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• Rt Revd David Walker - a biography
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Annual Report 2011

The Annual Report for 2011 has this year been published in a variety of formats. Many churches are already displaying the Annual Report poster that we sent out a few months ago.

We have now produced an interactive version of that poster which you can view below.

Use the forward and back buttons to navigate through the poster.

Through it God's mission to bring about his Kingdom of love, compassion justice and freedom is furthered.

This mission is enabled by those who offer ministry. To help them in that ministry, the clergy were offered their first Diocesan Clergy Conference in living memory.

Seventeen men and women were ordained to serve as deacons and priests in the Diocese and eight new Readers (Licensed Lay Ministers) were licensed. In addition, over 60 people were commissioned in the Cathedral as Authorised Lay Ministers. This means that there are now more people offering authorised ministry in the diocese than ever before.

Our 100 Church Schools, which make a huge contribution to the common good, celebrated the 200th anniversary of the National Society. The latter, a Church of England body, was largely responsible for the spread of education to all children in our land.

Despite major financial difficulties at the outset, the gospel of God's love in Jesus was able to go forward in strength during the year and for that we give heartfelt thanks to God.

These decisions, which involved redundancies among diocesan staff, coupled with the hard work that has continued to go on in parishes to improve Parish Share receipts, means that the financial outturn for 2011 can be seen as good news. Parish Share shortfalls were reduced by 2% and we have finished 2011 with a small operating surplus rather than the unsustainable deficit of 2010. The plan is to breakeven across 2010-12.

Although we remain in difficult times and reducing Parish Share shortfalls is still a key priority, I would like to express my thanks to all those who have enabled us to be in a much stronger position than we were just 12 months ago. This is vital to our ongoing funding of parochial posts which account for XX% of the Board's budget of nearly £8 million per annum.

So, 2011 was an exciting year for the church schools in the Diocese of Worcester. In February around 1000 pupils, teachers, parents and governors from church schools in the diocese, gathered at Worcester Cathedral to in a wonderful celebration of the distinctiveness of church schools as well as the 200th anniversary of the National Society.

Bishop John went 'back to school' attending Dyson Perrins CE Secondary School in Malvern for an afternoon in order to, 'draw attention to the magnificent contribution that the Church of England has made to education in the last two hundred years.'

In October seven schools were lucky enough to represent the Diocese of Worcester at Westminster Abbey. They joined nearly 5000 church schools and academies in a special thanksgiving service to celebrate 200 years of the founding of church schools. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams spoke about the important role church schools play in creating an environment in which children can become good citizens.

Ann Mundy, Director of Education for the Diocese of Worcester, said: "This was a really great experience for the children and demonstrated that by going to a church school, they are a part of something much bigger."

The vicarage is one of two being built in the diocese; both have been built from low carbon materials. There is no central heating boiler, the heat is provided by solar gain and that generated by the occupants. Hot water is provided by solar panels on the roof and electricity by electricity generating panels. There is also be a rainwater collection system for the toilets and outside taps.

The build of these new vicarages was financed from the sale of existing houses, which were no longer viable as vicarages, both in terms of layout and cost to run.

The Kingswinford Rectory will cost around £100 per year to heat and will generate electricity back to the grid. To meet the Passivhaus standard, the house can only use a maximum of 15 watts per square metre of energy, which compares to the average newly built house which will use around 30 or 40 watts per square metre.

There are only around half a dozen homes in the UK which meet this standard.

The event was to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and drew people from a wide variety of denominations.

The day started with a dialogue between the Bishop and Archbishop on the impact of scripture on our culture and the life of our churches. Those attending were then split into groups of around 15 people to look at a Bible passage using a prayerful approach known as Lectio Divina.

After a second address, the groups were invited to enter into a bible scene using their imagination, engaging with the scripture in what is known as an Ignation way. The whole process was directed centrally by the bishops.

Sue Adeney was part of the organising committee. She said: "The feedback from the morning has been brilliant - people felt it was a very uplifting event in a prayerful atmosphere.

It was also a tremendous witness to cathedral visitors and the people of Worcester that so many Christians were prepared to come together on Saturday morning to study the bible. The study groups all over the cathedral were very visible to visitors and the peace and silence was tangible."