The current tranche of strategic funding involves £5.3m from the national Church, to be spent over five years, from 2025 - with matched funding from the diocese in the order of £3m. The 2026 bid for strategic funding is intended to cover the five years from 2027-31, with a £5m maximum limit. The outline of our bid includes £3.75m on larger projects, £0.75m on smaller projects (a “warchest” that can be spent on parish projects that might only need a small injection of funds), and £0.5m on the diocesan team to support this.

Among the ideas being considered are:

REVIVE: 

• Further support for Cairns
• A 10-year People Plan
• A pipeline of people to work with children and young people.

REVITALISE: 

• Developing the Isle of Wight Flourish projects
• Growing Choir Church
• A new Pathfinder project in a Catholic tradition
• Further smaller projects, including: School Pastors, children and youth workers, Anna Chaplaincy support, Myriad parish plants

RENEW: 

• Barn Church: more support
• Berewood estate: half a stipend
• Boorley Green: church plant
• Cosham: church plant
• Cowes
• Haven Church, Gosport: youth engagement
• Portsmouth city
• Welborne: church plant

TEAM: 

• Leads for Revive, Revitalise and Renew (currently vacant)
• Strategic programme team

Bishop Jonathan answered a question about the idea suggested last year for a ‘Dolling Centre’ as a focus for reconciliation and spirituality in the heart of Portsmouth. This was, he said, on hold because of the disappointing settlement we’ve received from the national Church. Others asked about ecumenical relationships, and about our certainty of receiving the strategic funding. And synod members praised the involvement of deaneries in creating this strategic bid.

Andrew Hargreaves explained that newer churches were given a period of grace with regard to parish share, but there was a 10-year plan for payments to increase, so that Harbour Church (for instance) now pays £85k each year, with £5k added each year. He explained the timetable for this bid – it would go to Diocesan Synod in June, a draft bid would be submitted in September and the final bid in October. Synod members agreed to the ongoing development of the bid.

EDUCATION UPDATE

Director of education Jeff Williams gave an update on the work of our education team, which is now part of a separate Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) serving church schools in Portsmouth and Winchester dioceses. In total, 39,000 children are served across 155 church schools in both dioceses, the vast majority of whom don’t go to church. His paper is here.

Among last year’s highlights was the campaign to highlight the flawed process carried out by the Isle of Wight Council as it attempted to close schools, three of which were CofE schools. It was accepted that schools may have to close because falling numbers means funding has to be dispersed too widely. But the process was a fiasco, and the diocese ultimately had to ask the Office of the Schools Adjudicator to intervene to confirm that the process was flawed and offer a reprieve to the one CofE school that was still threatened with closure.

Jeff also talked about the education team’s involvement in the national CofE’s Growing Faith initiative, which includes a project – Chatting Faith – to encourage parents and children to discuss issues of faith as they read school storybooks together at home.

LAY MINISTRY

Our Lay Ministry Discipleship officer Matt Grove told synod members about a new way in which lay ministry might be structured in this diocese. His presentation is here, and a diagram that aims to explain this is below:

LOW-INCOME PARISH FUNDING

Synod members were invited to consider various aspects of Low Income Communities Funding (LInC funding), and urban ministry. LInC funding is allocated by the national Church to the lowest-income communities, to support and develop mission in our most deprived communities. The 28 dioceses that receive this funding then decide how best to support mission in communities with the lowest incomes.

(a) ANNUAL LInC REPORT

Diocesan Secretary Philip Poulter presented the annual LINC report, which you can see here. In some dioceses, LInC funding is used to support stipends, but in our diocese this funding is increasingly used to support practical projects in parishes, including funding for admin support for vicars.

(b) LInC COMMITMENT

Canon Nick Ralph, who leads on social justice in our diocese, talked about the Indices of Multiple Deprivation, which are a measure of relative wealth that has been used by the government and others since 2000. It is based on more than 33,000 neighbourhood areas, and uses data such as income, employment, access to health services, crime rates etc to provide a ranking of all 33,000 areas. The latest update to the data was in 2025, and indicates that some areas of inner-city Portsmouth, Havant and Gosport are among the most deprived in the country.

He explained that the government has introduced an initiative called Pride in Place funding, which involves up to £5bn being allocated to local people and partnerships for them to spend over the next 10 years. Each area could receive up to £20m, and Paulsgrove, Fratton, Rowner, Leigh Park and Wecock are the kind of areas that may receive this funding. In each place, the funds will be allocated by a neighbourhood board, created by local people, which includes a specific role for people of faith alongside other community leaders. His full presentation is here.

(c) LInC DISCUSSION

Synod members then heard stories from three different parts of our diocese that serve low-income communities.

The Rev Hugo Deadman, priest-in-charge of Paulsgrove, introduced Michelle, who had launched a Bathroom Bank within St Michael’s Church. This aimed to help local people suffering from hygiene poverty by providing shampoos, shower gels, sanitary towels etc, as needed. It aimed to preserve their dignity and remove any stigma, and it had also changed many people’s perceptions of their local church.

The Rev Alex-Coakley Youngs, team vicar for Harbour Church, based at All Saints, Portsmouth, introduced Angie, who was a cleaner at three churches. Her father had died and she wasn’t sure how to cope with it. She was invited to an Easter Sunday Fun Day two years ago, then was invited to come on an Alpha Course run by Harbour Church. It helped her to embrace faith, and she is now involved with the church-planting team at All Saints Church and Spa 61, the church’s safe space that allows them to pamper women who are in need. Angie was baptised in January and has brought friends to church.

And the Rev Ray Driscoll, team rector of Haven Church in Gosport, introduced Kyle, who worked as a chef and lived opposite Christ Church. He decided to visit, experienced an amazing welcome, and joined an Alpha Course. He then began helping on Alpha Courses, felt a calling to ordained ministry and is now an ordinand studying at Trinity College, Bristol. He explained some of the barriers that he saw to ordained ministry for those without an academic upbringing.

Synod members were invited to discuss the issues in groups, alongside some of those serving in low-income communities.

The Rev Hugo Deadman then asked synod members to agree a ‘LInC commitment’, which you can see here. It commits our diocese to hearing the voices of those in low-income communities, tackling inequality and helping people to fill their full potential. Synod members approved this commitment.