2026 CofE diocese strategy / vision / mission - with a link back to those in 2014

Back in 2014 I trawled though the various CofE diocese website to summarise different aspects of their declared vision or mission or strategy.

Older and wiser to the internet phenomena of disappearing internet history, (a problem for future historians?), some 12 years later I have again trawled though the current vision / mission / strategy statements on the various diocese websites. My summary is below.

Diocese	Vision/Mission/Strategy	Additional Info
Bath and Wells	Vision “In response to God’s immense love for us, we seek to be God’s people, living and telling the story of Jesus.”	4 areas of focus: valuing & cherishing the people & resources we already have; developing new Christian worshipping communities; sharing in ministry & leadership; & deepening & growing faith.
Birmingham	Our vision across the Church of England Birmingham is: Growing churches at the heart of each community.	This vision has its heart in local parishes & in all forms of growth: numerical, spiritual and transformational.
Blackburn	Vision 2026: Healthy Churches Transforming Communities’- ended July 2026.	Bishop’s highlights - changed culture, paid clergy no’s same, 200 new congregations, +’ve support to parishes who most needed it, App & 10k Lent & Advent issued, external investment, New lay leadership pathways, low clergy vacancies, Young people at the centre, Prayer.
Bristol	'Transforming Church. Together' strategy invests in the way we work together; reimagining the way we form collaborative relationships, which bring more people to Christ & more sustainable culture change.	Nurture partnerships with our neighbours & being more inclusive, release, empower leaders, work within communities to relieve hardship & amplify unheard voices, environmentally sustainable diocese, with partners generate funding which maximises the impact of our transformation.
Canterbury	Our mission - why we exist - Changed Lives. Our strategy ‘To enable the local church to share in God’s Mission’	3 bold outcomes for 2030: Double the number of children & young disciples. 200 new Christian communities. Every parish, benefice & deanery showing signs of revitalisation.
Carlisle	2015’s God for All ecumenical vision for our county – working with 4 partner denominations & other companion churches	Follow Deeply - helping each other follow Jesus more closely. Care Deeply – listen to our communities to serve them & challenge injustice. Speak Boldly – share our faith with all in everyday ways. Tread Gently - Protecting God’s creation, seeking to sustain & renew the life of the earth.
Chelmsford	2023’s Travelling Well Together – Love God, love neighbours, worship faithfully, witness, be God’s people in our own very different local contexts & as part of one diocesan family.	7 Values - Awareness of Grace. Valuing the small, the vulnerable & the marginal. Focusing outward. Sustaining healthy rhythms. Kindness, mutual respect, gentleness & humility. Generously collaborative. Faithful, creative, courageous & open to the unexpected & surprising.
Chester	2023’s ‘Together in Christ, Sharing Hope’ vision. Primary Challenge - How will we bless the 1.5 million people in our diocese who’ve had no opportunity to hear the Good News.	We have concluded, that to reach the vision for the future, everything we do should ultimately be founded upon: Growing Disciples, Developing New Leaders, Establishing New Christian Communities, Building Local Strategic Partnerships.
Chichester	Encourage people across Sussex to know, love & follow Jesus & to grow as disciples. More open, converted, generous, engaged.	By 2034 – 3-4k more people worshipping regularly, including up to 1,700 children & young people. Key streams: - Revitalise 20-25 churches; Expand ministry with children, youth, & families; Introduce focal ministry so local leaders help smaller churches thrive; Develop excellent leaders.
Coventry	Emerging vision & strategy (Autumn 2026) – Growing the Church of England in Coventry & Warwickshire. Reconciled: to God, with each other, for the world.	To God - that all may know Jesus - through ministry among young people & intergenerational communities & Parish revitalization. With each other– so all may serve & grow, through Leadership & Our People. For the world - Alleviating poverty, Racial Justice, Care of creation. Responding to human need, Transforming unjust structures.
Derby	2021 Vision is ‘the Kingdom of God: good news for all’ -seen in ‘Transformed lives’ through ‘Growing church’, & ‘Building community’.	Resource materials help you explore what the outworking of the Diocesan Vision might mean in more detail, and in all our diverse and varied contexts.
Durham	A vision for Transformation that will enable all our churches, parishes & people to grow in fruitfulness.	4 strands to Transformation vision: Growing Mission - prepares the soil for growth; Growing Leadership  - creates eco-system that enables growth; Growing Churches - supports each church to bear fruit in their context; Growing Younger - enable churches to bear fruit in every generation.
Ely	2025 Vision is 'to be generous and visible people of Jesus Christ'. Our current Strategy, People Fully Alive: Ely 2025, fleshes out that vision.	For nearly a decade this Strategy has guided our short & medium term planning, including: Nurturing a confident people of God, Developing healthy churches & leaders, Serving the community, Re-imagining our buildings, Targeting support to key areas.
Europe	2026 Working towards a diocesan strategy - began with extensive listening. 5 key areas of focus discerned.	5 key areas - Healthy & thriving chaplaincies, Children & youth, Intercultural, contextual & local language engagement, Ministry training, support & development (lay & ordained), New worshipping communities.
Exeter	Since 2014 vision has been to grow in prayer, make new disciples & serve the people of Devon with joy. January 2026 - Pray Grow Serve 2035 launched, based on our vision.	5 missional priorities: missional leadership, missional DNA, vocations, children & young people & mixed ecology (varied missional expressions of church). Pray Grow Serve - aims to help churches across Devon grow, flourish & serve their communities for generations to come.
Gloucester	2017 LIFE vision - Leadership: Committed to transformation. Imagination: Opening new paths Faith: Living as adventurous followers of Jesus. Engagement: Living out Christ’s love & hope.	5 spotlight commitments - Nurturing everyday disciples. Encourage new & courageous ways of worshipping. Being advocates for flourishing through initiatives which combat injustice, environmental destruction, exclusion & isolation. Developing diverse lay and ordained leaders.
Guildford	2016 Vision - Transforming Church, Transforming Lives	2021 focus refreshed – 3 related priorities - Growing Disciples, Growing Diversity, Growing Community alongside the 3 are a refreshed set of 'Imagine' statements. To deliver the 3 there are 8 key areas of focus.
Hereford	2022-30 Strategy - vision is “to proclaim Christ & grow disciples”, with 3 behaviour values: Prayerful, Christlike & Engaged.	The strategy is mostly about creating a framework to enable the local church to flourish but recognizes that there are some things that will need to be stimulated centrally due to a lack of existing capacity or resources.
Leeds	Strategy - Barnabas: Encouraging Confidence. Committed to building confident Christians who are part of growing churches & helping to transform communities.	4 key areas – Confidence in our: Mission - churches understand purpose & best use of resources; Future – sustainable, effective & well-prepared; Leadership – Support & equip; Witness – Encourage & empower people to share Good News, especially children & young people.
Leicester	2024 - May God’s kingdom come in Leicester & Leicestershire. 5 strategic priorities – Communities – Intercultural, Intergenerational, New, Reconciling & Eco.	3 How are you growing Q – In the number of disciples of Jesus? In depth of discipleship? In loving service of the world? Plans in 6 areas - Vocations & Leadership, Finance, Church Buildings, Safeguarding, Minster Communities, Diocesan Support & Governance.
Lichfield	Strategy 2025-30 - Seeking the Kingdom. Vision = our dream, where we see ourselves in the future. Strategy = the plan that fulfils the vision. Goals = markers showing our direction.	Feeding our Faith - help all explore & live out their faith. Supporting our Ministry - & all who serve in frontline ministry. Building up our Parishes &  Communities - strengthen what is healthy & address what is difficult. Making our Strategy, Nationally Funded Projects, Safeguarding strategy.
Lincoln	2025 discussing a new strategy building on Time to Change Together & responding to the national CofE call.	5 opportunities: Raising the Spiritual Temperature; Celebrating the Local; That All May Belong; Investing in the People of God; A Church in reach. National call = to become a church: of missionary disciples; of mixed expressions & ways of being (ecology); which is younger & more diverse.
Liverpool	Strategy - From Repentance to Repair. Aim is to change the culture in the Diocese, including our churches, worshipping communities & schools.	Committed to: Educate so people understand what racism is & how it’s evolved within society & our specific culture; Empower people of all ethnicities to become aware of the racist ideas we hold & work to move beyond them. Evaluate our policies, procedures, behaviours & actions to identify & remove racist practices & support policies promoting equality.
London	2030 Vision – For every Londoner to encounter the love of God in Christ. Our Ambitions - Confident Disciples, Compassionate Communities, Creative Growth.	Our Priorities - To reach every Londoner, we need to reflect the diversity of our city & be a welcoming, safe place. Growing Younger, Safer Churches, More Racially Just.
Manchester	Vision - to be a worshipping, growing, transforming Christian presence at the heart of every community.	Based on four key themes – Parish Renewal, Growing Younger, Church Planting & Revitalisation, & Developing Missional Leaders – this strategy will guide our work over the coming years.
Newcastle	Vision - We want to create opportunities for children & young people to experience life to its fullest, explore the Christian faith, & encounter God for themselves. Our Values – Love, Welcome, Community, Creativity.	We do this by: Seeking - God & joining in, life in all its fullness for & with children & young people. Sharing - God’s love beyond the church’s walls. Good news in meaningful & understandable ways. Sending - Volunteers of all ages to join in with the mission of God. Young people to make a difference in their world.
Norwich	Vision = we see our ministry as being about how we live our life together, for the flourishing of every person in every place. ‘Transformed by Christ: prayerful, pastoral and prophetic’.	Strategy consultation closed September 2025. Stages in its development have included - Developing & understanding the core vision. Understanding what is happening in our diocese through conversation & data. Gathering ideas about what we can do & what we can do differently.
Oxford	A more Christ-like Church Contemplative, compassionate & courageous for the sake of God's world.	We have listened with God to the big questions & respond in specific focus areas - Environmental action, Everyday faith, Growing new congregations, Children, young people & families, Addressing poverty &  inequality.
Peterborough	Bishop Debbie introduced the emerging elements of the Vision & Strategy at the March Diocesan Synod. Raise – Release – Renew.	Raise – 2x the no. of children & young people in churches. 2x the no. of lay & ordained vocations. Release - Strengthen deaneries for collaborative working. Create 120 new, sustainable worshipping communities. Renew - Establish financially & practically sustainable ministry models across the Diocese.
Portsmouth	Vision - A rejuvenating community of Jesus-centred, Kingdom-seeking disciples. 2 more priorities: Work with children, young people & young adults. Value & treasure our older people (via Anna Chaplaincy).	We aspire to be: a rejuvenating community [1 that rejuvenates itself & others] of Jesus-centred [learners & followers of Jesus, our actions shaped by him], Kingdom-seeking [devotion to God, passion for social justice, care for Creation & fellowship with each other  disciples [committed to our faith, & want to keep on becoming more like Jesus]
Rochester	9 year Called Together programme of work, which seeks to grow missional churches, with missional leaders & missional disciples.	Growing: a safe & healthy culture for all; younger & more diverse; spiritually & numerically; Impacting their communities; Releasing financial resources for mission; Planting & growing new missional churches.
Salisbury	Our Vision: Making Jesus Known – launched 2023. We invite our diocese to invite others to know more about Jesus. To know Jesus is to follow him.	5 paths have been identified; Develop courageous leaders, Resource creative partnerships in local mission, Work for justice, Climate action, A sustainable financial basis for mission.
Sheffield	Vision - called to grow a sustainable network of Christ-like, lively & diverse Christian communities in every place which are effective in making disciples & in seeking to transform our society & God’s world.	3Rs strategy – Renewed Released Rejuvenated – launched 2018 & 2019-20, After a strategy refresh in 2023-24 aiming for 90% of our churches to be growing or holding steady by the end of 2031. March 2025 £17.5 m national funding, with a further £18.3m to follow 2029-31 (pending a review of progress).
Sodor & Man	2022-24 Vision - ‘Anointed & Rooted in God, we work together for Renewal, which will be visible in Faithfulness & Generosity’.	Renewal – spiritual, engagement, volunteering, ‘Social Liturgy’, support to vulnerable & safeguarding. Faithfulness – encourage people in their journey of faith, quality of our worship, lay Christians role, study opportunities. Generosity - our defining distinctive characteristic.
Southwark	Vision to 2035 - Christ Centred Outward Focused in all we do. Founded on mutual commitment, speaking well of one another, walking together in the pilgrimage of faith.	Our values determine how we relate to one another & to God's world. Christ is both at the centre of all that we do & the pioneer of all that we are seeking to become. Growth through – Joy, Justice, Hope, Love, Community, Humility, Hospitality.
Southwell & Nottingham	Vision - Living Hope - For the city, towns, villages of Nottinghamshire & beyond. Our Calling & Mission - Growing Disciples of Christ with Compassion, Confidence & Courage.	7 Areas of Focus - Inspiring Worship, Reaching Younger, Enhancing Diversity, Growing Leaders, Enabling Commitment, Encouraging Generosity, Nurturing Prayer.
St. Albans	Vision - Living God’s Love so that God’s kingdom might grow in our world.	Vision is to see flourishing, Christ-centred communities, inspiring people of all ages & backgrounds to discover God, grow in their relationship with him, & respond to his transforming love through serving others.
St Edmundsbury and Ipswich	CofE Vision & Strategy - to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ afresh in each generation to the people of England. A simpler Church, a humbler Church, a bolder Church.	Strategic priorities are: Younger & more diverse; where mixed ecology is the norm – every person has access to an enriching & compelling community of faith by adding new churches & new forms of Church to our parishes, schools & chaplaincies To become a church of missionary disciples where all God’s people are released to live the Christian life.
Truro	Vision - A diocese that: reaches out to children, young people, & families; is good news for the most disadvantaged; cherishes creation. Every deanery has discerned a plan for the fruitful & sustainable future to which God calls us.	Our plans are likely to take 10 years to implement, & will lead to a diocese in which: There are more Christians of every age & background; Church communities of every size, tradition, character, style; Significant investment of time, money, prayer, gifts and love; More financially sustainable; Parish church developing with local minister; Sustainable.
Winchester	‘Walking the Wessex Way’ is a story & vision for our Diocese, offering 4 lenses – Loving, Serving, Learning & Growing – through which we can reflect on where God is leading us.	Serving – Christlike engagement with our communities, bringing peace, hope & reconciliation. Learning – deepening our discipleship as followers of Christ. Growing – renewal of the Church as the Body of Christ, Loving – making the loving presence of Jesus known in our midst, as his body
Worcester	Vision - Growing as Kingdom People – as the body of Christ we join together to worship God, make disciples, share hope & transform communities.	Priorities 2023 – 2030 – 2x the no. of children & young people in our churches. Create 100 new worshipping communities. Invest in renewal of some 12 churches so each major population area has at least 1 church with 150 attending weekly. Invest in our clergy & lay leaders.
York	Living Christ’s Story is our shared vision for living & sharing the story of Jesus today, joining in God’s mission of love across our communities.	We have 2 stories to tell: the story of Jesus’ life, death & resurrection, & the continuing story of what Jesus is doing through his Church by the Holy Spirit. God writes this story on human hearts. We live it through worship, prayer, service, generosity, welcome, & the everyday choices we make.

The information in the table above has been summarized from that on Diocese websites as @ 1^st to 6^th August 2026