Common Vision Contemplative, compassionate and courageous for the sake of God’s world
Key facts
With over 1,000 churches, schools and chaplaincies, the Diocese of Oxford is one of the largest and most complex in the Church of England. Did you know that: • The Diocese of Oxford (serving Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes) is the fifth largest diocese in the Church of England by land area and the fourth most populated diocese in the country; • Our 284 church schools educate around 58,000 children; • Over 1,000 clergy and 300 licensed lay ministers serve 52,000 regular Sunday worshippers at our 815 churches. At Christmas, our churches welcome over 150,000 people from across the diocese; but there are major conurbations where the church lacks strength, and 27% of people in our congregations are aged 70 or older; • According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, 52% of people in Britain now declare they are of no religion. That proportion is growing. With every decade that goes by, people understand less and less about the Christian faith; • Massive new housing and population growth in this diocese will mean that another half a million people are living here by 2026 (210,960 more homes and 475,000 more people); • Reading has a higher number of looked-after children than the rest of the Thames Valley and more than double the rate of Oxfordshire and some other parts of Berkshire; • Oxfordshire has high levels of teenagers not in education, employment or training and high levels of emergency hospital admission for injuries in young people (more than twice the rate of Reading); • Barriers to housing are high: 122 neighbourhoods in this diocese are in the 10% most deprived access to housing and services.
Our world is changing in unprecedented ways; we must think afresh about inequality, our communities and human identity. We need to be the best Church we can be in this time: a more Christ-like Church for the sake of God’s world. We are not the society for the preservation of old buildings (important though our heritage assets are); a church is the community of God’s people, not the building. We believe that becoming more Christ-like is about who we are called to be, not what we’re called to do.
This is our common vision for every Christian in every church and school across this diocese. We want to discern what God is doing in our communities and figure out how best we can join in.
The call to become more Christ-like is not the work we need to do before a new corporate strategy and a five-year plan. It is the response we are called to make. We are continually adapting and reshaping our common vision as, together, we discern God’s will.
And we are just beginning...
Our Vision and Values
COURAGEOUS
COMPASSIONATE
CONTEMPLATIVE
• Making a difference in our local communities • Taking steps of faith, commitment and endurance • Signs of reconciliation; resolving conflict and working together for peace
• More time spent with more people • Signs of a greater sense of forgiveness, grace and nurture • Gracious welcome and hospitality; taking action for peace and justice
• More people spending time with God • Signs of a greater sense of humility • Listening more and saying less, to ourselves, our world and one another
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