Bishop reflects on 'great' first year

TWELVE months ago, the Right Reverend Paul Butler challenged a packed Durham Cathedral to leave behind the mindset of decline and prepare for growth in the church.

One year on from the uncompromisingly upbeat, hopeful and positive enthronement sermon, does hope persist?

“It’s been a great year,” the Bishop says, over the phone from urgent commitments in the capital.

“It’s been very hard work getting around meeting people, trying to get around the area.

“I was new to the patch, so there’s huge numbers of people to meet, in church life, civic life business – I’ve loved getting to know the area.”

So what has the 59-year-old father-of-four discovered on his extended fact-finding tour?

“Everyone told me the people of County Durham would be very welcoming and friendly – and they have been.

“But I’ve been surprised... whilst I knew there were serious levels of poverty, at times I’ve been surprised by the depths of it – and the slowness with which the economic recovery is impacting our area.

“I’m glad to see it is beginning to. We now have more people employed in the North-East than ever in history, but we still have a disturbing number of people out of work.

“Some of what’s been done by businesses in the creation of new jobs is really good. I want to see more of that happening.”

Back again to a year ago, the Bishop made tackling poverty one of his three top priorities.

In the months since, he has been a firm friend of foodbanks and supported the creation of more apprenticeships as patron of the Darlington Foundation for Jobs.

“Youth unemployment is a particular concern,” he says.

“Not enough of our businesses are yet creating apprenticeships in a way that would really help that.

“There are some communities that have never fully recovered from the closure of the mines.

“There’s been lots of inward investment, but there’s some communities still to find their purpose. I’ve been saddened by that.”

But Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s successor in Durham is quick to praise local churches, councils and businesses for how they are responding to such issues.

“I’ve been impressed by the way churches are seeking to engage with their local communities in helping individuals and communities find that purpose and reason for being.

“There’s an awful lot of good work going on by local authorities who are wrestling with real difficulties in terms of how much cash they have available.

“I’ve been impressed by the level of commitment by the leaders of local authorities wanting to do everything they can for the communities concerned and also by businesses wanting to create jobs.

“I love to see local businesses, particularly small and medium sized ones, develop more apprenticeships for young people.”

Another of his three priorities has been engaging with children and young people.

As chairman of the Church of England’s committee on abuse, he has been critical of the repeated delays to the Government’s child abuse inquiry.

But he says he is now hopeful for its prospects following the appointment of New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard as its new chair and pleased at the addition of statutory powers, meaning it will be able to force witnesses to give evidence and demand access to documents.

“From the very beginning I and others in the church have been saying it should have statutory powers,” he says.

“She (Justice Goddard) seems an entirely appropriate person with the necessary gifts and skills to lead the inquiry.

“It’s a fantastic commitment that she’s willing to move from New Zealand.

“I look forward to working with her in whatever way she asks the Church to do so. I know she will want to explore a range of cases with us.”

But the Bishop is less pleased the suggestion of the House of Commons education committee that sex education be taught in all state primary schools.

“I’m slightly disturbed that most of what I’ve heard has been about sex education,” he says.

“I’ve always said that it needs to be sex and relationships education, so it’s always in the context of relationships and personal identity.

“It’s perfectly right and proper to help children as they grow understand who they are and their identity, which must include an appropriate understanding for their age.

“The question is always: what’s appropriate at what age?”

The first 12 months in the Church of England’s fourth most senior job over, the Bishop is gearing up for year two.

The General Election will be a major part of that and the Bishop was a signatory to this week’s letter urging politicians to deliver a “fresh moral vision” and Christians to engage in debate and use their vote this May.

In the Church, Durham’s governing Synod has agreed a new vision which Bishop Butler summarises as “blessing our communities in Jesus’ name”.

“Churches are not there for themselves but for the wellbeing of communities,” he says, “That’s why we have chaplains in hospitals, prisons and universities

“But we’re also trying to work out what that looks like – how do we grow churches so they’re better able to bless communities?”

After a year of meeting people and discovering his new patch, the Bishop clearly still feels he has a lot of listening to do and a lot to learn.