Young people with a vision of change are being invited by the Church in Wales to become the next generation of leaders.
The Church in Wales is asking people to consider whether they are being called to ordained ministry as part of the chuch’s five year strategy to seek out and nurture vocations. It aims to recruit more clergy to ensure the Church can continue to serve every community in Wales in the future.
Launching the strategy at a meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales the Bishop of St Asaph, Gregory Cameron, called on young people to ‘enthuse us with your vision of change’.
He said: “We want to generate a sense of excitement and discussion about the call to Christian ministry and an understanding of the nature of vocation. This is an opportunity to recruit a new generation of leaders of the Church – and specifically to target younger people and bring their new vision into the life of the Church. Come and lead us, come and enthuse us with your vision of change.”
The church proposed to ordain an average of three people from each diocese each year, of whom two will be aged under 35. Bishop Gregory, who is chair of the vocations strategy group, said the Church was looking for people who had found a lively faith of their own.
He said: “We want people who understand Christianity as an encounter with the living Jesus who calls the church onwards to activity and mission.”
As the first step in the campaign, which has adopted the slogan, Here I Am – Send Me, the Church is dedicating one Sunday in the year for congregations to focus on people considering ordination.
The Sunday after Ascension, which this year is May 16, will be called ‘Ministry and Calling Sunday’ and there will be specific prayers and readings for vocations.
Bishop Gregory said: “There is an urgent need for the Church to seek out and nurture vocations to ordained ministry. A quarter of our clerics are approaching retirement in the next few years and fewer than one in 10 are aged under 40. We have a minimum target number of stipendiary ordained ministers for our future work and we need to act now if we are to meet this target. We remain convinced as a Church that the ordained ministry has still got an important role to undertake, and we need to do some work in seeking out and nurturing vocations – especially among younger people.
“We want people to consider whether God is calling them to ordained ministry and we also want to help those whom God is calling to respond with the answer ‘Here I am, send me’.
“The Sunday after Ascension as comes just at that point of the Church’s year when the disciples were waiting for the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and we are waiting for God’s spirit to renew our Church in our own day.”
