New from Church House

• Compass launch – a pilot project opportunity for supporting your next steps in mission
• Personal Growth and Leadership (PGL) Taster Sessions
• Sign up for 50 daily devotions
• The 10th Anniversary of the Diocese of Leeds
• TEND 2024 – first event on Saturday, April 27 at Holy Trinity Ripon!
• Resourcing and supporting parishes
• Ministry with Children and Young People course
• Staying connected
• Churchwarden training events
• Resting in God
• Lay Training courses
• Work out your church’s carbon footprint to help care for God’s Creation
• Green Journey Fact Finder Webinar
• Open for nominations: The Church Times Green Church Awards
• Churches Count on Nature / Love Your Burial Ground Week: June 8 - 16
• LDBF Finance Committee Vacancy
• Parish Giving Scheme Webinar – New Resources to Promote the PGS
• Small Grants for New Congregations
• One-to One Stewardship Support Sessions for Clergy
• Generosity Week 2024 – Save the Date!
• Money for Mission: Issue 56
• Service to celebrate Self Supporting Ministry and Self Supporting Ministers

Key Dates for 2024

Resources

Vacancies

Other Useful Links and Information

Compass launch – a pilot project opportunity for supporting your next steps in mission

Can you help us develop a tool that is part of how Barnabas can help churches move forward in mission?

Compass is a tool for helping churches to have a good conversation about what’s next in mission. We are developing Compass over the next three months and have come up with an outline. We want to make sure Compass works so we are looking for ten churches who are prepared to give up two hours to help us try it out. If your church would like to help, help please email [email protected].

Personal Growth and Leadership (PGL) Taster Sessions

The Personal Growth and Leadership course has helped people grow in their confidence as disciples and leaders. This is a home-grown course for clergy and lay church teams to learn, share and put into practice some key principles around growth and leadership. This is not just for people who are already leading, but also for those with the potential for increasing their leadership within their church. We know that the course helps to increase confidence in leadership skills and learn how to apply them. In PGL we grow together in awareness, identification and appreciation of lay and clergy gifts so we can release them, and build mutually supportive relationships as lay and clergy.

The six month course (one Saturday morning a month – dates coming soon) is starting in late September. To give you an idea of how Personal Growth and Leadership might support your church, we will be running a number of taster sessions in April at the following venues, with the additional option for participants to join via a livestream:

• Thursday, April 18, 7pm - 9pm, St Andrew's Church, High Street, Starbeck HG2 7JE
• Tuesday, April 23, 7pm - 9pm, St Barnabas' Church, The View, Alwoodley LS17 7NA
• Wednesday, April 24, 7pm - 9pm, Pudsey Parish Church, Church Lane, Pudsey LS28 8BE

Further information can be found on the Barnabas page of our website here.

If you have any questions, or to register for the taster/programme, please email [email protected].

Sign up for 50 daily devotions!

During the 50 days from Easter to Pentecost, you can subscribe to receive a daily devotion to help mark the 10^th Anniversary of the Diocese. Each day a reflection, written by a different member of our diocese, will be emailed to you. As we journey through the Book of Acts, every reflection will be linked to one of the areas of focus in our Rhythm of Life initiative: encourage, share, create, pray, rest, celebrate, reflect. There will also be ideas for activities and links to good news stories.

To sign up, click here. For more on the Rhythm of Life initiative, click here.  

If you have signed up, but seem to not be getting the emails, they may be in your junk email box, so please do check there too.

The 10th Anniversary of the Diocese of Leeds

The 10th anniversary of the Diocese of Leeds takes place on Saturday, April 20, 2024 and is an opportunity for us all to both reflect and look forward to coming decades.

The Diocese was created in 2014, and the Rt Revd Nick Baines became its first Bishop in June of that year.

The Diocese of Leeds comprises all the ecclesial traditions of the Church of England. It also reaches across urban, suburban and rural communities, where the challenge for the future is how the Gospel is to be faithfully and creatively proclaimed and lived in a changing world. We are a vibrant diocese, equipping confident clergy to enable confident Christians to live and tell the Good News in our large region.

We have a page on our website where the details of how we are marking the 10th anniversary of the diocese will be added - this can be found here.

We shall be publishing a commemorative A5 booklet containing stories of confident Christians, growing churches and transforming communities across our diocese. Distribution details will be available on the Leeds @ 10 page shortly.

TEND 2024 – first event on Saturday, April 27 at Holy Trinity Ripon!

We are delighted to invite all children, young people and families workers, leaders and volunteers to attend one of our TEND events this year.

This year’s theme is Encouraging Confidence and the days will include workshops, speakers, worship, reflection and the opportunity to meet others involved in ministry with and to children, young people and families. The dates and venues are:



• Saturday, April 27 at Holy Trinity Ripon
• Saturday, June 8 at Dewsbury Minister
• Saturday, September 7 at St Matt's Leeds

Please click here for more details and to book.

If you require any specific help or information, please do contact us at [email protected].

Writing a risk Assessment for Children and Youth Work (Tuesday, April 9, 10.30am – 12noon, Church House, Leeds)

This workshop is designed to help anyone involved in children and/or youth work to consider risk assessment in more detail, including the process of writing a risk assessment.

To find out more and to book please click here.

All Inclusive? Supporting Children and Young People with Additional Needs (Saturday, May 18, 10am – 1pm, St Barnabas, Alwoodley) 

The team is delighted to be hosting a workshop from Urban Saints considering accessibility, inclusion and belonging for all.

To find out more and to book please click here.

Messy Church Learning Community (Tuesday, April 23, 7.30pm - 9pm, online)

A place for Messy Church Teams to share ideas and encourage one another. At this session, we will be exploring the Celebration aspect of Messy Church.

To find out more please click here.

If you require any specific help or information, please do contact us at [email protected].

Ministry with Children and Young People course

• Saturday April 6, 9.30am - 12.45pm, St John's Clayton
• Saturday, June, 9.15am - 12.30pm, St Paul’s Walton

This is an in-person course designed for everyone; whether you’ve been working with children and young people for a long time or you are just starting out, and it aims to help you develop and refresh skills and knowledge so you can serve children and young people well.

For more details, and to register your interest for the course, see here.

If you require any specific help or information, please do contact us at [email protected].

If you would like to receive the Children, Young People and Families Team newsletter, please subscribe to the Digital Learning Platform here and be sure to tick the ‘Children & Youth’ and ‘Sign me up’ boxes! In addition we host a Facebook group for anyone involved in children, young people and family ministry where people share details of events, resources, activities and training and also ask questions, debate ideas and learn together. As always, if you require any specific help or information, please do contact us on [email protected].

Churchwarden training events

We are hosting online training events for Churchwardens across the diocese.

• Basic training for new churchwardens: Thursday, July 11, 7pm - 9pm
• Experienced training for churchwardens: Wednesday, October 16, 7pm - 9pm

Please contact the Archdeacon's PA for your episcopal area to book onto this training and to recieve the Zoom link.

• Bradford: c[email protected]
• Huddersfield: [email protected]
• Leeds: [email protected]
• Ripon: [email protected]
• Wakefield: [email protected]

Resting in God

Friday, June 7, 4pm to Sunday, June 9, 3pm, Parcevall Hall, BD23 6DG

This retreat is especially for those who live with, or care for, loved ones who struggle with physical or mental health challenges. There will be space to rest and time to receive from God, and opportunities to learn from Scripture and other spiritual resources about compassion and love for those who care deeply for others. The retreat is led by Revd Henriette Howarth.

More details and booking information can be found here.

For more information please contact [email protected].

Occasional Preachers In-person Course (Optional taster session on Monday, April 15, 7pm - 9pm; course starts Monday, April 22 for 8 evening sessions; St Matthew’s, Leyburn DL8 5FD)

The diocesan Lay Ministry pathway for Occasional Preachers is for lay people who are unable to commit to becoming Licensed Lay Ministers but still feel called to a preaching ministry on an occasional basis.

More details and booking information can be found here.

Pastoral Conversations Workshop (Wednesday, May 8, 7pm - 9pm, online OR onsite at St Matthew’s Church, Leyburn, DL8 5FD)

Jesus commands us to love one another as he has loved us. This workshop aims to uncover some of the unconscious bad habits that get in the way of loving care and attention. It also seeks to foster a response to pain and suffering that is both compassionate and transformative.

This is a hybrid event so can be joined either in person in Leyburn or via Zoom. When booking, please specify which option you are interested in.

More details and booking information can be found here.

If you require any specific help or information, please do contact us at [email protected].

Licensed Lay Ministry (Reader) Training - application process for 2024 start date is now closed for new applicants

No further applications for LLM training starting in September 2024 will be accepted. The application process for LLM training starting in September 2025 will begin during the autumn of 2024.

More details can be found here.

Introduction to Theology (ITT)

Dates for the academic year 2024-25 are under discussion and will be published on the DLP during the summer term.

The course is a 12 session journey looking at the Christian faith, your own faith journey and developing theological skills. All students will be encouraged to create a portfolio showcasing their new skills. Attending an ITT course is a pre-requirement for Licensed Lay Ministry training in the diocese of Leeds. 

Further information about the Introduction to Theology can be found here.

If you require any specific help or information, please do contact the School of Ministry administrator at [email protected].

Work out your church’s carbon footprint to help care for God’s Creation

The Church of England’s Energy Footprint Tool, part of Online Parish Returns, is now open for churches to enter fuel and power use from 2023.  The data collected from the tool will help your church understand its carbon footprint and will mean you may be eligible for grants to help kickstart your net zero projects. This work is an essential part of caring for God’s Creation, by helping to combat global heating and climate change. Find out how to complete the Energy Footprint Tool here.

Green Journey Fact Finder Webinar

Wednesday, April 10, 12pm, online

Find out how the Green Journey energy buying scheme could offer your church. We are encouraging all parishes to switch to a renewable electricity tariff as one of the quick wins on every church’s pathway to becoming net zero carbon – as set out in the energy actions section of the Saving Creation Six Steps to Net Zero Carbon Church Toolkit. There are many different renewable energy providers and tariffs for businesses that your church can choose from. Green Journey offers one way to switch to a renewable tariff, as well as offering a bio gas tariff or a carbon offset gas tariff which are better environmental choices for churches which will still need to use gas for the time being. Find out more here.

Open for nominations: The Church Times Green Church Awards

Do you have a project or person who is your eco star? Why not nominate them for one of these prestigious awards designed to celebrate the remarkable efforts made in recent years by individuals and congregations to offset the damage being done to the earth, and to set good examples before others who might be inspired to follow suit. This year the Green Journey is sponsoring the “Action on a Shoestring” award. Read more.

Churches Count on Nature / Love Your Burial Ground Week: June 8 - 16

Start to plan your churchyard wildlife survey or community activities now. Register on the Caring For God’s Acre website by Thursday, May 23 to receive two free starter guides and Guide to Wildlife in Burial Grounds. More details.

LDBF Finance Committee Vacancy

We will shortly have a vacancy opening up on the LDBF Finance, Assets and Investments Committee (a sub-committee of the LDBF Board). If you would potentially be interested in joining for a three year term and would like to find out more, please contact our CFO Geoff Park at [email protected].

Service to celebrate Self Supporting Ministry and Self Supporting Ministers

Sunday, April 28, 3pm, St Mary's Garforth

A service to Celebrate Self Supporting Ministry and Self Supporting Ministers will be held at St Mary’s Garforth, where the Revd John Duff will be preaching, and the service will be presided over by the Rt Revd Arun Arora, Bishop of Kirkstall.

If you would like to come along, please could you complete your details via the link found here.

Diocese of Leeds Synod:

• Saturday, June 15 
• Saturday, October 19

Church of England General Synod:

• Friday, July 5 - Tuesday, July 9 
• Monday, November 18 - Wednesday, November 20



Thy Kingdom Come: Thursday, May 9 - Sunday, May 19

World Environment Day: Wednesday, June 5

Ordination of Priests: Saturday, June 22

Ordination of Deacons: Saturday, June 29

Creationtide: Sunday, September 1 - Friday, October, 4

Diocese of Leeds Generosity Week: Sunday, September 22 - Sunday, September 29

COP 29: Monday, November 11 - Friday, November 22

First Sunday of Advent: Sunday, December 1

Christmas 2024: Wednesday, December 25

Barnabas Co-ordinator - Diocese of Leeds

We are looking for a full-time Co-ordinator to join our Barnabas team at the Diocese of Leeds on a 3-year fixed-term contract. The Diocese has undergone a significant period of change since its formation in 2014. As part of its aim to ensure long-term sustainability and financial stability, the diocese has applied for and received funding to increase spiritual and numerical growth, in line with its vision for confident Christians, growing churches, and transforming communities. In 2023, the diocese launched: Barnabas: Encouraging Confidence which is designed to accelerate that development, make possible the diocesan vision, and provide a framework for total strategic change. The postholder will be part of the team delivering Barnabas and will help to enable the wider vision of supporting churches to thrive across the diocese. Find out more about this role here.

Fundraising Officer - Diocese of Leeds

We are looking for a new 3 day a week, 18 month fixed term Fundraising Officer to join the passionate, vibrant and friendly team in the Diocese of Leeds. We cover a wide geographical area in Northern England including Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield and the Yorkshire Dales. In line with the Church of England’s Routemap to Net Zero Carbon, the Diocese of Leeds has an ambition to achieve net zero carbon (NZC) by 2030 across our diocesan estate. We are recognised as a leading diocese within the whole of the Church of England’s NZC programme, and we anticipate being at the forefront of seeking funding for decarbonisation projects in this sector. To support our extensive programme of work we are seeking an experienced Fundraising Officer to work alongside a growing vibrant and committed diocesan team of NZC officers. The diocese has gained national Church of England funding to support this role for 18 months. Find out more about this role here.

Revd Natasha Thomas to be Interim Priest in Charge of Shipley St Peter in the Bradford area