The vision, mission and ministry of Hereford Diocese is focused on living out our values in every church, home, school and community across our diocese: Christlike, prayerful and engaged.
Our shared diocesan strategy seeks to unite our diversity around a common vision to proclaim Christ and grow disciples in communities marked by our behaviours towards one another and outwardly to others in our communities – We are called to partner with a generous God so that lives are changed by an encounter with Christ and this overflow into families, homes and communities which will be changed for the better. Read the full details of our strategy on our vision page.
Our Five Priorities
Learn more about our vision, strategy and goals in our strategy document.
Our Goals
As we head into this new decade, we are seeking to transform lives and have set some ambitious goals for our strategy, these are:
- (Growing) Many (at least 50) of our benefices having one church congregation with a usual attendance of over 50 in rural areas (or 100 in our market towns), with a minimum of 3% of the population attending a regular form of worship (FAITH/DISCIPLESHIP)
- (Discipleship & wellbeing) We want worshipping communities to reflect our values, to be taught to know clearly what they believe and to feel able to share their everyday faith with others. We want to love, equip and care for our lay and ordained leaders to feel supported to carry out their calling and mission to enable a Christian presence in every community. (FAITH/DISCIPLESHIP)
- (Sustainable) We want at least 200 new voluntary or lay leaders to be trained and commissioned to support our stipendiary clergy to increase our ministry on offer. We want 75% of benefices to be sustainable, covering ministry costs and contributing towards others. (LEADERSHIP/TEAMS – FINANCE)
- (Younger) We want to see an increased focus on children, youth and families to double the number of young people in church, alongside existing ministry with specific mission centres established that can support the wider diocese leading to growing ‘intergenerational’ worshipping communities of all ages. (YOUTH/INTERGENERATIONAL MISSION)
- (Schools) We want to build on our network of 78 church schools by establishing close links between school, home and church. We will further develop chaplaincy support in schools and colleges. (YOUTH/INTERGENERATIONAL MISSION)
- (Buildings) We want to support our PCC’s by creating a practical strategy to manage our buildings. We want to see many churches providing a range of engaging patterns of worship beyond the traditional Sunday morning service. We want to honour and cherish our existing, smaller congregations by providing them with more regular non-stipendiary ministry but give permission for churches to close at the PCC’s request. (BUILDINGS)
"Our values are at the heart of everything we do in our lives together - we seek to be Prayerful, Christ-like and engaged in the way we live out our everyday faith as Christians across the churches, villages and towns of our diocese."
You can read our strategy document and accompanying presentation on our vision page