The people of the Diocese of Islands and Inlets recognize that God is always and everywhere doing new things in our midst. We commit to living out our baptismal covenant in the beauty and brokenness of our communities. As parishes and people of faith we work together as the body of Christ to build communities of love and justice. Together, we discern how to adapt our ministries in changing times.
As a part of this work, we reaffirm our dedication to the path of truth-telling, repair and reconciliation with the First Peoples who carry the stories and songs of these lands and waters.
In June of this year diocesan council passed a motion affirming those words as the diocesan ministry statement. We began working towards that ministry statement in the fall of 2025 and after a couple of rounds of consultation, the statement of who we are as God’s people, in this diocese, at this juncture in time, was adopted.
You will see and hear this ministry statement in the new land acknowledgement video that will be launched at this month’s regional meetings and next month’s Synod. It will also be incorporated into our website and other communications.
Incarnating this ministry statement has been, is, and will continue to be the work of the diocese as a whole and will have a slightly different expression in each parish and person. A proposed mandate for where synod staff and diocesan leadership should focus their efforts is coming before Synod 2026:
The mandate of diocesan leadership between this Synod and the next is to focus on:
- Raising up, equipping, and supporting lay leaders and clergy for their ministry
- Creating collaborative processes to sustain all the baptised
- Stewarding our shared resources, including our shared landholdings and financial assets, for our shared future
The convening circular will be organised around these three themes and will demonstrate how we are already at work in these areas. We will then further discuss the mandate at the four regional meetings being held in October and look for your feedback on how we can continue living into this mandate, as well as identifying what might be getting in the way. This feedback will be incorporated into the design for Synod, which reflects the three themes.
The Friday evening opening worship for Synod, which I hope and pray the whole diocese will take part in by joining us either in person or by livestream, will begin to bring the mandate to life.
As well as all the clergy of the diocese, all our lay worship leaders will also be joining in the liturgical procession. Over the past years we have raised up and trained 85 lay worship leaders. These faithful folk have become one of the pillars of our life together as a diocese, leading both weekday and Sunday services of the word in parishes big and small across our diocese. As you watch the procession, I hope you catch a glimpse of what it means as a diocese to raise up, equip and support lay leaders and clergy for their ministry.
The Saturday morning of Synod will include presentations on some of the collaborative processes to sustain all the baptised. We will celebrate the elections to diocesan council and elect representatives to Provincial and General Synod. We will also review our canons and regulations.
We will then move to the areas of property and finance, specifically looking at how we steward our shared landholdings and financial assets to live out our ministry. Please take a moment to review both the property report and the financial reports in the convening circular.
Brendon Neilson, diocesan executive director, has done exceptional work encouraging us to think both missionally and strategically about our property holdings. I’d also invite you to review the financial report prepared by Joel Hefty, treasurer, and Samantha Wilson-Fisher, finance director. If you have any questions related to the financial statements, please reach out to [email protected] and Samantha and Joel will be happy to try and address your questions either directly or in the presentation they make to synod.
We are working towards more straightforward and transparent financial statements but because of the accounting principle of consistency, we find ourselves having official statements that are not as simple to read and interpret as we would like. Please do not hesitate to ask questions if things are not clear to you.
At our 2024 Synod, theologian Scott Sharman reminded us that the word synod, means “together on the way.” Sharman pointed to three aspects of what it is to be a synod: our work and life together is to be collegial, dialogical and provisional. Our ministry statement for 2026 reflects these elements. It is
- provisional in that it captures this moment in the diocese’s history
- collegial in that it recognizes we can only do this work by strengthening the bonds between and among us
- dialogical in that we must be in conversation with each other and our communities in order to see how best to do this work.
As you prepare for Synod 2026, Scott’s primer on Synodality may be a helpful tool as you reflect on and offer feedback on the ministry statement and proposed mandate.
I am grateful for our shared life together as a diocese. As I have often said, the future is not going to look like the past and the future is bright. The diocese has embraced this maxim with full hearts and courageous wills. May we continue to discern, together, what bright future God is calling us into.
