To all the clergy and laity of the Church in Wales: An urgent call.

Dear Friends,

At Governing Body last week, there was an important debate about the future of ordained ministry in the Church in Wales. We face some startling statistics.

A quarter of our current serving clergy are aged over 60, and less than 10% are under 40. This means that we shall have problems in the near future as clergy begin to retire in large numbers, and yet we still have the business of the Church to run, and the leadership of ordained ministry has a key role to play in that. Of course, this is an opportunity as well, as we can seize the day to explore the ministry of all the people of God, and search out and develop new ways of being Church, and exercising ministry to sustain our life. The Bench of Bishops is doing just that, and looking at radical plans for the future of ministry in our Church. But we remain convinced as a Church that the ordained ministry has still got an important role to undertake, and we need to do some work in seeking out vocations – especially among younger people.

The resolution passed by Governing Body last week said that the Governing Body

1. affirms the urgent need for the Church in Wales, under God, to seek out and nurture vocations to ordained ministry

2. welcomes a new Provincial initiative to embark on a five-year Vocations strategy, and

3. asks every level of the Church, parishes, deaneries, and dioceses, to collaborate with the Provincial Strategy in seeking to foster such vocations.

More details about the Vocations Initiative can be found on the Church in Wales website, but note its title, as reproduced above:

Dyma fi, Anfon fi.

Here I am, Send me.

The implication of the title is that each of us must consider whether God is calling us to ministry – indeed, to ordained ministry – or at the very least to help those whom God is calling to ordained ministry to respond with the answer “Here I am, send me!”.

As a first step in the Vocations Initiative, the Bishops have set aside the Sunday after Ascension as a Ministry and Calling Sunday. This Sunday comes just at that point of the Church’s year when the disciples were waiting for the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and we are waiting for God’s spirit to renew our Church in our own day.

This letter is to give you advance warning that in the next couple of weeks you will be receiving materials from the Provincial Vocations Strategy Group for the first such Sunday on

Sunday, 16^th May, 2010.

The aim of the Ministry and Calling Sunday this year is to invite all members of the Church to pray: to pray for vocations, to pray that we may be a Church which invites and nurtures vocations. Further ideas and materials will follow, but for this year, there will be posters to display in your Church, notes on the readings for the lectionary to demonstrate how they link up to the theme of vocation, and suggested intercessions.

Please use Sunday, 16^th May as a Ministry and Calling Sunday in your Church. Please draw everyone’s attention to the need for vocations, to the need to be bold in drawing people’s attention to the fact that God may be calling them to ordained ministry. Above all else, please invite your congregations to pray that God will be active in calling forth a new and active field of ministers to assist in leading the Church into the future.

Ministry and Calling Sunday this year will be just a beginning, and more will follow. We hope nonetheless for a good beginning to this initiative and that will come with your support this year in mobilising all of us to pray for vocations. If you have any questions, the Vocations Initiative is being supported by all the Diocesan Directors of Ordinands and Vocations Advisers – please contact them for more details, and with details of any who would like to explore a vocation to ordained ministry themselves.

With thanks in advance for your help and support,

+Barry Cambrensis

+Dominic Monmouth

+John Swansea & Brecon

+Wyn Tyddewi

+Andrew Bangor

+Gregory Llanelwy, Chair of the Provincial Vocations Strategy Group

+David Wilbourne