Earlier this year, Andrew Nixon wrote an article on the 12 hard truths about ministry in Sydney that he learned from overseeing Connect09. As a result of the feedback he is completing a series of blogs on each of these ‘hard truths’. A list of the past blogs can be found here.

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11. We could do so much more if we helped each other more.

Is our Diocese a sleeping giant?

Not dead, just inactive. Internal organs functioning and doing their part: heart beating, brain firing, lungs pumping, nerves carrying messages and so on; but like a body slumbering.

The Diocese of Sydney is certainly a giant. Consider our Anglican schools; Anglicare, Youthworks and all our other amazing diocesan organisations big and small; our 270 parish centres; our 400 plus active church sites; our wealth - both the property/capital we have inherited and the vast sums God has put in individual pockets. Overall hundreds of thousands of people are touched by our ministries every year. Add to this the entrée we have as Anglicans, such as chaplains in hospitals, prisons, the armed forces, and SRE in state schools. And most importantly of all, our greatest asset: our people.

God has entrusted us with so much to help build his kingdom. Forgive me, but each time I am reminded of this fact, that same image comes back to my mind: a sleeping giant. Yes, many good things are happening - praise God. But how much more would be possible if we really committed to realising our potential?

In Connect09 there has been a stirring of the giant: a glimpse of what might be. Virtually all our churches (97%) have distributed gospels and/or made new inroads in their local communities. There are indications that up to half of all households in the diocese have been contacted in some way as a result.*

All this, even though only half of our rectors were satisfied with the take-up of the campaign, either in their own parish or parishes generally. Imagine the possibilities under God if we really put our collective shoulder to the wheel?

I hasten to add that when I say "help each other more" I don't just mean diocesan wide efforts like Connect09. There is so much to be gained by good old cooperation.

The external researcher who did some work for us pre-Connect09 was genuinely astonished by the lack of communication and cooperation he saw between parishes - even neighbouring parishes. To be fair, he was a complete outsider and had no idea how our system works. Perhaps it was that ignorance that made his observation so incisive and disarming: he simply assumed that because we are all part of the one "church" we should work together.

I will never forget him presenting this finding to us. We shuffled our feet and looked sideways at each other. We felt like school kids being called out by the teacher for not working together on a class project. I felt the urge to correct his error and explain that here in the Sydney diocese we are all independent, thus you can't really expect that kind of cooperation.

As he illustrated his point by sharing how he helped solve a problem in one parish, simply by passing along a solution he had just seen working in the parish up the road, I realised just how silly I would have sounded.

So maybe it's time to stop making excuses and do much better.

The good news is that since then, Connect09 has helped us along in the right direction.  Rectors report that the number of active partnerships between our parishes, schools and organisations has increased by almost 20 percent over the last 18 months.

I suspect this is due to a common purpose and some tangible goals, but I don't know for sure.

Perhaps the fact that Synod resolved together to act had a significant effect. Maybe it was because the Archbishop got all of our senior ministers together to pray and plan, and connections just flowed out of that.

Maybe all of the above?

One thing I do know for sure: having stirred, it would be a shame to roll over and go back to sleep.

* Whilst it is impossible to be precise with an anonymous survey, collated estimates from parishes indicate that as many as half of all households in the diocese were contacted in some way during 2009.