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• Nelson Bay
• Stockton
• Bateau Bay

• Charlestown
• Lakes Anglican
• Singleton

Exciting and committed lay ministry is one of the defining features of life in the Diocese of Newcastle. 

Over the last few months the first parish ministry teams, consisting of parish clergy, lay leaders and candidates for ordained local ministry have been developed in parishes, responding to the vision of Ministering Communities in Mission. 

These teams have been built on the foundation of years of collaborative ministry undertaken by parish clergy and lay people, and by prayerful planning and visioning for the future.

The vision of becoming Ministering Communities in Mission seeks to act as a catalyst for renewing the lay ministry which is already taking place in local congregations, and offering support mechanisms for its ongoing development. 

The process which has been developed in the Diocese for supporting congregations which are responding to this vision seeks to provide opportunities for congregations to renew the vision which they have for future mission and ministry and to offer a process for the discernment of members of the congregation to lead areas of this ministry. 

The Diocese is also seeking to support parish ministry teams by offering the Bishop’s Certificate in Theology for Ministry, and a system for recognising and licensing leaders in these teams as licensed Lay Ministers.

So far three parishes (Nelson Bay, Stockton and Bateau Bay) have re-shaped their existing structures for leading and supporting mission and ministry so that a new parish ministry team now operates alongside the Parish Council.  

In these parishes the elected Parish Councils will continue their work of resourcing ministry by overseeing finances, ensuring that appropriate administrative systems are in place, and having responsibility for the buildings and grounds. 

The new ministry teams will share with the parish clergy the responsibility for actual leadership of ministry and mission initiatives and activities in the life of the Church.  In turn each ministry area represented on the team will have a working group of members of the congregation.

In each of the three parishes the Parish Councils began by asking some basic questions about the future mission and ministry of their church. 

In each case they recognised that there was a need for the various leadership positions on the new ministry team to reflect the vision which the parish was developing. 

Given the different contexts of the parishes it was no surprise to find that although some of the leadership needs which were identified were the same across the parishes, there were also others which were distinctive to each parish.
 
At Bateau Bay seven ministry positions were defined.  These are community connections, mutual care, welcome and incorporation, hospitality and team building, formation and discipleship, and worship. 

At Nelson Bay and Stockton a larger number of leadership roles were envisaged, including the need for deacons and priests in local ministry.  In many other parishes the ministry teams may be much smaller.

Having identified the different leadership positions, the next task was to spend time with the support of a facilitator,  intentionally discerning which members of the congregation had the appropriate gifts for the positions which were envisaged.
 
In one case this discernment work was carried out by the Parish Council, in the other two parishes the Parish Council appointed discernment groups made up of members of the congregation. 

The task of discerning leaders was not always easy.

Members of the congregation who had been discerned for leadership roles were asked whether they would be willing to be appointed to the positions for an initial period of three years. Candidates also made a commitment to study for the Bishop’s Certificate in Theology for Ministry. 

The Parish Councils were asked to approve the names of those who had been discerned, and the congregations in each case also endorsed the discernments at Sunday worship.

The leaders on these ministry teams will be licensed by the Diocesan Bishop as Lay Ministers after they have completed training for the Bishop’s Certificate. 

The candidates for ordained local ministry at Stockton and Nelson Bay will now enter a further process of discernment in the Diocese before commencing training.

A number of parishes have signalled that they will be beginning processes to discern leaders for new ministry teams in the future.