Work is underway on our strategic plan

I am delighted to bring you an update on Growing in Christ, our diocese’s strategic plan. As you will recall, the plan lays out a bold vision for our diocese for the next four years: to be an Anglican community committed to proclaiming and embodying Jesus Christ through compassionate service, intelligent faith and Godly worship.

Since becoming Executive Director in December 2017, I have started working with many of the plan’s working groups to help establish clear deliverables and frameworks for the strategic focus areas identified in the plan. It is heartening to see the level of commitment and collaboration on the part of volunteers and staff to enable our diocese to fulfill its mission to build healthy, missional Anglican communities that engage faithfully with the world and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Governance and Decision-Making Working Group is making substantial progress in identifying models of governance that will streamline and facilitate the decision-making process.

In our quest to continually become better stewards of our human and property resources, we are pleased to report that by year’s end we will present recommendations from our Remuneration Working Group that address remuneration concerns of our clergy that reflect our values.

Our Property Working Group is focused on helping us to better track, manage and leverage our real estate resources. By mid-summer, we will have a comprehensive inventory of all our real estate holdings, a project we undertook last year with N. Barry Lyons Consultants. In January of 2018, a Request for Proposal was put out to market for engineering consulting services to assist us with a diocese-wide building condition assessment project. We are currently in the procurement phase of the engagement and are pleased to report that we have received positive responses from some of the country’s most pre-eminent engineering consulting firms. This phase of work will end with the Request for Award, at which juncture we will evaluate the cost and commence rollout subject to Diocesan Council approval.

Feedback from the Engagement Survey, already completed, together with additional input from our clergy and senior staff at the Diocesan Centre, will help to inform and corroborate the work of the Trust and Culture Working Group as it seeks ways to build a more collaborative and trusting culture in our diocese.

The Innovation Based on Evidence Working Group is working on defining clear deliverables that will enable the diocese to mitigate risk through adoption of best practices with respect to how data will be used to measure outcomes for continuous improvement.

Our Leadership and Formation Working Group is in the early stages of defining deliverables that will enable us to develop the clerical and lay leaders who will lead our transformation efforts. The diocesan Postulancy Committee has reviewed its procedures for the identification of candidates for ordination and their formation.

We plan to bring recommendations from our working groups to our next Regular Session of Synod in November 2018.

The work of the strategic plan is often challenging but also immensely rewarding. I truly feel privileged to have the opportunity to work with the College of Bishops, talented diocesan staff and our dedicated volunteers to help implement our strategic plan.

I wish to thank you for welcoming me to the Diocese of Toronto as you have, and for your willingness and support to drive the positive change the implementation of our strategic plan will have in transforming our future by balancing our call to action for a bold vision, while maintaining our trust in Christ’s faithfulness to his Church and honouring our rich heritage.