On the Chris Evans show this morning (Friday), Bishop Nick explained why the Diocese of Leeds is using 'Loving. Living. Learning'to describe what we do and what we want to be.

Here's part of his script. The full version is on on his bloghere:

We've just opened a new office in Leeds and everywhere you look you see three words: Loving. Living. Learning. A bit like peace, love and understanding, they sum up how we want to be.

For Christians like me it means loving God, the world and one another.

It also means getting stuck into the world as it is, but fired by a vision of what it could be. So, we work hard at enabling individuals and communities to flourish and thrive. That's living.

But, all this loving and living is done with the acknowledgement that we keep making an almighty mess of it and can't seem to help getting it wrong. We are all learning together and from one another. In other words, we need a huge dose of humility in our attempts to love and live.

So, loving, living and learning shape a lens through which we can look at what we do, why we do it, where our priorities are, working out what and who really matters. Not three words that imprison us, but words that open up the possibility of living differently in a complicated and messy world.

At the start of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, our six bishops have sent their greetings to Jewish communities in the region.

The message acknowledges the continuing threat of antisemitism, and welcomes programmes such as Near Neighbours which bring different religious communities together.

The message reads:

It gives us great pleasure to be able to offer again our warm greetings and best wishes to all our Jewish friends, neighbours and colleagues at the start of your New Year and the marking of the High Holy Days.

We are grateful for all the positive, local relationships that have flourished over the past year, not least through the work of the Near Neighbours programme in Leeds and Bradford and particularly involving young people. At a time in which antisemitism continues to infect communities across Europe bringing violence and fear, we welcome these and other opportunities to work in our churches, schools and neighbourhoods to oppose prejudice and to help communities better understand and respect the valuable Jewish contribution to our local, regional and national life.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us in the year ahead. Shanah Tovah! 

Rt Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds (Diocesan Bishop)
Rt Revd Toby Howarth, Bishop of Bradford                                
Rt Revd Tony Robinson, Bishop of Wakefield
Rt Revd Jonathan Gibbs, Bishop of Huddersfield
Rt Revd James Bell, Bishop of Ripon
Rt Revd Paul Slater, Bishop of Richmond

Next year marks 500 years since Martin Luther set off the Protestant Reformation in Germany, and the Diocese of Leeds will be playing a part in the celebrations.

The Reformation was the religious and political upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place structures and beliefs that continue to this day.

At the end of October 2016, Bishop Nick and members of the diocese’s link with the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Erfurt  will help kick start a year of events in Germany. And in May 2017, a delegation from the diocese will be going to the German Protestant Kirchentag conference in Berlin and Wittenberg.

On 31 October (Martin Luther Day) Bishop Nick has been invited to preach in the monastery in Erfurt where Luther spent three formative years (1505-8). 

The start of the Reformation is associated with 31 October as it was on this day in 1517 that Martin Luther allegedly nailed his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg (where he was a university lecturer). He attacked corruption in the Church (such as the sale of forgiveness to finance the building of St Peter’s in Rome) and his overarching message was that salvation isn’t earned by good deeds but is received only as the free gift of God's grace.

Bishop Nick says, “Luther rebelled against authorities that turned people's eyes down into the muck of human failure instead of up into the freedom of forgiveness and a new start.

“He was empowered by one simple discovery: we can never be perfect, but we can be liberated by knowing we are freely loved by God.  'Grace' it was called. It changed him, and he changed the world.”

Read more on Bishop Nick’s blog here

Educational resources on the Reformation can be found on the website Here I Stand.  

German Protestant Kirchentag 24-28 May 2017, Berlin and Wittenberg
The Kirchentag is a huge event which takes place every two years.  It’s been described as a combination of the Edinburgh Festival, Greenbelt, Taizé, the Keswick Convention and an Open University summer school.  Over  five days 100,000 visitors (many under 30) attend 2500 events exploring faith, culture and politics. 

This year will focus on the Reformation. Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), says, “Clearly differing from all other centenaries, we will send a signal of reconciliation and herald a new departure. The 500th Reformation anniversary will put Christ in the centre. After all, the Reformers did not want to found a new church, they wanted to point to Jesus Christ.”

If you’re interested in going with the diocesan group (there are excellent translation facilities, so you don’t need to speak German), please email the Archdeacon of Pontefract, the Venerable Peter Townley.

Our Canon Theologian asks “Why bother with the Reformation?’
Charlotte Methuen, Senior Lecturer in Church History at Glasgow University, has particular expertise in the German Reformation. At a clergy study day in the diocese last year she explained the impact that the Reformation still has today 500 years later.  You can read a summary of her talkhere.

GROWING our churches and deepening our faith will be the subject for the latest C5 celebration held in Wakefield Cathedral on Nov 1 when the Bishop of Wakefield will use the feast day to launch The Community of All Saints.

C5 has seen a series of celebrations across the diocese led by the Bishop's Adviser on Church Growth, Revd Robin Gamble, to mark growth – large and small – in all our churches.

At the C5 event on Nov 1, the Bishop of Wakefield, the Rt Revd Tony Robinson is inviting every parish to bring their people to the Cathedral for All Saints Day when he will launch and commission the first members of The Community of All Saints.

It starts at 7.30pm in Wakefield Cathedral on Tues Nov 1.

The Community of All Saints is his latest in a series of initiatives to encourage and help people to grow in faith and in numbers. It saw over 300 people gather for aPentecost picnic and procession in May and his Follow Me teaching series is now on its third run with speakers this time including Bishop Nick Baines. 

Said Bishop Tony: “There is an appetite for growth here, I know it.

“I want us to become a Community of All Saints; to more closely follow the teachings of Jesus by making a simple rule of life centred on the three core principles of Pray; Grow and Act.

“Resources will be made available to help us in this new community to grow in our faith and commitment. It will only grow if we all continue to encourage and support each other. We are in this together,’ he said.

This is the fourth Celebrate 5 event - they are designed to celebrate all that we are and all that we do here in the Diocese of Leeds. The Revd Robin Gamble has hosted each of the events in each of the Episcopal Areas alongside a local presenter with local testimony, examples of local church growth and a lively local worship band.

Said Robin: “All we ever hear are depressing headlines about declining churches,  but that is not the whole story.

“Celebrate 5 will be both a ‘coming together’ for each episcopal area and will help build an emerging culture of growth in every church.”

All Saints Day: Tuesday 1st November: 7.30pm

Wakefield Cathedral                                                                                                                                               

The C5 event for the Huddersfield Area will take place in the New Year 

. . .  and learn how your church could be part of the ‘Real Junk Food Project’

Experience Bishop Paul Slater's cooking at a pay-as-you-feel event in Leeds on 22 November.

The Real Junk Food Café at All Hallows', Leeds is part of a network of cafés which use donated supermarket and restaurant food that would otherwise go to landfill. They then prepare meals for customers who pay what they feel able to – either with money or volunteering time.

Vicar, the Revd Heston Groenewald (right), says,“The Real Junk Food Project has been a MASSIVE blessing here and a huge opportunity in terms of outreach, justice, hospitality, community-building, mental health and more.

“TRJFP have come to realise the Church's potential for distributing the huge quantity of 'waste' food (which is perfectly edible), and they’d love to partner with every church in Yorkshire!

“To taste and see whether partnership might work in your church, please come and be wined and dined on Tuesday 22 November. All Hallows are hosting a 'Bishop’s Bistro' when Adam Smith (TRJFP founder) and hot shot chef Bishop Paul Slater (right) team up to create a real junk food menu at a pay-as-you-feel evening. And Adam would love to talk about partnering - in big and small ways - with as many churches as possible. (It could be a full blown cafe or a small tea and cake shop.)

Please book here and/or contact Heston the vicar:

Heston adds, “All Hallows have been working with TRJFP for two years. It's helped create a welcoming community space - and a pastoral opportunity on many levels. We've also saved 9+ tons(!) of food from the dustbin and it's been calculated that every £1 invested in the cafe has generated £15 in social return.

“We’d love to share our experience with everyone who’s interested, and to offer support to the Junk Food Network staff, none of whom are Christian.”

The café has recently featured in the Guardian here, and on BBC’s Songs of Praise. Facebook page here. And more here.

International Christian pastor, activist and public theologian, Brian McLaren was in debate with Bishop Nick Baines last weekend (October 15th) as part of a regional conference in Harrogate around his latest work, ‘The Great Spiritual Migration.’

The event attracted an audience from across the north of England, keen to hear Brian McLaren’s influential views which include a call to the church to move forward from a religion based on a static belief systems to a way of life and love which is organised for the good of society as a whole.

A leading voice in contemporary spirituality and religion, Brian McLaren was invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury to address bishops from around the world at the Lambeth Conference in 2008.  He was speaking at St. Mark’s  Harrogate as part of a series of conferences organised by PCN, the Progressive Christianity Network introducing his new work and discussing key issues for the church such as religious pluralism and sexuality.

In an interview during the conference, Brian said “I think we are at a moment of challenge to move forward, to not be afraid, to not retract, but to move forward and to continue in our discipleship ..what does it mean to keep following Jesus in the 21st century and a call toward love, a call towards understanding and honouring God as the God of love and reconciliation and liberation and in a call to be engages in the needs of this world.”

He added, “It seems to me that there is something deeper than beliefs that we are called to as Christians and that is to walk the way of love, which is often a way of suffering. If we love we care and if we care we suffer and we have to grow in our virtue and courage”. He added, “As for organised religion, I am a big fan of organised religion – I just hope we can get better organised for better purposes.”

Bishop Nick “I am very happy to endorse what Brian is saying because in this diocese, which we are only just creating our vision statement is loving, living, learning, so we begin with loving God and loving neighbour – it’s exactly what Brian was talking about – and loving your enemy and that has to be communal and social, not just individual.

“The ‘living’ is about ‘how do you create human flourishing for our communities?’ because as Anglicans we are committed to territory, to the people who live in our communities. The learning is that we’ve got to have a bit of humility about this  … lets have the humility not to be an institution that dominates, that domineers but is trying to, as Brian says, be organised about the right things.”

Watch a video on YouTube with Brian McLaren and Bishop Nick Baines here.

More information about ‘The Great Spiritual Migration’ here

This week Bishop Nick spoke in the House of Lords in a debate on the implications of Brexit for peace and stability in Europe and beyond.

His speech (now on his blog and below) was also published in the Yorkshire Post: -

It is clear that the government is working assiduously to create some shape out of the decision in the June referendum to leave the European Union. It is also clear that a huge number of questions that should have been tested out prior to the referendum itself have not been. Now it is a case of catch-up – a not inconsiderable task. It also demands that some proactive shape is made of the process, and not just a complaint about about the outcome. I remain pessimistic about many aspects of Brexit, but the debate must be engaged with.

So, following a question in the House of Lords this afternoon about the economic impact of the UK departure (followed by a debate on the Children and Social Work Bill) there was a short debate on the implications of Brexit for peace and stability in Europe and beyond. My speech follows:

To ask HM Government what assessment they have made of the potential effect on peace and stability in Europe and around the world of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

My Lords, recognising that this debate and that to come on Thursday belong together, I offer this statement by the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann in a book I have just finished reading: “A free society is not an accumulation of independent individuals; it is a community of persons in solidarity.”

I quote this because the same might equally be applied to nations. It bears repetition that the language and discourse of the referendum – shamelessly fuelled by misrepresentations and misleading promises, now apparently acceptable in a so-called 'post-factual' world – paid little or no attention to the needs or securities of our international neighbours, but focused purely on the national interests of Britain. As if we can live in isolation or that we can be secure without ensuring the security of our neighbours. I invoke the poet John Donne: in a globalised world Britain cannot simply see itself as an island. Although the referendum campaign was dominated by immigration and the domestic economy (with wild promises that should always have used the language of “might” rather than “will”), questions about foreign relations and the security implications of a decision to remain or leave the EU were too often dismissed as if an impertinent intervention by an embarrassing relation.

So, the decision to leave the EU now raises questions that should have been identified and fleshed out before the referendum – questions that assume our place as a nation interdependent on a community of nations. If Europe has been focused for a generation or more on integration, it is surely now coloured by a hint of disintegration. But, to return to the questions…

For example: Brexit will be hugely demanding of energy and resources. What will be the impact of this on other areas of government? We hear bold promises that Britain will not retreat in on itself; but if revenues are reduced, costs increase, the pound continues to fall, and the focus of resource is on Brexit, what will happen to work with the UN Security Council, NATO, G7, G20 and the Commonwealth? Furthermore, is it not inconceivable that this diversion of energy, focus and resource might just create the space for mischief-making by those who are not our best friends?

Peace and stability cannot be achieved by an approach that is rooted in us simply looking to our own best interests. As we see around the world, particularly in the Middle East, security, peace and stability must be mutual. To seek the security of neighbours is costly.

But, I have further questions. The last Strategic Defence and Security Review was published in November 2015. Yet, the brave new post-Brexit world will look different from the one assumed a year ago. It is likely, for instance, that increased and enhanced EU Defence cooperation – potentially intensified outside of NATO – will impact both on the UK and NATO. In turn, if we invest more in NATO, this will have an impact on our relationship with and towards Russia, and this will impact on our response to threats to Poland and the Baltic states. Or, to put it differently, how might greater EU Defence cooperation impact on the government's stated SDSR ambition to “intensify our security and defence relationship with Germany” and to “further strengthen the U.K.-France defence and security relationship”?

It would beggar belief that such questions have not been thought through in detail before now. Or, to put it less charitably, where were the experts when we needed them?

To change tack a little, we recognise that the UK is one of the biggest contributors to the European Development Fund, currently contributing £409 million (which makes 14.8% of total contributions to the Fund). Has the Government yet assessed the impact of Brexit on the EDF? Will Brexit lead to a narrower disbursement of UK aid to a narrower geographical reach than currently channeled through the EDF? And can the Government give an assurance that the UK's Overseas Development Aid will continue to be spent on genuine ODA purposes and not be used as sweeteners for trade deals – given that trade deals have been represented as the highest social good – a questionable anthropological priority at best?

My Lords, peace and security are not merely notional aspirations, but demand a broader and deeper vision of what a human society actually is, and for whom it is to be ordered. Peace and stability cannot be empty or utilitarian words to be thrown around carelessly in a post-factual world. They demand the prioritising of mutual international relationships and detailed costings – not merely financial or economic, but human, social and structural.

This week, Bishop Nick visited Crag House Farm in Cookridge, the headquarters for the Christian charity Caring For Life, which supports disadvantaged and vulnerable people in Leeds.

The charity cares for those who have ‘slipped through the net’”, providing accommodation, support in the community and therapeutic daytime activities. It says its motto is simply to “share the love of Jesus”.

Bishop Nick says, “Crag House Farm is remarkable – it’s a place of vision, professionalism and compassion.

"And the charity lives up to its name ‘Caring for Life’, as the practical and emotional support they provide is often life-long”.

Their high quality restaurant, farm shop and garden nurseries are very popular, but not many know about the surrounding 125 acre farm, which is made up of agricultural land for Longhorn cattle, Lleyn sheep, horses and poultry. The farm is used to host 14 therapeutic daytime projects, including horticulture, animal welfare, woodwork, media, literacy, mechanics, music, butchery, catering and art.

Founder, Peter Parkinson (left), says, “The daytime projects help vulnerable people to achieve a settled, constructive lifestyle. Over the years we’ve seen many people blossom and even move on to fulltime employment. Others have found a ‘home’ where they feel safe and secure, and can speak freely about their concerns.

“For many, the farm has become their place of ‘work’, where they will say, ‘Come and see MY farm and meet MY animals.’ This sense of ownership and belonging shows a remarkable transformation in the lives of people who’ve had very little purpose and expectation of achievement.”

85% of Caring for Life’s income comes from Christian supporters. They have recently lost government funding because they don’t restrict the length of time people can spend with them, so the support of churches is vital to their work.

How you can support Caring for Life

-  Visit their restaurant, café, farm shop and garden nurseries.  More here.

-  Invite someone from Caring for Life to speak at your church.

-  Let young people know about the gap year programme they offer, ‘Time for Jesus’. More here.

Bishop Nick has been a contributor to Radio 2’s Pause for Thought for nearly 20  years, and now a new volume of Pause for Thought scripts has just been published.

At the book’s launch this month, the Controller of Radio 2, Bob Shennan, said, “Our contributors know how to speak to the audience of 10 million people and touch them with all sorts of stories that they can resonate with”.

Bishop Nick currently presents Pause for Thought on Fridays on the Chris Evans Show. It’s the day when there are a lot of guests, so to write and present a script that that fits seamlessly in to the high energy, lively atmosphere demands a particular skill.

He says, “You need to grab the attention, awaken curiosity, tease the imagination, actually say something, and then give a pay back into the medium of the programme (so that the presenter doesn’t have to make an awkward gear change).

“It’s challenging but good fun, and a great privilege to be able to say something about faith to an audience of 10 million people”.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
The blurb on the book says, "This inspiring collection of reflections on modern life is taken from Pause for Thought, broadcast daily on BBC Radio 2 on the Chris Evans and Vanessa Feltz shows. These pieces offer fresh ways of perceiving the world, of connecting with each other and of negotiating modern life."

Contributors include Gogglebox vicar Kate Bottley, Revd Richard Coles, Bishop Nick Baines, the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

 

Today (Monday), Bishop Nick helped start a year of events in Germany marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Speaking (in German) in the Erfurt monastery where Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk, Bishop Nick suggested that while Continental Europe was more influenced than England by the Protestant Reformation, we still we need to remember the significant role it played in the development of Christian faith.

He said, “If we forget our own history, we cannot know who we are. We lose our identity. And we cannot shape our common future unless we acknowledge our common past. In an aside he asked, “Is a loss of memory behind why so many Britons wanted to leave the European Community? We have been selective in remembering our history.”

He added that while the Church of England differs from the Church in Germany, its mission remains the same: it is called to show the world who and how God is.

He said, “If the Church is to fulfil its mission, it must learn from the bad memories and build on the good. Today we need to learn to meet people where they really are (and not where we want them to be), and to speak in a language that they can understand.

“After being surprised by the grace of God and freed from fear, Martin Luther opened the Bible for future generations to learn about that love and grace for themselves. So despite his many faults, he changed the world.”

It was on 31 October 1517 that Luther allegedly nailed his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg. He attacked corruption in the Church, such as the sale of indulgences (time off Purgatory) to finance the building of St Peter’s in Rome, and his overarching message was that salvation isn’t earned by good deeds but is received only as the free gift of God's grace.

31 October therefore marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation - the religious and political upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place structures and beliefs that continue to this day.

                  (Right) Bishop Nick stands on the spot where Luther prostrated himself when he entered the monastery.

More on Bishop Nick's blog here. The English text of his sermon is below (NB translated through Google translate):

Augustiner monastery church, Erfurt 31 October 2016

I speak of righteousness before God, which comes by faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For there is no difference here: they are all sinners, lacking the glory which they should have with God, and are made righteously out of his grace by the salvation which is done through Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:21ff)

Recently I went into a book shope and asked the assistant, "Where can I find the new biography of Martin Luther by Professor Lyndall Roper?" He said, "OK ... Martin Luther King ..." I said, "No, Martin Luther." He said, "Who is he? I’ve never heard of him." I was a bit surprised and said slowly, "Martin Luther was a monk in Germany five hundred years ago. He began the Protestant Reformation in Europe, and he changed the world forever." He said “Oh? How interesting, you’ll probably find the book under the title 'religion'." I finally found the book on the second floor under the title 'German History'.

How is it possible today that a well-trained university graduate has no idea who Martin Luther was? But here is the challenge. England isn’t very interested in the Reformation that began 500 years ago in Wittenberg. (Perhaps this story explains why so many Britons wanted to leave the European Community - they have no idea where they come from or where they came from.)

This is a serious matter, and an important challenge. If we forget our own history, we lose our identity. If we forget where we came from, then we can’t know who we are. And we can’t shape our common future unless we acknowledge our common past.

Martin Luther read the same Bible that we read today. When he studied the Old Testament, he must surely have noted the warnings given to the Israelis before they entered the promised land for the first time. The story goes like this. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years, and their lives became unbearable suffering. They couldn’t free themselves by their own hands. With the help of Moses, frogs and plagues, they were finally liberated by God. But they didn’t immediately replace oppression for freedom, but had to spend 40 years in the desert, so that a whole generation of complainers, romantics, and others driven by nostalgia, would die out. During these hard years the Israelis had to try to learn an important truth, namely, you were liberated from oppression. That is clear - but for what have you been liberated? People forget very quickly.

This is why the people of Moses have been instructed to set up an annual ritual calendar. Through the year, the Israelites regularly had to perform rituals that practically brought back the history of the people. They had to think not only spiritually, but also to celebrate and tell this story with body and voice.

For example, in Deuteronomy 26:

When thou shalt enter into the land which Jehovah thy God will give thee, and take it up, and dwell therein, thou shalt take the first fruits of all the fields which thou hast brought from thy land, which Jehovah thy God, And thou shalt put them in a basket, and go to the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, that his name may dwell there, and thou shalt come unto the priest, who shall be in that day, and say unto him : I confess to the LORD your God today that I have come into the land which Jehovah swore to our fathers. And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and bring him down before the altar of the LORD thy God. Then thou shalt lift up, and say before the LORD thy God: My father was an Aramaean, who came near to destruction, and went down to Egypt, and there was a stranger with few men, and there a great and strong nation.

In other words, "Don’t forget that you were slaves - that you had nothing, and were captive in Egypt. Because if you forget your own history, you will quickly treat other people like your slaves. You have to establish rituals that remind the people of where they come from. These regular stories of national history will help people to keep a right perspective to question their priorities. "

But what does this history of the Old Testament rituals have to do with the Lutheran Reformation? Some of us will think this is obvious: that is, the Church of today must learn from its history - not only to learn honestly about the bad memories, but also to build on the good. For example, we know that Martin Luther was surprised by the grace of God; That he was freed from fear; That he heard the love of God. But he was not always gracious in his behavior with other people.

But he changed the world. He opened the Bible for future generations of people who would also want to learn the history of God and mankind again and again. He was not a plastic saint, but a real person like you and me.

We know that today's world is not the world of Martin Luther. But despite the dramatic differences between 1517 and 2016, the vocation - that is, the mission - remains simple and clear to the church: it is called to show the world who and how God is. God frees mankind from slavery - that is why the liberated must also free others from their slavery. If we enjoy the love of God, then we must also love our neighbours. This is the clear and simple logic of the gospel. The Church of Jesus Christ should look as the Jesus whom we see in the Gospels. The Church should pronounce the good news of the grace of God with the voice of Jesus himself. And this is the only test of our fidelity as a church. We are still called upon to show the world what it looks like to be liberated from the grace of God as individuals and communities - to serve freely, to love freely, to forgive freely, free as the prophet Micah, who wrote "Do right, practice mercy and walk humbly with your God." That describes the prophetic role of the Church of Jesus Christ.

But  I know that the experience of the Church of England differs from the experience of the Churches in Germany.

The Church of England is a strange church: a Reformed Catholic Church - probably the only such church in the world. English Christianity was less influenced by the Lutheran Reformation than by Jean Calvin and a king who fell in love with too many women. Honestly, I must say that Henry considered the Reformation mostly helpful in his disputes with the Pope. It was about the power, the royal and political independence. It was not primarily religion, theological questions, or the grace of God. And after Henry's death, the greatest challenge was the unity of England as a nation, as a country. In a separate or divided world, how can people - that is, Catholics and Protestants - be held together in a church? The answer was: Common Prayer and laws that created a single church for England. But today the Pope does not know exactly whether the Church of England is Catholic or Protestant: it is both.

The Church of England is territorially organized. That is, a parish priest is not only the captain of his or her church ship, but also the priest of all people who live or work in the parish. This not only brings with it legal responsibility and a general availability for all who live there, but also an inevitable commitment to the wellbeing of the whole community, and also gives the entire ministry a missionary perspective - to bring to Church those who have neither heard nor experienced God's good news.
This means that the Church must remember at any time why the Church is there and why the Church actually exists. The Church of England is a church for England.
But how do we fulfill the task of bringing the good news of God's grace to our generation?

Nowadays, we need to be self-sufficient, self-confident and imaginative when we want to describe the place and the meaning of the Christian faith for personal and public life. We need to find ways to describe the Gospel of Jesus Christ-and to live as witnesses of this gospel-to draw people to faith and to the Church.

In my diocese, we have identified three key words that give us a lens through which we can understand our mission: LOVING. LIVING. LEARNING. Love. Live. To learn. Previously we had: 'Confident Christians. Growing churches. Transforming communities'. These were keywords for those who are already church members. Loving, living, learning speaks to those who are outside the church. We love God and our neighbours and the world that loves God. We love life and strive for the welfare of the whole society. We want everyone to flourish (or thrive). But we must always be humble and learn from our mistakes.

The Church of England learns to meet people where they really are (and not where we want them to be) and learn to speak in languages ​​that can be heard and understood. In the last fifteen years, we have developed thousands of projects which we call "fresh expressions of church". These include innovative gatherings in clubs, pubs and private houses.

This changed world has forced the Church of England to re-shape itself - and this challenge has not been easily accepted by some priests and laity. It is never easy to change. But the world has changed. And in my opinion, it's pointless and a missed opportunity to complain about it. If the Church is to fulfill its mission, it must be able to understand the language of today's world and, secondly, to speak. We must remember that Biblical history shows us that God is calling His people to live so that the people who come into contact with the Christian community experience something of the Christ that we read in the Gospels .

I’d like to illustrate this with a personal experience. From 1992 to 2000 I was a priest in Rothley in Leicestershire. My mission was to reach the people who did not come to church. And at the very beginning of my time as a priest, I made a decision that helped changed the perception of the church quite a bit.

There are five pubs in this village (with about 6,000 inhabitants). How difficult my job was! Every restaurant has its own character and its very own, not to say, unique, clientele. On a Monday I went to the old village pub - the Old Crown - where two men played billiards. No one else – it was completely empty. I asked the landlord, 'It's almost empty tonight. Is it always like this? '' It's Monday, he said, irritated. "Is it always like this on a Monday?" I asked. The landlord looked me in the eye and said: 'It's Monday.” I asked him," May I have the pub on Monday in three weeks - and I promise that many people will come? "You want to have the private room behind the bar? '' No, I want to have the whole pub. 'At last he agreed.

At that time I had only one computer graphic: a beer pump. I made some posters and distributed them all over the village: 'Pump the Vicar in the Old Crown' - 'pump' in English can also mean 'ask a lot of questions to someone'. So: 'Pump the Vicar in the Old Crown - 8pm on Monday. No taboos!'

Almost 70 people came. At 8pm I stood up (with my pint) and spoke for five minutes about Jesus. I said that it’s  really worth taking a second look at God and Jesus Christ as an adult. I spoke briefly, but provocatively, then we began to discuss. I didn’t get home until 1am. Afterwards, we organized Pump the Vicar regularly.

Once I was in a BBC studio in London and the radio presenter suddenly asked me: “What is the Church for? What is the meaning of the Church? At such times, you don't have time to pull out a good sermon from your pocket. So I quickly thought and said, "The task of the Church is to create the space in which people can find that they have already been found by God."

I think the monk of Erfurt, Martin Luther, also discovered this concept when he began to experience and understand the grace of God. This gracious God can’t be bought or manipulated. Everything is grace. And when we think we have found him, we find that he has been waiting for us, as with the so-called prodigal son, who discovered that God's mercy is greater than human error. "But God shows His love for us in the fact that Christ died for us when we were still sinners." (Romans 5: 8) This is grace.

In this fearful world we can, like Martin Luther in his time, trust confidently and hopefully in God. We will remember our history and learn from it. Semper reformanda. The grace of God remains.

"They shall be righteous without merit from his grace through the redemption which has been done through Christ Jesus."

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Stewardship, Education, Diocesan reorganisation and Safeguarding were among the agenda items at the November 5th Diocesan Synod which met at St Aidan’s High School, Harrogate.

The day began with Bishop Nick's Presidential Address in which he called on Christians to model a different way of conducting public discourse. More here.

Giving for Life initiative reignited at November 5th Synod

A new initiative to encourage generous giving throughout the diocese has been launched at the November 5th meeting of Diocesan Synod in Harrogate. 

Giving for Life: Continuing the Journey is a pack of discussion materials to help parishes review their stewardship and giving patterns. It is being sent out to every PCC in the coming  few weeks.

The new material was presented by the Stewardship, Funding and Development Team (pictured) and redevelops and  expands the original Giving for Life report produced by the Archbishops’ Council in 2009.

Seven years on, a survey of over 1100 parishes has shown that adopting the advice has had a significant impact on levels of giving and attitudes to generosity.  Since 2009, church giving have risen by 19.4% at a time when much charitable giving has suffered.

Stewardship Advisor, Jo Beacroft-Mitchell, told Synod, “What we are hoping will happen with these packs  is that every PCC will set aside time in the next 12 months to discuss this material and review where they are as a parish  against what we have identified as being the best practice across the country.”

Pictured above, the  Stewardship, Funding and Development Team, (lt to rt)  Susan Rundle, Michael Southworth, Paul Winstanley, Jo Beacroft-Mitchell, Uell Kennedy, and Cath Fox.

Team members will be available to visit parishes and churches can contact them via sfdadmin@leeds.anglican.org or by calling 0113 353 0221.

Diocesan Reorganisation – progress so far

Bishop Nick (pictured left), reporting on diocesan reorganisation, said much has now been achieved – a single office, a new parish share system from the New Year, gradual delegation to area bishops, and governance now being established with a Diocesan Board bringing together the Board of Finance, Mission and Pastoral Committee and Bishop’s Council. Employees now have clear job descriptions - and the recent clergy conference had been a great success.

However, there are risks, warned Bishop Nick. These include getting the right balance between one diocese and five episcopal areas, with the danger of inconsistencies emerging across the diocese. Having three cathedrals could be a challenge, though each brings “immense creative energy” to the diocese, he said.  Church commissioners funding is not guaranteed , and it is important that parish share continues to come in. Other challenges were the anticipated fall in clergy numbers, and the challenge of reaching children and young people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “If the next generation is going to be there then we have got to do serious work in reaching children” he added.

Coherence of diocesan activities was important, said Bishop Nick. Closer support to clergy and parishes will be achieved by further delegation to area bishops. Looking ahead, the next two years will be a period of bedding in the diocesan reoganisation and monitoring the effectiveness of the governance arrangements. ‘Loving, Living and Learning‘, he concluded, was the basis of all our activities.

‘The Future of Education’ …. more uncertainty, more church schools?

The Diocese of Leeds has more pupils in its church schools than any other diocese in the country. That was one of the many facts and figures presented to Synod by the Director of Education, Richard Noake (pictured left) and the Chair of the Board of Education, Bishop Jonathan Gibbs, as they reported on ‘The Future of Education’.  62,000 children and young people are being educated in 247 church schools and academies, and with frequent changes to government policy, they made it clear that there are many challenges ahead facing the Board and Education Team.

A ‘Paradigm shift nature of education and schooling’ and ‘Changing messages from government’ were just two of a long list of challenges.  “There are huge changes afoot in the world of education”, said Bishop Jonathan. “What those changes are keeps changing from week to week as the government changes its mind.” A further challenge was the reduction of the scope of Local Authority involvement and a shift of focus towards the diocesan responsibilities. “There has been a shift in expectation from the Department of Education in regards to diocesan education which has been immense. The spotlight which used to be firmly on local authorities.. has completely changed and there is now a huge expectation from the Department of Education that the diocese is put under the spotlight and is significantly interrogated.”

However, Richard Noake added that there are significant opportunities to provide much needed school places especially in areas of overcrowding and shortage of places. “The Board of Education would like to establish more church free schools if it possibly can”, he said, referring to the government's free school programme, “so in the last month or so I have been working with some external advisers looking at how we can advance proposals for additional church schools both primary and secondary across the diocese …I would like to see us providing at least six additional church schools across the diocese”.

In other business...

.... proposals to allow small deaneries to increase the number of representatives on Deanery Synod to 50 people, to meet the mimimum number required by Church representation Rules, were approved. A raft of Diocesan Standing Order changes were also approved by Synod after several amendments were rejected by members.

Diocesan Secretary, Debbie Child, reported on Safeguarding developments including a recent national audit of diocesan safeguarding - early indications suggested a positive audit, she said. Consultation on a new national policy, ‘Promoting a safer church’ have been taking place, and  there would now be a duty placed on all clergy and licensed lay ministers to have 'due regard' for the House of Bishop's Safeguarding Guidance.

Bishop Nick has called on Christians to model a different way of conducting public discourse.

In his Presidential Address to the Leeds Diocesan Synod on Saturday, Bishop Nick referred to what he termed ‘the corruption’ of public debate around current issues such as Brexit, migration and the US Presidential election. He said “Christians need to be engaged in cleaning up the nature of public debate . . . [we need] to refuse to collude with or be corrupted by what is swilling around in the media."

He said that the response of some newspapers to the recent High Court ruling was an example of something that should be contested: “The legal clarification sought in the High Court was entirely reasonable. . .  The rule of law should never be taken for granted. It is hard won and can be very easily lost. So, even if you think Brexit is the right move for Britain, you should be very alarmed at newspapers referring to judges as ‘enemies of the people’ [or suggesting] that we should get rid of judges who don’t do what certain politicians want and replace them with ones they do . . . Isn’t this precisely the sort of sovereignty that Brexit was supposed to guarantee to the UK in the first place? When we accept our judges being labelled “enemies of the people” for doing their job, then we will be inviting the Law of Unintended Consequences to apply – where civil society is corrupted bit by bit because we can’t be bothered to contest it. Europe has been here before.

"[And in the USA] we see the final throes of a presidential election that has been reduced to an abusive slanging match that is hardly going to commend ‘democracy’ to those countries we so often think should be compelled to enjoy it."

He said that Professor Brian Cox and Professor David Wilkinson at the diocese’s recent clergy conference had modeled “how to have substantial conversations about things that matter.  They did this in relation to science, in a way that took us beyond the sort of nonsense prejudicing and name-calling we see between fundamentalist religious people and fundamentalist atheists.

“How we speak to, with and about one another matters far more than we might wish to think. We need to speak differently, refuse to collude with or be corrupted by what is swilling around in the media and on social media, and hold to account those who threaten the nature of our discourse by what they choose to say or print.”

He called on the synod, as it goes about its business of shaping a diocese “that reflects the nature of the Christ we serve”, to “pay attention to how our discourse might offer a different model to that which we see in parts of our media and our political world".

The full text of the address is below:

Presidential address, Leeds Diocesan Synod, 5 November 2016

The fifth of November. The day we remember how we used to burn Roman Catholics in this country.

Last Monday I preached in the church where Martin Luther became and served as a monk. The Augustinerkloster in Erfurt looks today much like it did when Luther prostrated himself before the altar and took his vows. I was there with a group from this diocese, having been invited to preach on the 499th anniversary of Luther (allegedly) nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Schloßkirche in Wittenberg. Last Monday kicked off the year of celebration and commemoration of the Reformation and will conclude on 31 October 2017.

The Reformation divided Europe and changed the world for ever. Yet, when the German monk decided to challenge what he saw as ecclesiastical perversions of the gospel and church order he did not intend to create a new church. He wanted to heal the church and return it to its proper form and role. Yet, he discovered quickly that it is easier to set off destructive events than it is to stop or control them. The Law of Unintended Consequences led to civil uprisings, religiously-inspired violence, civil war and political settlements that exist to this day in Germany. The Reformation marks the recovery of the primacy of God’s grace as revealed in Scripture; yet, it also calls to memory some dreadful passions, all-too-human rejections of grace, and Christians who could no longer see each other as belonging to the same church.

The legacy was the rise of the Enlightenment partly as a reaction against religious power and the violence of the Thirty Years War. It is significant that in Germany the Reformation Jubilee is being marked by a huge degree of ecumenical partnership, with the Pope even launching the year in Sweden last weekend. It has taken 500 years and we are not there yet. It is easy to divide – hard to reconcile. And yet we are a church fired by a gospel of reconciliation, committed to a ministry of reconciliation, needing to be very careful that the decisions we make do not deny that gospel or ministry itself.

I mention this this morning for several reasons. First, because our diocesan link with Erfurt is one we wish to strengthen. In the light of Brexit, our European links take on an even greater importance. Secondly, and as I said in my sermon in Erfurt, we need to learn our history and learn from it. If we do not know where we have come from, then we cannot know who we are. Thirdly, our reading of Reformation history should provoke in us a humility that comes from recognising that we are firmly placed in this world while being fired by a vision of another world, but that our this-worldliness can easily lead us to behave in ways that deny the nature of the Christ we are called (by the Apostle Paul) to imitate.

However, my other reason for starting with the Reformation and last week’s Erfurt visit is that every generation faces its unique challenges and choices. One of the challenges we face in the UK in 2016 is the slow corruption of our public and political discourse. It is not coincidental that the former Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, a committed Roman Catholic now running media in New York, has just published a book titled ‘Enough Said’ in which he – correctly and possibly prophetically in my view – names the currents of bile, destructiveness and dehumanising contempt that colours the public discourse in Britain, across Europe and in the United States. I offer you Brexit, migration and the US Presidential election.

Like charity, let’s start at home. Whether you voted in the June Referendum to remain in or leave the European Union, the fact is that the vote went the way of Brexit. Not overwhelmingly – we now live in a very divided country. The referendum, however, was advisory and did not legally or constitutionally bind the government (or Parliament) to deliver on the decision – this in contrast to the AV referendum that was binding. Hence, the legal clarification sought this week in the High Court was entirely reasonable and, it could be argued, entirely necessary. The question of who, in a representative parliamentary democracy and following a non-binding referendum, has the right to trigger negotiations that then lead inexorably to a radically different constitutional settlement, is a very important one.

The courts ruled this week, and immediately allowed an appeal by the government to the Supreme Court. That is how the rule of law, based on an independent judiciary, is supposed to work in the sort of parliamentary democracy we rightly celebrate and value in this country. The rule of law should never be taken for granted. It is hard won and can be very easily lost.

So, even if you think Brexit is the right move for Britain and you want to see it happen quickly, you should be very alarmed at newspapers referring to judges as “enemies of the people”. Several newspapers suggested yesterday that we should get rid of judges who don’t do what certain politicians want and replace them with ones they do. Now, does that sound familiar? And do you spot the serious risk to the rule of law. And isn’t this precisely the sort of sovereignty that Brexit was supposed to guarantee to the UK in the first place?

As racism, intolerance and violence increase across Europe, it is probably just as well we can look to the Land of the Free to keep us sane and safe, isn’t it? Oh. So, even there we see the final throes of a presidential election that has been reduced to an abusive slanging match that is hardly going to commend ‘democracy’ to those countries and people we so often think should be compelled to enjoy it.

But, it is the threat to the public conversation that is so dangerous and potentially poisonous. How we speak to, with and about one another matters far more than we might wish to think. Christians must speak differently, refuse to collude with or be corrupted by what is swilling around in the media and on social media, and hold to account those who threaten the nature of our discourse by what they choose to say or print.

When we accept our judges being labelled “enemies of the people” for doing their job, then we will be inviting the Law of Unintended Consequences to apply – where civil society is corrupted bit by bit by bit because we can’t be bothered to contest it. Europe has been here before.

Now, you might be feeling a little morose at this point. You should be. However, as someone once said, “don’t shout at the darkness – light a candle”. How might we respond positively to this challenge?

Since this synod last met the clergy of the diocese – 400 of them – convened at Liverpool Hope University for the first clergy conference since we were created at Easter 2014. One of the highlights of the three-day event was a presentation and dialogue between Professor Brian Cox and Professor David Wilkinson on the theme Science, the Cosmos and Human Meaning. After each had presented – and boggled most of us with stuff we didn't always understand (but still tried to look as if we did) – I moderated a dialogue between them. Brian needs no introduction: an agnostic with a huge media as well as academic presence. David, a Methodist minister with experience of inner-city ministry in Liverpool and a gift for Radio 4's Thought for the Day, has doctorates in astrophysics and theology (which is a bit greedy) and is Principal of St John's College, Durham.

After lunch – which was dominated by students wanting selfies … not with me – clergy asked questions of both guests and the conversation continued. It was interesting, intelligent, informed, generous and completely riveting.

But, why did we do it?

One of the things Brian Cox is concerned about is how to bring public institutions and disciplines together to model how to have substantial conversations about things that matter and to offer an alternative to the appalling public – mainly political – discourse we are subjected to during these difficult and uncertain times. In fact, that is why I invited the two professors to come in the first place. Clergy, lay people, bishops, the church need to be engaged in cleaning up the nature of public debate, and one way to help do this is to model it. David Wilkinson and Brian Cox did this in relation to science, but in a way that took us beyond the sort of nonsense prejudicing and name-calling we see between fundamentalist religious people and fundamentalist atheists. Brian and David explored the differences between the ‘how’ questions and the ‘why’ questions of human existence.

We are now looking at how to take this forward. If you can get to any of Brian Cox’s live shows (currently touring the UK), do enjoy what this looks and sounds like. Here we see an agnostic and a Christian both begin in the same place: looking at the enormous beauty and complexity of the multiverse and wondering what matters in the life of it. It is not unusual to have a common existential or intellectual starting point.

(We are now looking at a Lay Conference one day in early 2018 – it has not proved possible to get a suitable day at a suitably large venue in 2017.)

So, today we as a synod continue to work at shaping the nature and mechanics of our internal discourse as a church. Standing Orders might not be words that float everybody’s boat, but they provide the parameters in which we can then conduct our internal synodical conversations and decision-making. How we speak with one another will say something about whether how we speak outside the church will have any credibility. We will discuss deaneries and deanery synods – again, not words that inspire martyrdom in the minds of many people. Yet, the purpose of deaneries and their synods is not simply to order the life of the church, but to set us free to pay attention to our mission of reconciliation in the world and how we go about it. Structures are there for a purpose, and the purpose is not simply to perpetuate a structure as an end in itself. We will look at the vital matter of education and what sort of people we want our children and young people to grow up to be. Education is not an end in itself, but a means to an end: nurturing good and godly human beings, neighbours, citizens, who live and work for the common good. Safeguarding is a vital part of our common duty to ensure that our churches are safe places for all people, especially children and vulnerable adults.

In other words, our agenda might look a little inward-focused at first glance. It isn’t. It is part of the work we still need to do in order to enable us to be the church our region needs us to be for the sake of God and his kingdom.

Brothers and sisters, I trust we will speak with one another in love, and speak of the church in love – offering mercy and generosity in the place of suspicion and mistrust. Together we can continue to shape a diocese – and its communication by word and deed – that reflects the nature of the Christ we serve and serves the world for whom we are called. Together we might pay attention to how our discourse might offer a different model to that which we see in parts of our media and our political world.

And let us remember that, as Martin Luther discovered in such a revolutionary way, in the end it is all about grace.

St Gemma's Hospice is holding it's annual Light Up A Life event on Sunday 4 December at 4pm in the car park at the Hospice, 329 Harrogate Road, Moortown, Leeds LS17 6QD.

Bishop Nick will be taking part in the service this year.

The St Gemma’s Hospice annual Light up a Life event is an opportunity to dedicate a light and pay tribute to someone you love.
You are warmly invited to join us at our Light up a Life service where thousands of lights will shine on special trees, each light in memory of those we love who have died, and those who continue to light up our lives.
You can sponsor a light for a donation of your choice and you will receive a memorial card bearing the name of each person remembered in this special way.
More information about Light Up A Life 2016 at St Gemma's or call 0113 2185555.

Leeds Minster was filled on Sunday evening with colleagues, parishioners, friends and family of the Archdeacon of Leeds, Paul Hooper who has retired  after  35 years of continuous ministry in the diocese.  

In a Thanksgiving Service led by the Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines, tributes were paid to Paul for his ordained ministry and service which began at St George’s Leeds where he served his curacy from 1981 to 1984. He then became the diocesan youth officer before being made the Bishop of Ripon’s Chaplain and Diocesan Communications Officer in 1987.

Many of those who had come to say a formal farewell to Paul and his wife Judy were from St Mark’s Church Harrogate, where Paul had his longest period of service as Vicar from 1995 until he became Director of Clergy Development in 2009 in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds. In 2012 he was appointed as Archdeacon of Leeds.

Bishop Nick paid tribute to Paul’s “generosity and enormous wisdom… “.  He said that Paul had shown great wisdom and patience as the Archdeacon of Leeds at a time of huge upheaval and transition with the change from three dioceses to the single Diocese of Leeds in 2014. “We owe Paul a great debt”, he said.

Bishop James Bell, pictured right, said “In the twenty years I have known Paul I don’t remember one expression of irritability or one expression of negativity.” He spoke of Paul’s energy and vision as Vicar of St Mark’s and said that Paul “was a person of deep theological reflection who is connected to the contemporary world.”  The word that marked Paul out more than any other he said was ‘Gracious’….”That is the word which has characterised what Paul has been about.”

Presenting Paul and his wife Judy with gifts from the people of Leeds, the Bishop of Richmond, Paul Slater (pictured left), said “We want to thank you for all you’ve given to us and for the fact that we have glimpsed the generosity of God both in you and in Judy.”

Bishop Nick, who is patron of St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds will be taking part in their Light up a Life Appeal on Sunday 4 December.

The event gives people the opportunity to dedicate a light and pay tribute to someone they love.

St Gemma’s say, “Thousands of lights shine on special trees, each light in memory of those we love who continue to illuminate our lives. You can choose to dedicate multiple lights, each for a donation of your choice”.

The service takes place in the car park of St Gemma's Hospice on Sunday 4 December. There’s also a second ceremony on Wednesday 14 December, 6.30pm at Immaculate Heart Church, 294 Harrogate Road, Moortown, Leeds, LS17 6LE.

if you are unable to attend, St Gemma’s also have home packs for people to remember a loved one at home. 

For more information please contact Kirsty or phone 0113 218 5506.  Book here

Bishop of Leeds Nick Baines and Bishop of Huddersfield Jonathan Gibbs have called for a more peaceful, tolerant world following a guilty verdict for the killer of Labour MP Jo Cox.

Right-wing extremist Thomas Mair, 53, has been given a life sentence for shooting and stabbing to death the mother-of-two who represented the Batley and Spen constituency. Mair shouted “Britain First” as he attacked the 41-year-old Remain campaigner in Birstall, West Yorkshire, days before the EU referendum vote. He gave no evidence in his defence at his Old Bailey trial and speaking afterwards, Mrs Cox’s husband Brendan said he felt “nothing but pity for” Mair.

Right Revd Jonathan Gibbs, Bishop of Huddersfield said today:

“The murder of Jo Cox MP was a very dark day in the life of our nation.

“The trial of Thomas Mair and today's verdict have demonstrated the vital importance of justice and the rule of law which are at the heart of our nation.  We pay tribute to Jo's wonderful example of service and to the bravery which she demonstrated right to the end of her life.

“We also pay tribute to the dignity and courage of her family and we will stand with them and continue to hold them in our prayers in the months and years ahead.  Jo stood for the very best qualities which we look for in all our politicians.  

“She believed firmly that 'what unites us is greater than what divides us' - a principle she lived by throughout her career.

“We stand with those of all faiths and none across West Yorkshire in affirming what Jo stood for and  we will honour her memory by working together for a more peaceful, tolerant and united world.”

(Below- a special service for the murdered MP , Jo Cox, at Huddersfield Parish Church last June)

Also speaking just after the verdict, Right Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds said:

"Today justice has been done, but the grievous loss of an MP, wife and mother is not thereby resolved.

"As the community in Batley and Spen continues to look for healing, so do we continue to pray for Jo's family in particular as they adjust to a world without her.  What has been revealed during this trial indicates that a peaceful society needs to be vigilant in relation to those within it who seek to use violence to divide."

Kidz Klub Leeds, which is changing the lives of children in some of the country’s most deprived neighbourhoods, is looking for volunteers

Each week, across four locations in the inner city and outer estates of Leeds, around 2,200 children (aged 4-11) are reached through high-energy Saturday sessions ('a cross between Children’s TV and Sunday School'), schools work and home visits, all run by a partnership of churches.

They provide fun activities that help children discover positive aspirations for themselves and their communities. 

When Bishop Nick visited Kidz Klub last year, he said, “I’m really impressed – if a little deafened. It’s a huge operation, with a high level of professionalism, endeavouring to give the best to children who are often not given the best of anything”.

They say, “We don’t wait for children to come to us – we go out to them. And having been in the city for over 16 years, we are trusted by parents".

Remarkably, every child that goes to Kidz Klub is visited at home each week. One of the leaders, Sarah Turner (who attends St Luke’s Holbeck), says, “We place a big emphasis on being consistent and through the visits we can build relationships and trust and can support the children in their home situation.

“A large part of what we do is passing on a passionate Christian message that includes having love and respect for others, and positive ways we can transform our neighbourhoods.  The children can be drawn into all sorts of anti-social behaviour because there’s no positive alternative available, so we try to show them a different way. And by developing relationships we help nurture their self-belief, social skills and sense of boundaries.”

Find out more here, or call 01132 456 533 or email info@kidzklubleeds.org,uk

Around 1000 candles shone outside St Gemma’s Hospice on Sunday as people came to light a candle in memory of a departed loved one.

Bishop Nick spoke during the Light up a Life Appeal service in which people also dedicated a light to shine on a special tree in memory of someone they’d lost.

In his talk, Bishop Nick (who is patron of St Gemma’s), said, “In St John’s Gospel it says that the light has come into the world and the darkness has not overcome it. But when we’ve been bereaved sometimes it doesn’t feel like that.

“Christmas is about God coming in to the world as it is. He doesn’t wait until accidents have stopped happening or cancer has been wiped out, but in Jesus, God experiences the world as we experience it.

“So whatever sort of prayer we can offer, we can know that we needn’t be driven by fear or loss, but rather drawn by hope in a God who also knows the reality of death, suffering and bereavement.

“Death doesn’t have the final say and will not extinguish the light that is rooted in God himself”.

If you were unable to attend the service, St Gemma’s also have home packs for people to remember a loved one at home. 

For more information please contact Kirsty or phone 0113 218 5506. 

Sir Gary Verity, the Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire has performed the official opening ceremony for the new Diocesan Office, Church House, in Leeds city centre.

The new headquarters for the diocese, 17-19 York Place LS1 2EX, is on three floors and has replaced the offices of the former dioceses of Bradford, Ripon and Leeds and Wakefield, along with the Education office in Harrogate. 

Sir Gary is pictured (left) cutting the tape at the entrance along with Bishop Nick Baines, the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Gerry Harper and the Lady Mayoress, Miss Lynne Scholes.

Speaking to staff and guests, Sir Gary said he was impressed by the friendly and professional feel of Church House. Having just announced the route of the Tour de Yorkshire 2017 he said it would be going through much of the diocese, passing many of its beautiful churches.

But, he added, "Just as we're about more than bike races, you are about more than buildings and a new office. We're both in the 'inspiration’ business.

“The Tour de France and Tour de Yorkshire brought together people who'd never encountered each other before. We're about bringing communities together and bringing about social change. So we're doing the same thing.  One of us is concerned with inspiring people about the ultimate destination. The other is about inspiring a belief in God!"

Watch: Gary Verity Opens the Leeds Office 

Welcoming Sir Gary, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress and guests, Bishop Nick stressed that the new office was there to serve the churches and people of a diocese which covers a 'wide and diverse chunk of Yorkshire' - including the deeply rural, urban and suburban, from small villages to big estates. “We're not here for the sake of the Diocese of Leeds but for the people of this region, " he said.

Photo Competition

The winners of the Diocesan Photo Competition were announced during the opening event and Sir Gary Verity presented the three winners and  runners-up with large mounted copies of their photographs.. 

There were three categories ‘Confident Christians’, ‘Beauty in our Buildings’ and ‘Why I love my school’ (the competition for children and young people). The three winning pictures are now on display in the reception area of the new diocesan office.

(Pictured left are winner of 'Why I love my school', Layla Silburn  and runner-up, Elliot O’Connor )

Other entries are also on show in a mosaic of pictures on the ground floor at Church House.  

More on the Photo Competition and see the  winning pictures together with the runners-up here. 

Bishop Nick writes here in the Yorkshire Post in response to the attack in Berlin. Full text below.

Over the Christmas period you can also hear Bishop Nick on Radio 4's Thought for the Day (27 December), The Infinite Monkey Cage (27 December, 9am), Radio Leeds Carol Service from Leeds Minster on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day (times here), and on New Year's Day - Radio Leeds (8.10am) and Radio York (breakfast show).

Nick Baines: We must face horrors of Berlin and Ankara with hope - and not turn away

Any pretence at optimism about the world must surely lie bleeding in the ruins of the Christmas market at the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin. If the assassination - live on social media – of the Russian ambassador to Turkey was not shocking enough, the blood continued to flow in Germany. Remarkably, even before facts were known, the commentariat leapt to judgement on the causes of this latest atrocity.

I know Berlin well. I walked across the Breitscheidplatz only a few weeks ago while attending a conference on freedom of religion and belief. It adjoins the iconic church (the Gedächtniskirche) recognised around the world as a symbol of destruction and reconciliation in the 1940s. Yet, here, in a place of celebration and mercy a lorry is driven into crowds of innocent people, bringing death and injury. What are we to make of this?

Well, it demonstrates that there is no escape from a globalised world. That is to say, the small planet does not provide any private annexe for people who wish to live in a way that is disconnected from the lives of others. What happens in Syria impacts on Ankara and Berlin; what happens in Iraq and Yemen impacts powerfully on Italy and France. What happens in Pakistan impacts on Bradford and Dewsbury. Whether we like it or not, there are no hiding places in an interconnected world.

But, what is sobering about the latest attack (following on from the atrocities in France since the Charlie Hebdo shootings) is that conclusions were being drawn before facts were known. The suspect is a Pakistani asylum seeker … or have the police arrested the wrong man? They are unsure if the man arrested is the right one. Which means that the murderer is still at large. He might be an asylum seeker and might be an Islamist terrorist, but we don’t know. Yet, there is an explosion of assumptions. In a post-truth era it appears that any opinion will do.

Anyway, whatever the identity and motive of the perpetrator in this case, here is a sobering fact: if he is an asylum seeker who entered Germany last year when Angela Merkel opened the doors, that still leaves another million asylum seekers who have not committed a crime or abused the hospitality of the host country. What conclusions should we draw from that?

The violence in Berlin does raise other questions, however. What are we to make of people who are willing to inflict misery on others in pursuit of very particular ends? And how are we to address our own fears in the face of such shocking events – where people going about their Christmas business are mown down indiscriminately? (Discriminate murder would be no less morally offensive, of course.)

There is little comfort to be given in a world in which we are deeply connected but often in ways we don’t understand. We can cope with watching violence on the screen when it is happening far away; but, when it happens to us on the streets of our own cities we struggle to understand. Yet, if you are on the receiving end of British-made cluster bombs in Yemen or a rogue lorry in Berlin, the misery and injustice of it all seems indifferent. I suspect there will be more to come – grievances go deep across the planet, and they last for a long time.

So, is there anything to be said that doesn’t just resort to platitude or escapist wishful-thinking? I think there is.

I am a Christian – that is, a follower of Jesus Christ. Some people assume this is a bit feeble in the modern world. But, there is nothing feeble or romantic about a baby born into political and military oppression under the heel of the Roman Empire. There is nothing sentimental about growing up, firstly, as a refugee in a place that represents everything you ever wanted to escape from (Egypt) and, secondly, getting abused and ultimately executed for loving the wrong people and saying the wrong things.

Christmas brings this home. Christmas is about God opting into the world as it is with all its violence and contradiction, and not exempting himself from it. We shall move from the manger in Bethlehem to a cross at Easter and find ourselves challenged by an invitation that looks ridiculous if put in a religious box and removed from the real world: we can be driven by fear or drawn by hope. Christian hope comes to us and grasps our imagination. It comes from a God who is no stranger to suffering and who doesn’t turn his face from horror. It is a hope rooted in a refusal to see death and violence and destruction as having the final word. And we are invited/challenged to commit ourselves to being this sort of hope-bearers in the face of all the misery and fear.

I suspect we might have to cope with more atrocities as the world has become a more dangerous place. How we respond will determine whether we are agents of hope or not.

I pray for the people of Berlin. And Turkey. And Russia. And Syria. And England. And so on. But, it is prayer that commits me not to withdraw, but to engage with the mess of it all.

Rt Revd Nicholas Baines
Bishop of Leeds