Living Stones
Network

Taken from an address by Bishop John Harrower to the Living Stones Network National Conference, Hobart, 25-29 August 2005. 

The Living Stones Partnership exists to help Anglican congregations to become ministering communities. This involves assisting Anglicans to identify their gifts and use them in ministry in their congregations and in God's mission in wider communities. The desired outcomes will reflect the personality and needs of each diocese and local context.

The Living Stones Partnership is open to Bishops, Clergy, Lay People, MDOs and enablers and others who share the Partnership's purposes of implementing the vision in their own spheres of ministry and mission. Preferably the Partnership will increasingly be between teams from a Diocese or Region reflecting the diverse makeup of the ministering communities.

The Partnership affirms the following principles:

1. That change is needed to the received model of church and ministry which has presented the view of the full-time priest as the 'professional Christian' and the people as consumers of religion.

2. That all Christian Ministry is rooted in the Biblical imperative of mission, and in Christian Baptism.

3. The recognition of a variety of ministries, including locally formed and licensed priests and deacons.

4. The importance of a covenant of learning which provides for initial education and training, as well as continuing education.

Commitments

The Partners are committed:

• to mutual support, sharing and stimulation, critique, Biblical and theological reflection and to encourage new ways of engaging in ministry

• to pray for each other, communicate with each other and serve as resources for one another in ministry development

• to meet annually to share their work and learning, and to rededicate themselves to the purposes and commitments of the partnership

• to offer innovative thinking for leadership and organisational structures that encourage ministering communities appropriate in each diocese

• to use processes to discern the giftedness for ministry of the whole people of God

• to offer appropriate training for these emerging forms of leadership and organisation

• to nurture and support the whole people of God in mission and ministry in daily life.

Draft Paper:
Towards a theology of ministry and mission