THE NEW IDWAL STRATEGY

from the Bishop of Portsmouth.

"The Parish links with the Diocese of Portsmouth have profoundly enriched the spiritual life and mission of the Church in this region".

So said the Archbishop of West Africa a few months ago, during the first of a series of Deanery visits being made to link parishes under the new IDWAL Strategy.

At the Diocesan Synod in June, a new Strategy document for IDWAL in the Portsmouth Diocese was unanimously endorsed. The purpose is to re-invigorate our relationship with the Church in West Africa at both parish and Diocesan level.

As part of this strategy, two major endeavours are being undertaken in the next few years:

1. A series of 10-day Deanery visits to our link Dioceses in West Africa are being planned. Each parish is encouraged to send two people to visit their link parish. Next year Havant, Petersfield and Fareham Deaneries will all have this opportunity, and other visits will be planned and encouraged. Members of parishes in this Diocese who have recently visited their link parishes have been deeply enriched by the experience, and the link relationships of parishes that have taken this opportunity are now flourishing. In some cases, local schools and clubs have also become involved.

2. From next year, it is planned to have an annual exchange between the Portsmouth Diocese and the Cape Coast Anglican Theological Seminary in Ghana. We shall be sending a Curate from this Diocese to spend three months at the Seminary in Cape Coast, and we shall be receiving on placement in this Diocese a Student from the Seminary for three months.

Both these endeavours offer a wonderful opportunity to engage at all levels with the Church in West Africa both personally and theologically and to be mutually enriched by our respective experience of Church life and Mission. The links are primarily about relationships and learning from one another. They are not about money. It may be though that as relationships develop, parishes may wish to explore concrete ways of affirming our mutual support for our partner parishes, and IDWAL is happy to offer guidelines how best this is to be undertaken.

I would encourage parishes to support IDWAL annually as part of your Outward Mission Giving. This support is essential for financing of the Theological College Exchange, and for visitors from West Africa to visit the Portsmouth Diocese, and it is very much a part of the wider Mission of the Diocese. Please contribute to this aspect of the diocese' Mission if you can.

THE RT REVD DR KENNETH STEVENSON
Bishop of Portsmouth