THE General Synod voted on the Wednesday to recognise the mission potential of sport and well-being initiatives. It called on dioceses to develop a coherent and resourced strategy for developing them.
Mark Balcar gave a presentation about the Church of England’s National Sport and Wellbeing project (NSWP) 2020-23 (News, 31 January), in the pilot dioceses of Birmingham, Blackburn, Ely, Gloucester, Guildford, London (Kensington area), Norwich, and Rochester, before the Bishop of Derby, the Rt Revd Libby Lane, introduced the debate on her motion.
Bishop Lane said that the eight dioceses reflected a rich variety of lived experience, demographic, and approaches to sport and well-being. “Sport is part of our national and local identities,” she said. “It’s a significant contributor to our economy. It enhances physical and mental health. It can foster a sense of cohesion and community. It offers a positive, meaningful outlet for often excluded and disadvantaged groups.”
One of the findings of a study commissioned by the diocese of London had demonstrated that church-based sports and physical activities featured above-average engagement by girls and women, and intergenerational engagement. Sport England estimated that 55 per cent of 16- to 25-year-olds engaged in sport weekly, and that 88 per cent of children aged five to 15 played sports regularly.
“What an opportunity to offer this potentially fruitful way to engage children and young people precisely at the time when we as a Church are seeking and struggling to reach those self-same children,” the Bishop said.
Professor Helen King (Oxford) was concerned about the focus being more on sports ministry than on well-being. “We’ve got strategic aims,” she said, “but what really worries me is we haven’t got any theology. I’d urge a re-set from sports to well-being, maybe from a focus on children and young people — which is all the Vision and Strategy stuff — to adults, and to something driven not by the rhetoric of management and success measured by numbers, but on a rich theology.”
In a maiden speech, the Bishop of Birmingham, Dr Michael Volland, said that he had been the Principal of Ridley Hall when it initiated a sports and well-being ministry training pathway. “The fact that 40 people studied on the sports-ministry programme in a relatively short period of time — ten to degree level — is testament to the depth and quality of Professor Andrew Parker’s leadership in the field,” he said. The report “provides compelling evidence for the strategic opportunity provided to the Church by sports and well-being ministry”.
Christopher Townsend (Ely) moved an amendment to encourage physical activity more generally, and promote health and well-being in a wider sense, as a way to “express a theological conviction to care for the whole person — body, mind and soul, whoever you are, whatever your age and whatever your ability”. He wanted the motion to “harness the full potential of support of sports and well-being ministry, to address challenges to build partnerships and collaborations, to establish pathways to financial and leadership sustainability, and to embed sport and well-being ministry into wider planning for children and young people, for schools, community outreach, Fresh Expressions”. He concluded: “Sports and well-being ministry is not a silver bullet, but, in our current context, it is a valuable tool in the toolbox. Let’s make the most of it.”
Sandra Turner (Chelmsford) said: “Jesus has the power to change lives for ever; so sport, well-being, and Jesus is a win-win.”
Alianore Smith (Southwark) invited members to work with, and alongside, sports chaplains who were “acknowledged within the sporting environment and by national Government bodies in sport, such as the Premier Football League and the Professional Footballers Association” — all of which had legal arrangements in place to ensure adherence to standards of training and accountability.
The debate on the amendment was adjourned until the following day.
Paul Waddell (Southwark), a football coach, told stories of young Christians who had come to faith through sports. “In my squad, I had middle-class high earners playing alongside working-class school dropouts, white and Global Majority Heritage players mixing around a love and a shared culture. It’s important those things are held within a wider strategy. There is good ad hoc work being done across the country, but there is so much untapped potential. Let’s give this whole motion a bit more teeth. Run with it. Take it very seriously.”
Canon Barnabas de Berry (Canterbury), both a Vicar and Chaplain to Kent County Cricket Club, said: “It means I get to minister to one of the most significant communities in my parish. Sport offers huge benefits to those participating in wellness, and the community that sports can generate could be a great vehicle for our mission . . . I think this amendment recognises that sports clubs are existing communities that we are called to minister to.”
Mr Townsend’s amendment was carried.
The Revd Jago Wynne (Southwark), Rector of Holy Trinity, Clapham, said, on Zoom, that the district had the highest percentage of people in their twenties and thirties in the whole country. “That is the age demographic that is least reached by us as the Church of England. We have 16 different sports groups, over 90 per cent of whom are in their twenties and thirties. Over 60 per cent are not currently part of the Church. We put our money where our mouth is, and employed a sports minister. Imagine . . . if we support this motion with more finances and more strategic thinking.”
Dr Rachel Jepson (Birmingham) has a black belt in karate. “The karate club I belong to serves a diverse suburb of Birmingham, where many people’s lives echo the narratives we heard in our previous debate about working-class people,” she said: “all the more reason why my plea is for churches to be open to welcoming clubs like mine to meet and train in our church halls — not because clubs like this are seen as an income stream, but because we’re building and sustaining the very communities in which the Church maintains a Christian presence.”
She continued: “My club has stopped using the church because we could not afford the drastic increase in hiring costs — sadly breaking the link between Northfields and non-churchpeople and the local church. Let’s make this ministry worth while, and bring about the necessary changes in our attitude and behaviour, too.”
Alison Coulter (Winchester), as a member of the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, said that it would welcome and look favourably on bids.
The Revd Dr Charlie Bell (Southwark) opposed the motion. “I have to admit that I find the idea of evangelism by stealth rather distasteful, and I’m very concerned that that’s what this motion looks to do,” he said. “It feels like we’re talking in terms of ‘any team will do’. . . Sport is a form of play whose purpose is itself play for play’s sake — an end in itself, not a means to evangelism. Instrumentalising play as a form of evangelism, in my view, is not a psychologically safe or healthy thing to do.”
The motion as amended was carried.
- recognise the mission potential for churches of sport and wellbeing ministry to reach people in every demographic, to generate opportunities to introduce people to the Christian faith, and to transform lives and communities;
- call upon all dioceses, in partnership with church schools and Christian organisations already active in this field to develop a coherent and resourced mission strategy for sports and wellbeing ministry; and
- ask the Archbishops’ Council to consider what steps should be taken at a national level to facilitate and coordinate diocesan development of sport and wellbeing ministry and ask the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board to look favourably on diocesan bids for such ministry.
- recognise the mission potential for churches of sport and wellbeing ministry to reach people in every demographic, to generate opportunities to introduce people to the Christian faith, and to transform lives and communities;
- call upon all dioceses, in partnership with church schools and Christian organisations already active in this field to develop a coherent and resourced mission strategy for sports and wellbeing ministry; and
- ask the Archbishops’ Council to consider what steps should be taken at a national level to facilitate and coordinate diocesan development of sport and wellbeing ministry and ask the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board to look favourably on diocesan bids for such ministry.
