Tri-Diocesan Covenant

As accepted by each Diocesan Synod and signed by each Diocesan Bishop on 14 September 2003

TRI-DIOCESAN
COVENANT

Diocese of Bathurst

Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn

Diocese of Riverina

September 2003

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Prologue

Listening to the Spirit

'If anyone has ears to hear, let them listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.' (Rev 2:7)

The Anglican Communion has agreed on five core marks of mission (Anglican Consultative Council):

• to proclaim the Gospel;
• to baptise, nurture and teach new believers;
• to respond to human need through loving service;
• to seek to transform the unjust structures of society; and
• to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation.

With hearts open to the leading of the Spirit, we commend to you a covenant of cooperation between the three Dioceses.

Covenant in Scripture is a central image for the bond of trust and mutual responsibility between God and Israel, and for God's saving grace in Christ which calls the Church into being.

We are at a point of decision. If our vision extends no further than 'maintenance ministry', we will almost certainly fail. We must risk crossing boundaries that have hitherto defined our identities. The Spirit calls us to the adventure of trusting each other in new ways and supporting each other in new ventures. Like the great covenants of old, this covenant is a call to step out in faith together into a future which is created by God, defined in Christ and empowered by the Spirit.

We affirm our commitment to one another as partners in mission, serving the Australian Capital Territory and the Central Tablelands, the Western Slopes, the Murray Riverina, Western Plains and the outback, the Southern Tablelands, the South Coast, and the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

We believe we are being called by God at this time to honour all that enriches the Ministry and Mission of the Church through our Diocesan distinctiveness, and yet to witness to a new era of cooperation and mutual interdependence in Christ. We believe we are called to do this for our sakes and for the urgency of the Gospel imperative in our midst, but also for the sake of the wider Church in Australia.

We give thanks for our common history and tradition within the Anglican Communion. We seek to embrace the fullness of the Gospel and the rich giftedness of the people of God. We wish to be in full partnership with the wider Anglican family in New South Wales and beyond.

We recognise in one another communities of faith hope and love, shaped by the redemptive act of God in the dying and rising of Jesus and committed to witnessing and proclaiming the Kingdom of God in our midst.

We therefore enter this covenant with each other trusting the covenant love of God. We confess we do not know where this covenant will lead us, what demands it might place upon us, or what sacrifices it may ask of us; but we are confident that we will be led more deeply into God's redeeming purpose and that is for us sufficient blessing to begin the journey.

1. Our Relationship

• We agree to be together in prayer and worship. We hope to develop a common monthly cycle of prayer. We expect our Bishops to pray regularly for each other and to commit to be with one another once a quarter. We will encourage prayer linkages across and between our Parishes. We will invite representatives from each Diocese to be present at all major Diocesan celebrations of worship.

• We agree to be together in care for one another. We expect our Bishops to be in regular communication, out of care for one another. We will respond to each other's need through loving service. We expect peers with common responsibility in each Diocese to build a network of care. Where possible we will launch joint appeals for the common good. We hope people who serve in similar functions across the three Diocese will meet together at least annually.

• We will explore our faith together. Where possible study resources will be shared. Whenever we meet together we commit to building one another up in Christ. Skills of spiritual directors, theological mentors and biblical scholars will be shared across the Dioceses.

• We will be in synod together. We expect each Diocese to retain its own synod. However the spirit of synod - a journey travelled together - will undergird our life. We will aim for joint decision-making. We will not duplicate what only needs to be done once. We will invite representation from each Diocese at the synod of the other Diocese. We will live in the hope that God will show us how to make more decisions together, for the sake of the Kingdom and for our common good. If God calls us to tread a new path, we pray for grace to be able to move in company with one another.

2. Cooperation in ministry

• Selection, Training and Professional Development of Clergy. We will strengthen the already existing cooperation of our directors of ordinands, examining chaplains and selection panel. We will seek always to adopt common procedures and standards. We will add to this cooperation a shared programme of professional development for clergy in the first four years of ministry.

• Sexual Harassment and Abuse Protocols and Child Protection Policies. We are committed to adopting the national protocols. We will encourage collegial conversation between our contact officers. We anticipate each Diocese will appoint its own Professional Standards Committee. We anticipate a Professional Standards Officer and a Professional Standards Board serving all three Dioceses. We expect to share resources and accept a common standard in our child protection protocols and in building safe Communities of Faith.

• Deployment of Clergy. We expect each Diocese to continue to license and employ clergy as at present. However we would like to cooperate together in the following ways:
  • We would like to progressively develop a sense of a common pool of clergy who can move more freely across the three Dioceses.

  • We wish to be committed to a policy in appointment where primary consideration is given to the formation and development of the clergy and the strategic mission of the Church, rather than a simple desire to fill a vacancy.

  • We will cooperate in recognising leadership skills in the clergy and in the provision of opportunity for their development.

  • We will take seriously our responsibility to identify nurture and train people for leadership in the Church.

• Charles Sturt University. We recognise in Charles Sturt University and its various regional campuses, linkages that benefit the educational needs of our three Dioceses:
  • St Mark's National Theological Centre. While St Mark's exists independently of CSU; nevertheless the university's school of theology is based in the St Mark's campus. We therefore seek to maximise the advantage that St Mark's offers, by encouraging the faculty and courses of St Mark's to made available to us as regionally as possible. We imagine this to happen through the well-developed programme of distance education, and by holding lectures in public theology as well as clergy formation programmes in regional centres. We expect representation from all three Dioceses to be included in the governing body of St Mark's.

  • St Martin's Wagga Wagga Campus. This joint venture between Riverina and Canberra and Goulburn has been overwhelmingly successful. We imagine it strengthening and expanding especially as a chapel and other ancillary facilities are developed. We imagine that there will be a shared opportunity developing from St Martin's for Chaplaincy at the University.

  • Residential College Bathurst Campus. We would like to build on the expertise and experience of St Martin's in the possible development of an Anglican residential College on the Bathurst campus.

  • Youth. We acknowledge that in the rural areas of Australia the nurture and development of youth leadership in the Church is difficult because of the movement of young people to the cities. We recognise in the youth training certificate recently developed at St Mark's an opportunity to develop and hold our own leadership. We seek to be in partnership with one another to further develop this opportunity through St Mark's and on our regional campuses.

• Anglicare. We acknowledge Anglicare as the strategic arm of the Church enabling it to effectively fulfil its core mission in the care of those in need, addressing unjust structures and working towards the integrity of the whole creation. We will pool our resources and work for a common strategy that may include a single organisational structure across the three Dioceses.

• Schools. We will encourage cooperation between the nine schools. We imagine this to include invitations to the Bathurst principals to join the collegiality already enjoyed by the Canberra and Goulburn Schools. We also imagine that at all levels, encouragement, professional development and sharing of resources will be extended to all the Schools across the three Dioceses. We hope it may be possible in the medium-term future to fund skills and resources to serve the Schools across the three Dioceses.

• Indigenous ministry. We will seek to encourage, nurture and resource indigenous ministries.

• Administrative and Financial Resources. We will encourage cooperation and an exchange of information across the three Dioceses. It may be possible to hold some functions in common. It may be possible for one Diocese to offer its service to the other two. We will especially encourage conversation between the Registrars and the CEOs of the Development Funds.

3. Commitment to a Common Strategy for Mission

• We will explore together our priority for evangelism and witness in the contexts which are both common and unique in our three Dioceses.

• We will commit to developing new and appropriate ministries where population or sector growth demand.

• We will explore together new models of ministry to best serve our mission in the rural and more sparsely populated sectors of our Dioceses.

• We will encourage every ministry unit across our three Dioceses to imagine the future to which God calls them and to prioritise their ministry to achieve these goals.

• We will seek to ensure a lively Christian witness in every corner of every community across our three Dioceses.

• We will seek to educate and nurture Christian men and women to exercise influence and leadership in every sector of every community.

4. The Future