The Church and how it is forging new friendships

Apr 9, 2017 by

by Nick Baines, Yorkshire Post:

WHAT happens when worlds collide and people are brought together whose experience of those worlds are so diverse? Well, we thought we would find out.

Some people on hearing that seven Anglican bishops were to meet in Yorkshire for a week might assume they were going to be at each others’ throats over divergent views of ethical issues such as sexuality. It will probably come as a disappointment to them that this is not the case.
When the (Church of England) Diocese of Leeds was created at Easter 2014 from the three historic dioceses of Bradford, Ripon & Leeds and Wakefield, the new entity inherited a number of long-established links with dioceses around the world. We weren’t sure how to take these forward and develop them further in a new diocese where inherited affections might prove difficult to expand. So, we kept them going while taking time to get everything else established in order later to address the future.
The five Anglican links are with Sudan (five dioceses), Tanzania (three dioceses), Sri Lanka (Colombo), Pakistan (Faisalabad) and USA (Southwestern Virginia). Then we have partnership links with Sweden (Skara which is Lutheran) and the Kirchenkreis Erfurt in Germany. It is a wide spread of countries and cultures, and some of these links go back thirty or forty years. Relationships have been forged, exchanges enjoyed and mutual lessons learned.

Related Posts

Tags

Share This