On Saturday 22nd November, Diocesan Synod gathered together at All Saints Church in Emscote.
Bishop Sophie gave a presidential address where she shared how full and inspiring the last six months have been, since her welcome to the diocese in June.
You can listen to Bishop Sophie’s message here or read it below.
Bishop Sophie – Presidential Address Diocesan Synod 22 November 2025
"Well good morning. Lovely to see you all this morning and it's a good measure of the time that I've been feeling at home here that I now recognise the majority of faces and I could name a fair few of you but forgive me if I peer at your badge at coffee time because I'm still in that familiarisation stage.
But, friends, it will be soon, six months since my welcome to the diocese back in June and it has certainly been a full and inspiring time of getting to know you all. I've been so delighted to visit so many places, meeting so many people, lay and ordained, who are living out the kingdom purposes of God in every place and every kind of community. Time will not permit me to share all the wonderful adventures that there have been, but I will give you a flavour of that experience as the opening part of my address today.
I then want to widen the lens to consider some of the issues within the Church of England that do impact our life here before making some comment on our national and international life at this time.
For those who were present in the July Synod, I do not intend to sing to you, for which you may be grateful. [A light groan of disappointment rises from the Synod] Oh, well, that was the right response. Well done.
So, beginning with Coventry Diocese. The Diocese of Coventry is a diocese of glorious contrasts, people, possibilities, hopes and history. Like every diocese, it faces similar challenges. In my previous place, we named this as the four-headed beast. The four heads, A, B, C, D, as follows:
A- Attendance figures declining. B- Budgets in deficit and building issues galore, often buildings in the wrong places and not fit for purpose or needing really significant investment and resource. C- Church structures that were over complex or outmoded, making them difficult to use. and D- Demographics. By that we meant increasing burden on the older end of the age range among our parishioners whilst not necessarily being regenerated by younger people joining in.
And I would add a further challenge since then around leadership pipelines. I realise not everyone likes that phrase in relation to the church, but the numbers of people available for ministry, including ordained ministry, is significantly lower than in previous eras of the Church of England and, though there are encouraging signs that some of the work going on at national and local level is bearing fruit, there will be a gap between the number of clergy available and the needs we face. We do have brilliant clergy and lay people here to whom I am very grateful. Our Reader community is among the most vibrant and committed I have yet encountered, as well, of course, as those who minister having graduated from our pathways and those who minister as disciples without portfolio, with the required safeguarding training, of course, week by week in every place. So having completed nine of the twelve deanery days I set out to complete between mid-September and the 1st of December, I am overall incredibly encouraged and heartened and so very glad to have accepted God's call to serve here.
Alongside those deanery days, I've visited a prison, and I will visit another in December, and many schools and community projects, some Christian and some not. I've also met with civic and ecumenical leaders, politicians and dignitaries, and volunteers and staff from a wide range of organisations. This has all served to show how many people contribute to the life of our diocese.
This should make us very proud but also encouraged as we look out across our parish horizons and look up to see what God is doing. By the end of tomorrow, and within the last two weeks, one of which has been a week of holiday, I will have confirmed 71 people from every decade of life available.
They come from rural, urban, chaplaincy, school and youth ministry, food banks and so on. Now I have described this, or I've begun to describe this, as God doing a thing. I hesitate to name it because one of the besetting sins of the Church of England is that we claim too early. But I do know that God promised me that he would be doing a new thing here. And that, friends, is what I believe we are seeing. I don't think it's simply a backlog where there hasn't been as much bishop resource available as usual, and I don't even think it's a post-COVID response. I genuinely think that there is renewed hunger and openness to the things of God among us.
Now, all of this has been in the immersion phase, and I very much hope that you will join in the next phase of watching and waiting. Thank you so much to those leading our worship this morning, Charles and Jo, you gave us a wonderful taste of that waiting on God which this resource, which I hope is not the first time you've seen this, has been made available for you to use during Advent. It is on our website and it can be printed but the point of it is not to slavishly keep you to this resource. The point of it is to encourage you to wait on God and watch for the signs of the kingdom, and it's all framed around the question, what do you see? And there are ways within it to feedback and we will collate all that we see and use it as part of our discernment.
This is to help us into the season beyond that I've called walking forward together. I could have called it running. Many of you will know that I like to run, but it's deliberately called walking. There is a lot about walking in scripture. Sometimes people talk about their walk with the Lord, maybe it's a phrase you use. When the two on the road to Emmaus were leaving Jerusalem and Jesus joins them on the road, they walk and talk together. Perhaps that's a good scripture for us to dwell in during our walking in the season ahead.
I'm thinking especially about how we might use Lent as a season of transition into a refreshed vision which we will, by then, be beginning to articulate in our common life. Here we will wrestle with the questions of how best to resource and support our churches, to discern how we will equip, support and develop our leaders to be ready to take the opportunities for the harvest that we believe we are beginning to see, and how we will discern and take from the storehouse the treasures of the past in such a way as we retain our glorious heritage, but also make space for the new things that God longs to do among us.
In all this, I want to thank you for your patience. You waited a good deal of time for me to arrive, though I know you understand this was beyond my control, and now patience is again required so that we can ensure that the next steps are collaborative and creative rather than the domain of only a few.
On November the 4th, many of you were there, our Learning Together Day was a real moment as lay and ordained gathered to share learning in prayer and to pray together as Phil Sokell-Miles from 24-7 Prayer International joined us. The overwhelming feedback that I've received so far is that this was a valued and valuable time. And the next opportunity will be the 29th of January, where we will build on this in the next Learning Together Day as we look to the future together. And I realise this reaches just a section of our community, so I'm already considering how we might be out and about and available to parishes, which I often call the front line of ministry, in the future, regarding our plans as they unfold.
So, to our national church, safeguarding continues to be an absolute priority throughout the Church of England as we seek to respond to all that's taken place in recent years and become a diocese that's safer for all people, especially those who have faced abuse and harm. We are to be those who do all we can to build communities where the culture is healthy and people know who to talk to if they have any concerns. Clear that these will be handled wisely, sensitively and appropriately. I'm so grateful to our safeguarding team, under the leadership of our Director of Safeguarding, Sarah Price, whom you'll hear from in a moment. Please do all you can to play your part, for safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.
As you know, in 2026, Coventry Diocese and the Cathedral will undergo a joint, INEQE audit against the new safeguarding standards in July 2026 and the preparation for this has been underway for a good while and will continue to be a significant piece of work. But the point of the audit is to help us to be the very best we can in relation to these standards.
In the new year there will be communication of how you will need to play your part through the surveys that are available to all, so please will you take a lead in this by encouraging all voices. We'll also be gathering all the evidence that will need to be considered which is a major undertaking. This will include hearing the voices of children and young people and engagement with victims and survivors.
Since we last met, I've also invited the interim chair of our Diocesan Safeguarding Scrutiny Group, Trevor Worsfold, to become the substantive chair for the remaining term of his office, which is up to December 2026, and gladly he has accepted. He brings a wealth of experience and wisdom from multiple contexts, and for this I am most truly grateful.
From safeguarding to Living in Love and Faith.
Some will be keenly aware of the recent developments within the Living in Love and Faith process and I have written in my November letter, but I will repeat here that those most affected will know that for the last eight years the Church has been wrestling with questions and disagreements over human sexuality, identity and marriage. And as I said at our Bishop's Council meeting, we must remember that the process began in disagreement and the disagreement continues today. For most of that time, I was not among you as your bishop, though I have been fully engaged in playing my part throughout those years in different places, including at various stages being part of the national LLF groups,
And also working through the implications in my former diocese as a bishop for five years. Since my announcement as your bishop a year ago, I've been engaging with individuals and groups from Coventry Diocese across the range of perspectives as they are represented among us. This has included hearing something of the costly pain involved in the lives of clergy and laity alike. I want to acknowledge that the cost has not been borne equally and that the pain is a source of great lament for those called to reflect God's love.
I recognise and understand that the latest statement following the recent House of Bishops meeting in October has been to some a source of further distress and dismay. I want to take this opportunity to remind us all of the sensitivity required when discussing this matter in any context within the life of our churches and communities. For some this is a very deeply personal matter affecting both identity and Christian faith and must not be taken lightly or thoughtlessly. I would add that some have spoken to me of the adverse impact this process has had on their faith and their relationship with Jesus Christ. If that is you, please do seek appropriate help and support. It may be from a spiritual director or someone that you know and trust that you just need to talk and pray with, and it may not just be a one-off, it may be for a period of time. Others have spoken to me of the micro-aggressions that they have experienced, even in this diocese, and I want to say, friends, that these have no place here, and they must be named and challenged, for love and respect are paramount.
The prayers of love and faith remain commended for use in the context of regular services of worship. Those who choose to offer the prayers will be valued here, as will those who do not. I know that some have been concerned that the other developments hoped for have been set in the context of process rather than people but I assure you that people are the priority here and I will do all that I can to ensure that all are well supported and valued and have a part to play in the life of our diocese. Please do look out for one another at this time as we seek to bring honour to God in the way we relate to each other and while we have the necessary conversations about impact and support in our common life, please pray for me as I seek to offer leadership as a good shepherd and know that I am also praying regularly for all of you.
Our nation.
Many of you will have seen the resource shared recently called Responding to Flags and Christian Nationalism, which was prepared in order to support our churches, chaplaincies and new congregations in the response to the presence of flags and similar expressions within our communities. You can find this resource on our website. As Christians, we have a commitment to serve all who live in our communities, even those whose views may differ from our own. However, we also have a duty of care to ensure that people feel safe, valued and supported, whatever their background. Any speech or action which does not reflect this can cause great fear and distress for others, and such speech and action have no place in our communities. So I hope that you will find opportunities to talk about these things in constructive ways locally and especially to pray and serve with hope as we work towards being kind, cohesive communities across the Diocese of Coventry.
International.
You will know that our links with Germany are very precious to us, among other places in the world, of course, but especially there out of the devastation during World War II. And it's been a great privilege, particularly in this last week, to reflect on the Coventry Blitz and the impact on our city and the many, many people who paid a great price at that time and whose freedom that we experience today that they did not experience then. Well, it was my privilege to visit Dresden and represent all of you recently, responding to an invitation to preach at the Frauenkirche on the 20th anniversary of the reconstruction of the church. I was able to reflect our commitment to ongoing friendship and partnership in the work of peace-making and reconciliation. I was privileged to meet Bishop Tobias Bilz, the Bishop of Saxony, and attend a Dresden Foundation Trust meeting of which I am a member.
Please continue to pray for them with all the challenges of the present political situation there and for the ongoing relationship, particularly through our cathedral links and the community of the Cross of Nails. And I'm grateful to Canon Kate and also Dean John for their particular expression of that commitment in recent weeks. I think there's been a fair few miles travelled between you extending that hand of friendship to our international partners throughout the world in quite some volume over recent days.
And finally friends, back to home, Bishop's House. I want to thank you for your warm welcome to the new members of my team at Bishop's House. Elizabeth Egan is now well into her role as PA and Reverend Dr Alistair Prince is a few months in now to his time as Bishop's Chaplain. I don't know where you are Alistair, you might just like to stand up, there he is, in attendance today so if you'd like to say hello to him during coffee break I'm sure he would love to do that. Just a reminder that you can contact Elizabeth for all diary related queries and other admin matters and Alistair can be contacted about matters of liturgy, policy and advice or more general queries. This is all in the service of caring well for all our people. There is only one of me but with a little team together we are seeking to extend that care and make sure that our policies and procedures are in place for that care to take place at every level of the life of our diocese. It's also been a great joy to express something of the vision that I have had for there to be one team across the diocesan office, the cathedral team and my house, all in the service of caring well, I think, for all of you. Please do pray for us as we continue to pray for you day by day. This is all about being a stronger resource for the front line of ministry in our diocese. Our parishes, chaplaincies, schools and new worshipping communities and as ever, I'm deeply grateful for your partnership in the gospel, and I ask for your prayers as I continue to pray for you.
Thank you."