Brentwood News
A thousand discuss church's future role
2:22pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012
A MEETING of minds generated more than 750 pages of “incredibly useful” feedback to help senior clergy make plans for the future.
The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, joined 1,000 people to discuss how the church needs to change and move with the times.
He believes decisions made now will shape the future of Chelmsford Diocese, which covers Essex and East London.
The group recently met at the Brentwood Centre, in Doddinghurst Road, to discuss the church’s position over the next ten to 15 years.
Bishop Stephen said he was “delighted” with how the event went but was also surprised that people accepted challenges, such as the expected lack of clergy in coming years, that are facing the church. He said: “More people are retiring than are being ordained each year so that means there will be cuts. But what surprised me was it barely got mentioned during the day, yet it was one of the main reasons we had the day.
“I felt I needed to be honest and explain to the diocese there has to be changes, whether we like it or not.”