On Saturday, October 8th three of us – Jenny Jones, Sarah Turnbull and myself – went to Knaresborough to take part in this conference “Making Change Work Together”.

First priority, of course, register and find the coffee! But then a quiet time of worship with a hall full of fellow-travellers, followed by Bishop John’s look at the changes we have already seen in, say, the last 30 years. We have changed, personally and spiritually, as has the church in styles of worship, lay involvement, women priests. Society has changed in the rise of terrorism, breakdown of family life, communications. The one that has not changed is God: ‘Great is thy Faithfulness’ should encourage us to face and embrace the inevitable changes.

Group Bible Studycame next as we read from Ephesians and discussed how we could ‘bear one another in love’ – accept our differences, be tolerant, listen to others and remember ‘we all work for the same firm’. For the next session ‘Building Blocks for positive Change’ Sarah was our leader and we discussed with a partner how we felt about the changes we had experienced over the past year, which led on to the way change needs to come about. We need to be very clearly aware of WHY the change is necessary, to know what differences it would make, then to support and participate, probably develop new skills to help the change, to encourage discussion and reinforce the development.

Lunch was provided by Betty’s – fantastic!

Dr Sue Proctor, Diocesan Secretary, spoke after lunch. How do we look at potential change? Are we Tiggers, bouncing to do it now? Or Eeyores, gloomy and obstinate? Dementors, hope drained away? Or in between, ready to go, but steadily? Her main emphasis was to go ahead with prayer all the way.
Then AI = Appreciative Inquiry. Rather like the building blocks, start with Defining what is changing and why. Discover what we are best at and appreciate most. Dream a bit – what are the exciting possibilities? Get some Detail in the Design: what will it be like? Then make the vision come true.

The final plenary session saw us listening to music, singing a Taizé chant and watching images of Christ over the centuries, on screen. We were encouraged to write down what had meant most to us today, and what changes we would like to see in our church, parish, and ourselves and place our Post-it notes as feedback on communal sheets of card. Bishop John closed in prayer and gave us the Blessing

It was a really worthwhile day, stimulating and thought-provoking and we felt privileged to have taken part. Hopefully we will be able to put some of it into practice!
Mary Larner