Dear Members
Thank you for continuing to support WATCH. Here are a few of the things we have been doing.
AGM 2019
It was good to see a number of you at our October AGM at St John’s Church, Waterloo, London. Our speaker Loretta Minghella, OBE, First Church Commissioner, gave a very powerful address. Amongst other things she challenged us to think about whether the bids for Strategic Development Funding take gender seriously. It would be interesting to know if any of you are involved in applying for this funding and would like to think further about how in the Church of England’s mission we address the falling numbers of women under 40 in our churches.
Loretta Minghella’s talk and Bishop Anne Holingshurst’s address are available on the website.
Loretta Minghella’s talkBishop Anne Holingshurst’s address
Implementation and Dialogue Working Group
As chair of WATCH I continue to sit on this group. It has been interesting and at times difficult. The Five Guiding Principles urge us to find ways of enabling those with diametrically opposed views on the ordination of women to flourish. The group has had conversations about what that means and whether it is theologically possible. A report will go out later this year to the House of Bishops.
Transformations Lambeth Day
As one of the WATCH members on the Transformation Steering group I played a large part in organising this consultation day held early November for Bishops and Deans of Women’s Ministry. It was a really good day with a lot of positive energy in the room. Headlines are:
- Intentional good practice focusing on women does work: the diocese with higher numbers of women incumbents have good HR practice around supporting and equipping women; this insight needs to be shared more widely.
- Diocese still need Deans of Women’s ministry and these need to be properly resourced.
- Harassment is an issue that needs to be voiced and responded to.
- The Five Guiding Principles was the issue most attendees wanted to talk about.
Transparency
Our social media presence has continued to call for transparency in churches that have passed resolutions. We simply ask that the parish’s stance on women’s ministry be clearly displayed.
Treasurer
We are delighted to welcome John Briggs as our new treasurer. He will take over fully from Mark in the New Year. John is the Cathedral Registrar at Christ Church. Many of our members have now moved over to our new membership scheme with CAF bank. If you have not yet done so, please can you check the Join web page or contact [email protected]
Join WATCH
Liturgy
We will be hosting a liturgy writing day on Saturday 8th Feb at the Oxford Deanery. For information, contact [email protected]
2020 AGM – date for your calendar *note different Location*
Saturday 17th October, St Pancras Church, Euston Road, London NW1 2BA
