penitence and public witness’ outside Dewsbury Town Hall - the scene last year of an English Defence League rally. They

prayed for reconciliation and community relations. The act of witness aimed “to build up

community and to challenge extremism”.

Prayers were said “for the strength to resist evil, and especially any who seek to divide and sow the seeds of

distrust between our commu-nities”.

The Ash Wednesday state-ment reads: “Her Majesty the Queen has said: ‘Re-ligions can never become vehicles of hatred; never by invoking the name of God can evil and violence be justified. Today, in this country, we stand united in that conviction. We hold that freedom to worship is at the core of our tolerant and

democratic society.’ (Lambeth Palace February 2012.) We pray for the strength to resist evil, and especially any who seek to divide and sow the seeds of distrust between our communities.”

(Continued from Page 1) area of the new diocese is properly resourced and structured.”

The new diocese to be known as West Yorkshire and the Dales would be led by a diocesan bishop based in Leeds and divided into five Episcopal areas - Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds, Ripon and Wakefield.

Bradford Diocese voted in favour of the scheme by 90 votes to 4 but Wakefield Dio-cese rejected the scheme, 40 in favour, 76 against with 4 abstentions. Taken as a region,

200 votes were cast in favour, and 96 against.

The Archbishop of York can still decide to forward the Scheme to General Synod if he is satisfied that there are wider considerations affect-ing the province or the whole CofE.

Chair of the Commission, Pro-fessor Michael Clarke said: “It is good to know that Bradford and Ripon & Leeds support the Commission's propos-als. Looking at the voting in Wakefield, there is also signifi-cant support there too, even though the vote was lost.”

(Continued from Page 1)More than 600 soldiers and their families live at the Claro base. Dean of Ripon, Keith Jukes said it was a “disaster for the community here”. He said Ripon was still recover-ing from the loss of hundreds of students when its York St John College campus closed in 2002. “It does impact on every single area of city life in Ripon and not least on the economy and we are already, with every other community in Britain, feeling the effects of the recession,” he said. “This has really come as a hammer blow.”

III

Synod news... Synod news... Synod news...

Women bishops - dismay

Backing for Living Wage

Challenging financesIn addition to the momentous

vote on a new diocese, a packed meeting in St Aidan’s High School Harrogate over-whelmingly backed a motion urging General Synod to pass legislation allowing women bishops as soon as possible.

Proposing the motion, Canon Charles Dobbin, Vicar of Moor Allerton and Shadwell told members that his PCC was “stunned and dismayed” by the failure to pass the measure last year. Dr John

Beal, a lay member of General Synod who voted against the women bishops measure, ar-gued that Synod had to get the legislation right for those who in conscience or for theologi-cal principle couldn’t agree to it. But speaking in support of the motion, Bishop John said that the motion expressed “the sadness and anger following the vote last November….It was both tragic and wrong that we failed.” There was one vote against the motion and six abstentions.

Church PCCs together with all Anglican institutions across the diocese are to be “ strongly encouraged” to pay at least the ‘living wage’ to employees following overwhelm-ing endorse-ment for a motion put forward by Allerton Deanery.

Carol Smith, on behalf of the deanery, said that the church should recognize the harm caused by the widening gap between rich and poor and

the need to pay a living wage in order to lift people out of poverty. The Living Wage is calculated independently and

updated annu-ally according to the basic cost of living in the UK – it is currently £7.45 per hour.

The motion affirmed the

Christian values inherent in the concept of the Living Wage and was agreed with only one vote against and one abstention.

With only a 92% Share col-lection rate in 2012, down by £250k, belts had to be tight-ened and thanks to deploying fewer clergy than the national allocation the diocese achieved a modest surplus of just £1000.

Presenting the accounts, Deputy Chair of the DBF, Les Everett (pictured) paid tribute to parishes for their generosity in difficult times.

New Annual ReviewSix thousand copies of the new annual review, continuing the radical cross-shaped design, are being distributed through-out the diocese following the

Synod meeting. John Carter said “The review celebrates 2012 and provides a focus and a foundation for the future, whatever that may be.” Make sure you get your copy!

IV

How to handle acceptance

Bishop John writesGod’s Future for Us All

Described as a ‘self-accept-ance’ conference, St Edmund’s Roundhay is organizing a day of talks, workshops, resources and worship on treating ourselves with compassion. It takes place on Saturday April 13 from 10am-4pm at the church (LS8 1JN) and is led by Helen Warwick, a retreat leader and author of ‘Finding Your Inner Treasure’ and Gil-lian Brackenberry, a spiritual director. The cost is £6 and for more information and booking go to www.stedmunds.round-hay.org.uk or contact Jenny (0113) 266 4532

Richmond Deanery is running a six week mission shaped introduction course from April 16 at Hudswell Village Hall. Session leaders include Karin Shaw, Fresh Expressions Of-ficer, Andy Ryland, Rural Of-ficer and Bishop James Bell. Using presentations, movie clips and participation, the course looks at the changing nature of social communities and explores how the church can rethink its approach. Book via Gillian Lunn on gillian.lunn@yahoo.com or (01748) 826895

Mission Shaped course

The debates and voting on the proposals for a diocese for West Yorkshire and the Dales have created an element of uncertainty. I was delighted at the firm, positive response from our own Synod and that of Bradford. Yet there remain many hesitations in Wakefield.

Within our diocese, too, there was questioning in the Synod debate, centred particularly around financial issues and the future Archdeaconry of Richmond and Craven. The financial basis for the new diocese does indeed need to be firmly established. Views on the northern archdeaconry var-ied. Some saw this as a real opportunity to develop a re-sponse to rural issues and rural communities, and to enhance rural mission. Others felt the area was too large, and could be too distant in feel from the West Yorkshire heart of the new diocese. That needs to be addressed by careful thinking and planning for ministry in North Yorkshire.

Now we pray for Archbishop Sentamu as he determines whether this is the right way forward for the church in this part of Yorkshire, in the light of the votes. He has given himself the Holy Week and Easter period to reflect, study and pray. If he does then

decide to send the proposals forward to General Synod there should be a vote in July. If that is in favour, the new diocese would probably come into being in 2014.

We pray for wisdom and guidance for the Archbishop over Easter. We pray too for ourselves, that whatever the decision we shall be given the vision to seize the opportuni-ties it presents. Easter is the mark of new life. As Jesus was raised from death so we can experience the new life of Christ coursing through our veins and inspiring our life and mission. In the words of one of the best Christian phrases of recent years, ‘For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.’ +John

Wellspring - Christian counselling

It was seeing the need for a service that could integrate good counselling with an understanding of faith and our spiritual journey, as well as the need to be affordable for the disadvantaged, that led me to found Wellspring in October 2003. We have been based in our own dedicated premises in Starbeck since April 2005, growing steadily since then from an initial team of 2 to the 11 counsellors working here today, with client numbers increasing year on year by up to 10%.

We are a charity with a board of trustees and funded by donations from clients (which are reducing) and “Friends of Wellspring” and charitable grants. Our hope is that more Christian individuals and churches will become “Friends” and partner with us by providing the resources that we need.

As a Christian organisation, our aim is to offer God’s love and healing to the community through counselling and training.

What Wellspring provides

The aim of Wellspring is to provide affordable or free counselling according to means for individuals, couples and families, and placement opportunities to a small number of trainee counsellors. We also have a youth project to support young people at risk of exclusion, self-harm or suicide, which is looking for new staff as well as new funding from April.

Our services are available to adults, couples, young people, families, schools, businesses and churches. The core team of qualified counsellors have a range of experience, and are accredited with a profession-al organisation or working towards accreditation

Open Day – April 20If you would like to come and have a peek at the new Wellspring Offices, an open day is taking place at Wellspring, 2 Prospect Road in Starbeck, near Harrogate on April 20th. It will include a tour of the Wellspring centre, and light refresh-ments. Just turn up.

Eat Your Heart Out – April 27 A training day taking place at Wellspring on Saturday April 27th looking at the links between physical and emotional experiences of food and eating. It is being run for counsellors, parents, students and professionals in the food and cater-ing business. It runs from 9.30am – 4.30pm Details (01423) 881 881 or email office@well-springtherapy.co.uk.

There are also many opportunities to serve God through Wellspring as a volunteer receptionist or qualified counsellor, or through prayer and finan-cial support. More detailed information, including more about the young people’s project, training courses and counselling statistics, can be found on our website - www.wellspringtherapy.co.uk

Counselling Service Manager, Judith Coleman.

Wellspring Therapy and Training is a service based in Starbeck near Harrogate providing professional counselling for the community that is affordable, open-ended and with a spiritual element for those who want it. It was founded in 2003 by Elaine Wainaina a trained counsellor who is married to Canon Fran-cis Wainaina, the Vicar of Starbeck Church. Here, she tells Together how the service began.

Wellspring - Christian counselling

Lights (off), Camera, Action….

VI

News... News... News... News... News... News...Vocations Sunday

Who is my neighbour?

“Our Hope for God’s Crea-tion” is a new film being pro-duced for parishes across the north east, featuring the Arch-bishop of York, (pictured). The film uses examples from across the region to illustrate how churches can care for God’s earth.

“It’s been inspir-ing visiting a wide variety of churches to see so many different ways they are being faithful to this area of our Christian mission,” says Jemima Parker, Diocesan Environment Of-ficer, who has been working with filmmaker, Jason Lowe.

The 20 minute film will be available on the diocesan website and as a DVD sent to parishes, in time for use around World Environment Day, June 5th.

Two special services are planned for Sunday 2nd June to mark the release of the film, 10.30am at Ripon Cathedral and 6.30pm at Leeds Minster.

Pictured is Kathy Gallo-way, a former leader of the Iona Community and head of Christian Aid in Scotland, who visited Ripon Cathedral last month to give the opening lecture in this year’s St Wil-frid Lecture series, ‘Who is my neigh-bour? Expressions of 21st century community’.

Issues in the series include community cohesion, inter-religious dialogue, and education. This month, on April 25th at 7pm, Professor

Margaret Harris of Aston Uni-versity will give the second lecture. Other speakers include John Denham MP (June

13), Professor Tahir Abbas (September 19), the Bishop of Oxford (October 10), and Professor Ted Cantle (Novem-ber 7). Admission is free.

The Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 21, is National Vocations Sunday, a day which provides an opportunity for churches to focus on the theme of God’s calling.

This year the diocese is promoting Vocations Sunday by arranging for ordinands in training, vocations advisers and the Director of Ordinand’s team to visit churches across the diocese. They will be talk-ing about their own vocational journeys and preaching on the importance of listening to God's call.

Director of Ordinands, Peter Clement, told Together, “I am hoping that Vocations Sunday will encourage people to con-sider that, as Christians, we are all called to follow Christ and that some are called to specific vocations.”

The advice for anyone who feels God is calling them is to first contact their parish priest who will refer them to a vocations adviser. They help candidates explore their sense of calling and look at a range of ministries including Priest, Deacon, Reader, Church Army and Youth Worker.

For more visit www.ripon-leeds.anglican.org/vocations.html

y Diary Dates Your guide to events

VII

Aprilin the Diocese of Ripon & Leeds

2

6- 28

13

13

13

16

18

19

20

24

25

25

27

20

21

27

27

30

Harrogate International Youth Festival 40th anniversary concert, Ripon Cathedral. 7.30pm Tickets £10 and £8

Testament – Art Exhibition at Ripon Cathe-dral Paintings on Biblical themes by Judith Gilbert

The Holy Land – Experience, Reflection, Action. Friends of Sabeel UK, Bishop Richard Llewellin – Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel, City Square, Leeds, 12noon – 5pm. (0113) 261 8055

Self-acceptance Conference, 10am-4pm at St Edmund’s, Roundhay, LS8 1JN www.sted-munds.roundhay.org.uk (More on page 4)

Touching the Void – 10am- 3.30 pm , the Mir-field Centre £ 18.00 (includes 2-course lunch & refreshments). Rachael Salmon, centre@mirfield.org.uk, www.mirfieldcentre.org.uk

Mission Shaped Introduction course, Hudswell Village Hall, Richmond Deanery – a six week course, gillian.lunn@yahoo.com (01748) 826895

Reading & Speaking in Church. St Mary’s, Whitkirk, 7.30pm £5 per person - maximum of £10 per parish. (0113) 200 0558 carol.stenner@riponleeds-diocese.org.uk

The Geography of the Heart: Rev’d Dr Jona-than J Singh. 8.45am –12.30pm St Michael’s Hospice, Hornbeam Park Avenue, Harrogate HG2 8QL. £45 education@saintmichaelshos-pice.org or call (01423) 856794

Wellspring Open Day, 2 Prospect Road, Star-beck, near Harrogate (01423) 881881 or email office@wellspringtherapy.co.uk (See page 5 for more information)

Safeguarding Training for Clergy, St. Rob-ert’s Pannal. To book, contact gail.matthew-man@riponleeds-diocese.org.uk

Funeral Ministry. For clergy and Readers. 2pm – 4.30pm, Diocesan Office, St Mary’s Street LS9 7DP gail.matthewman@riponleeds-diocese.org.uk

Challenges of Building Community in the 21st century - St Wilfrid Lecture at Ripon Cathedral, Professor Margaret Harris, 7pm. Ad-mission free, advanced tickets from judithbus-tard@riponcathedral.org.uk (01765) 603462

Eat Your Heart Out – Training day taking place at Wellspring, 2 Prospect Road, Starbeck, near Harrogate looking at the links between physical and emotional experiences of food and eating. 9.30am – 4.30pm. For an application form phone (01423) 881881 or email office@wellspringtherapy.co.uk

Healing impact of arts therapies. Elaine Wis-dom and Rev Dr Roger Grainger. Holy Rood House, Thirsk. 01845 522580.

Vocations Sunday (see page 6 for more)

The call to Kingdom Leadership - New Wine Leadership Network day at St Mark's Church, Leeds Road, Harrogate, with Ian Parkinson, Leader of New Wine North, 10am-3.45pm, free

School of Theology, St George's, Great George Street Leeds, LS1 3BR, 9.30am.

Leading Intercessions. Training morning. Holy Trinity Church, Ripon, 10am – 12.30pm. To book contact Carol Stenner (0113) 200 0558 carol.stenner@riponleeds-diocese.org.uk

VIII

Moves and Appointments

Ripon’s college for clergy remembered

David Brighton Editor(0113) 2000540, email:Together @riponleeds-diocese.org.uk

John Carter Managing Editor(01423) 530369, email: jhgcarter@aol.com

Cost and delivery enquiries:Julie Milbourne, Ripon & Leeds Diocesan Office, (0113) 2000540

A plaque marking the former site of Ripon Clergy College has been unveiled by someone who has more connections to it than most. Bishop John both trained for the ministry at Ripon College and was later a tutor there – though not at its Ripon site, but at its present site in Cuddesdon, a village on the outskirts of Oxford.

Ripon College was only in North Yorkshire for 17 years - founded in 1898, and occupy-ing a prominent position in Ripon, next to the clock tower on the corner of North Street and Princess Road. With the introduction of a national train-ing system the college moved to Oxford in 1915, but still retains the name Ripon College to this day.

Now the college’s 17 years in Ripon have been commemorat-ed with a Ripon Civic Society plaque, funded by donations from Bishop John, former

Archdeacon of Richmond Janet Henderson, and from the pre-sent Ripon College, Cuddes-don. Bishop John said it was a reminder of the commitment of the church to the professional training. “The College was founded as part of a general movement at the time towards

developing professional train-ing for clergy. ... To remember where it started is important for us now in terms of our own commitment to training within the life of the church.”

The most famous ordinand to study at Ripon, and named on the plaque, was ‘Woodbine Willie’, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, the First World War chaplain who was born in Quarry Hill, Leeds. After studying at Ripon and serving a curacy he volunteered to join the Army and was often in the thick of the fighting, assisting the soldiers and offering com-fort – both spiritual and in the form of his famous cigarettes.

David Winpenny (pictured), chairman of Ripon Civic Society, said: “Ripon Clergy College was a feature of the city for only a few years but in that time trained many men for the Church of England. The society is proud to mark the college’s history and its most famous alumnus with this plaque and we are very grateful to everyone who has contributed to it.”

Revd Sue Reilly, SSM at Knaresborough; to be Priest in Charge of the Parish of Chevington(Newcastle).

Revd Peter Matthews, Assis-tant Curate, St Ann, Catterick; to become Priest in Charge of St Bride, Old Trafford (Man-chester) and Young Adults Missioner.

Revd Andrew Robert Rowe,

Co-ordinating Chaplain HM Prison Wakefield; to be Man-aging Chaplain HM Young Of-fenders’ Institution, Wetherby.

Revd Jan Kearton, incumbent of St John Hipswell; to be Canon Residentiary (Canon Warden) of Carlisle Cathedral.

Revd Lesley Ashton, Team Vicar, Abbeylands Team Ministry; to be House for Duty

Priest, Fountains Benefice.

Revd Alice Snowden, at All Souls and St Aidan; to be also Assistant Area Dean of Allerton.