anglican focus

The news site of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland: nourishing and connecting our faith community

Complexity

Resources & Research The Rev’d Tim Booth facilitating a St James’, Toowoomba visioning day on 3 June 2023 in the St Anne’s, Highfields hall Resources & Research

What is a Mission Action Plan and why are MAPs important?

“A MAP isn’t a corporate design process looking into a five- to 10-year ‘crystal ball’, identifying an egocentric vision and specifying how we’ll achieve it. Mission Action Planning is the documenting of prayerful discernment conversations by a faith community regarding where and how it’s being called to participate in God’s mission,” says Ministry Development Officer The Rev’d Tim Booth

Reflections “Carols on the Hill” Christmas event at Holy Trinity, Woolloongabba Reflections

Shifting the conversation from “decline” to “possibility”

“This sense of freedom that emerged from being encouraged and resourced to give something a go helped change the narrative in our church. It shifted the conversation from ‘struggle’ and ‘decline’ to ‘opportunity’ and ‘possibility’. This narrative shift is the most valuable outcome of our Adapting Ministry in Complex Times pilot participation,” says The Rev’d Rosemary Gardiner

"Aboriginality is high-context identity. It is the reason we describe ourselves first by our Country of origin even before saying our name," says Wiradjuri artist and priest The Rev'd Canon Glenn Loughrey
Reflections

Complexity in understanding Country and culture

“Our languages are the most complex in the world, such that even groups within the same language group have difficulty speaking to one another. Language is contextual – we have words for those things that pertain to our space. In the Wiradjuri language, for example, there is no word for ‘sharks’ as they do not exist in our universe,” says Wiradjuri artist and priest The Rev’d Canon Glenn Loughrey

Reflections

Complexity is our friend

“Complexity means one plus one can be more than two, then two plus two can be a surprisingly large number. A complex system is more than its component parts, for out of the relationships between the parts new things emerge. A lichen on a desert rock near Thargomindah emerges from the interactions between a fungus and an alga that normally cannot live in dry air or full sun,” says Prof. Roderick Rogers

Reflections

Coping with complexity

“Our community of faith ‘The Church’ has also become very complex. This leads to the call that as a community of faith we need to treat each other with more sensitivity, being very mindful and careful of what we say and do…Therefore, we need to be non-judgemental when our views do not align with the views of others around us,” says The Rev’d Rebecca King from The Parish of Yeronga and the Anglican Board of Mission