In her address to Diocesan Synod on 17 May 2025, Bishop Sarah recognises the turbulent, ever-changing world we are living in, offering us Jesus' words as encouragement, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Read the full speech below or watch it above.
This is our second Synod of the new triennium, and it is lovely to see you all. We last met on November 16 2024. Archbishop Justin had just resigned following the Makin Report and I found myself reflecting on the past six months and the changed context we now meet in, both within our world, our own context, and locally. I wonder what words you would throw out if I asked you to describe these times we live within?
In this short time, just six months, there is a sense of significant change in our world. We have just celebrated VE Day, the 80th anniversary, yet since the inauguration of President Trump for his second term, the post war settlement and the conventions which have been the sea that Western liberal democracies have lived within and we have swum within ourselves, have been turned upside down - as we keep being told. Our new government caught in these changing times, elected with a landslide majority last May, have found themselves swept aside in various places in the local elections by Reform - which has reshaped many councils, including here in Durham. The lives of many in the communities where we serve, where we worship, where we live, continue to be shaped by the deep-seated challenges of daily living, for many reasons that very few of our recent governments have been able to make a difference to.
The North East Child Poverty Commission, in their last report, noted that in the North East 89% of all constituencies here have at least 1 in 4 children growing up in poverty. That's all of us practically. And 70% of all children living in poverty are from working families.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill returned yesterday to the Commons to debate the potential changes to the Bill, with further debates and voting on June 6. We continue to recognise the sensitivity and pain of this debate, and even here within our own Synod, there will be those who are shaped by bitter experience. The position of the House of Bishops is to speak against, especially for those who are vulnerable to such a change. The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, is leading on this in the House of Lords. For those who wish to write, there is still time to write to your MP. But we note, that those who support the Bill are often rooted in the most painful of circumstances. Whatever your viewpoint - these are turbulent times when the winds and the waves are whipping up the seas. The wars that we have been noting over the last few years still rage as well.
Of course, there are also moments of joy - I have heard the rumour that Sunderland are going to Wembley and - if I dare mention those across the Tyne in the same breath - Newcastle have a trophy and may yet be in the Champions League next year. We may yet see a North East derby in the Premier League. Now I am interested in that; some of you won't be.
This is the context within which we meet and we worship and we take decisions as Synod - decisions which matter; the backcloth to our business. For we are called as the Church of England in Durham Diocese to proclaim afresh the gospel of Jesus Christ in each generation - and this is ours. A time of turbulence and shifting sands in many ways. And keeping in our view, in these times, our context and our neighbour, as we have just sung about, is a necessary prayerful discipline. Even as we face our own challenges as a church, we must never be so inward looking that we lose sight of those we are called to be salt and light among. It is our calling as people of faith to hold our world, our leaders and our neighbour in prayer before the one who is Lord and Creator.
We of course are caught up in our own internal challenges - including financial, on our agenda today, both personal, parish and diocesan. And we do give thanks for the generosity of our people even as we face the financial facts in our agenda today.
In the tortoise of the Church of England's appointment process, we have a challenge. We have a new Pope, Leo XIV, chosen within days at the Conclave. We will wait a tad longer for the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Last November I said in my presidential address, “God willing, this will be my last synod as acting Bishop of Durham, because the next Bishop of Durham will hopefully be in role…” There you are. How wrong you can get! It was only at the end of February we learned that the nominated candidate for Durham would not be coming as expected and I have been so grateful for the strength and the support that has been demonstrated in our diocese during this utterly unexpected moment, especially for myself and the Bishop's Leadership Team, through small acts of kindness and support. It has been amazing and a sense of confidence as we move forward. I have a sense of a resilient faithful people in our communities as we move into this second year of vacancy in the See of Durham.
And of course, we have had sorrow in the past year as well. We've seen Peter Robson, who died, just in January, with a long history of being a chaplain saw his faithfulness as he faced death, and we celebrate the faith of him and his family and his service. And it reminds us of our duty, of care and our longing to support, all, within our clergy and wider, who face challenges of ill health, challenges of mortality and challenges that are unexpected.
I continue to hold the role as Acting Diocesan Bishop with joy. Not always a joy on a Monday morning with emails, but joy within the whole. I know it is only together as a team, as the body of Christ, that we can rise to meet the challenges before us. The fresh interviews for the Bishop of Durham will be held on the 9 and 10 December, after the Archbishop of Canterbury’s elections are held as well. We continue to be prayerful, especially for our CNC representatives - Mags Vaughan; Val Barron; Mark Miller; Frances Stenlake; Jamie Harrison and we also welcome, Libby Wilkinson, who is, stepping into Archdeacon Rick's role as he is on sabbatical in the autumn. Doing this process once is daunting. Being asked to do it a second time is both unprecedented in our circumstances. They represent us - please pray for them.
Of course, we've had really special moments that stand out during these last six months, especially, the Maundy money, where the King and Queen came to the Cathedral and gave to 55 of our own people, 70 across the diocese, the Maundy money in recognition of their exemplary Christian service to community and the church.It was such a gift and it was really moving. And the King was so personal with each person who received the Maundy money.
And the other thing, which is always moving for me, are Confirmations where we see and share the testimony of young people and adults who have come to faith, and we see the work that is going on in our parish churches. I was in Stanley last Sunday. 22 people were confirmed. Half were under 11 and the other half were adults who had come to faith. We heard their testimonies, both young and older, of their encounter with the living Lord Jesus. God is at work amongst us.
The scripture that has particularly been with me, as I have journeyed these last six months that I have spoken of on a number of occasions, has been Matthew 14: 22-32, where Peter is called out of the boat to see Jesus, who is walking on the water. The disciples are afraid and Jesus shouts to them through the strong winds across the water, “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.” Taking heart is a call to courage and hope as we walk our journey as disciples in turbulent seas, in turbulent times; to take courage because Jesus is with us, even in the most unlikely situations when we cannot see clearly. The Apostle Peter only begins to be overwhelmed by the elements when his focus on Jesus wavers as the sound of the winds and the sights of the waves push Jesus out of his sight. I understand that moment, but I take heart because even as Peter cried out, “Lord, save me!”, Jesus reaches out his hand and takes hold of him.
Yesterday the appointment process for the Archdeacon of Sunderland took place - and in time we will be able to speak of the outcome. One of the things that we asked for was someone who would bring courageous and creative spiritual leadership in this time, to be a companion along the way, of those in Sunderland Archdeaconry but all the diocese in these times. It is a call to us all – not because a Bishop hasn’t come but because the times we live in need the church of Jesus Christ to be present in the midst and not so caught up in our own lives that we sail by and forget our neighbour. We need to continue to see what the spirit is calling us to in these turbulent times, but also a time of transformation.
As we go into our agenda, there are three things I want to comment on it against that backcloth.
Safeguarding. It wouldn't be Diocesan Synod if we didn't talk about safeguarding, but safeguarding has been the dominant theme for me in the last year as Acting Diocesan Bishop and rightly so as we continue to seek to grow and improve. This will be a year of development. The first week of May, we had the INEQE audit, which we'd been preparing for for a year. It was an enormous amount of work, and we are grateful to all who gave so much and engaged so strongly, both in the teams in Cuthbert House, but also across the diocese.
Beth is now on holiday, in America, if you're wondering where she is but we note our thanks to Beth. As we would expect, they will identify a number of areas of good practice together with opportunities for development. What seemed clear from the initial feedback was they had experienced a strong safeguarding culture at Durham, and a willingness across the teams to embrace best practice, continuous learning and improvement.
But it is only a step along the journey. There's so much that calls us on and calls us, I think, into new avenues as well. We're expecting a draft report in three weeks’ time, and the final report will be published at the end of July. I know that I have reflected deeply on my own leadership and practice as I prepared for my interview.
Last week, the Bishop's Leadership Team at our residential, spent Thursday morning reflecting in the light especially of the scalding report on Sole Survivor, on power and authority and healthy culture in our diocese, in our churches, in our leadership teams that will shape what is next. Our Safeguarding Policy for 2025/2026 being presented today reflects improvements in practice and I look forward to your comments.
These next months within our Church will see us return to the journey of Living in Love and Faith, one of the most complex matters that we have dealt with. Again, it reveals deeply held passions, it touches threads hidden in people's lives that we cannot see. It is something which is both an internal and external threat in some ways and yet, it is about humans, about us, about people. It's not about strangers, it is about us. So as we engage today, please do speak with sensitivity of each other even if you really deeply disagree and feel the struggle of that moment. I think that's where my image of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, knowing them, really held me today.
Finally, I want to end on an encouragement which links into our transformation programme, and I'm sure that Amy and Libby will take this up in our item on transformation. The Bible Society have just published, ‘The Quiet Revival’. I hope some of you have seen this. You can just download it off the Bible Society’s website. It's a 2024 survey of 13,000 people on behalf of YouGov, and they've been comparing it to the same survey they did in 2018. And to everybody's surprise, including the reviewers and everybody in the church, there is a rise in adults saying that they're going to church. And there are also signs of unexpected growth as well. When they compared with 2018, 8% of adults, which is now 12%, say that they go to church. And young people, 16% of 18 to 24 year olds go to church on a regular basis. While we may not have noticed that locally, what it speaks of is a spiritual openness - young adults are much more likely to say they pray and that they have a regular spiritual practice than other age groups. It paints a picture of that generation which is seeking, seeking something more in this turbulent world than they are being given at this point in time.
In March, in Gateshead, Youthscape came to speak to a group of clergy who were invited to be part of a pilot group, to be able to work on something called Launchpad. Launchpad is an intervention, a program that helps us in parishes to get the youth work off the ground. It may be starting afresh, it may be something which is revitalising. I found it really inspiring to be with clergy, to be with Youthscape and the possibility of being able to roll this out across the diocese as well. It made me remember those people in my early adult life who bothered to invest in me. As - I realise you won't believe it - a rather wild and unpromising person flirting with faith, but also called to, if you like, a much livelier life than sometimes I experienced in the churches I had been part of. The first cohort is underway and we'll share it across the diocese.
Courageous and creative spiritual leaderships. I think it looks like daring to do something new, daring to begin again when we've experienced discouragement, daring to notice where those small green shoots are and help them to grow. Daring to not feel that discouragement that stops us from believing that the spirit is at work, a newness is possible.
When we ask it of the Archdeacon at Sunderland, we are also asking it of all who are actually followers of Jesus Christ. It's what Jesus asks of us when he says, come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of people. So we are called to see those signs of green shoots in the midst of chilly days.
So I simply want to end with those words, which I believe are Jesus's call to us as well. “Take heart. Do not be afraid. It is I.” and also to note my expectation of being here at Synod in November as the Acting Diocesan Bishop.