reference page for CDM

Text of original to bishops from +Tim Thornton around 10th October

Dear …

As you know, Archbishop Justin has asked me to set up a working group to take a good hard look at CDM and start developing recommendations.

Completely separately the community at Sheldon (Mary and Martha) have commissioned independent academic research into CDM and are working with Aston University on this.

There is a dearth of hard evidence on how the CDM is currently functioning so the timing couldn’t be better to feed into the church’s deliberations.

I am writing to ask for your help by forwarding the distribution email for the research to all the clergy in your diocese.

The first stage of the research project is a detailed online questionnaire.

A lot of care has gone into the design of this, including Ethics approval to ensure that the identity of participants cannot be inferred from the data provided.

No personal data is collected, age and ordination date is collected by decade, and there is no geographical data collected at all.

We need your help with distribution to ensure compliance with GDPR.

I have been briefed on these details and am confident to commend it to you.

The greater the number of clergy who complete the questionnaire, the greater will be the validity and usefulness of the research results.

Ideally, therefore, we would ask you to include

1. All clergy on your diocesan circulation list, including those who are retired – I imagine this is straightforward
2. Any clergy who have been through CDM in your diocese since its inception, including those who are now in prohibition or have left ministry – this might take a little more preparation/research

The questionnaire is currently in the final stages of testing and is scheduled for release on 25^th October.

It will be very helpful if you can circulate it in your diocese before the end of October to give people a clear month before we’re all in to Advent. However, it will be possible to accommodate later replies if it takes a bit longer to locate clergy who are not on current mailing lists.

This email is an advance notice to give you opportunity to consider participating, ask any questions, and make all the necessary practical arrangements to forward it to your clergy before the end of the month.

A DRAFT of the email that I will send you to forward is included below – make sure you don’t send this by accident!

I do hope you will be able to share in this valuable endeavour, and will be in touch again soon.

Sign off …

More information is available from any of these sources:

My Executive Assistant Adam Hobson [email protected]

Dr Sarah Horsman, Warden of Sheldon and non-academic partner for the research [email protected]

Text of cover note to bishops from +Tim Thornton on 25^th October

This is the follow-up from my email two weeks ago. Below is the text of the message to circulate to all serving and retired clergy in your diocese, with or without PTO, plus anyone you have been able to locate who has previously been through CDM in your diocese.

The survey is live and ready to go as soon as you are able to send it out. Thank you very much for helping with this distribution.

Please could you arrange for the following

• Edit the greetings and sign-off of the message below as you wish

• EITHER copy the text below the line and paste into bulk emailer OR delete the text above the line and forward to the relevant emailing list as bcc recipients

• Please could you either include [email protected] in the distribution, or email separately to say it’s been sent. Any technical questions about survey distribution can also go to Sarah Horsman at the same email address.

I really appreciate your help with this. It is so important that we have a good solid base of evidence in order to make wise decisions for the future.

Text of email for bishops to circulate to clergy in their dioceses

DO NOT USE this version as it does not contain live links

Dear Colleague

Archbishop Justin has set up a working group under the leadership of Tim Thornton, Bishop at Lambeth, to take a good hard look at the Clergy Discipline Measure and with a view to developing recommendations for improving practice and future legislative revision.

Completely separately, and quite fortuitously, the community at Sheldon (Mary and Martha) have commissioned independent academic research into CDM and are working with Aston University on this.

As a personal request, I would like to ask you to take time out of your busy schedule to complete this research survey.

This is relevant to you whether or not you have any personal experience of CDM.

There is a dearth of hard evidence on how the CDM is currently functioning so this is an ideal opportunity for you to contribute to our understanding of this important church process and to ensure that it is fit for purpose going forward.

The first stage of the research is a detailed online questionnaire which I am sending you now.

A great deal of care has gone into the design of this, including Ethics approval, to ensure that your identity cannot be inferred from the data provided.

No personal data is collected. Age and ordination date is collected by decade. There is no geographical data collected at all.

At Bishop Tim’s request, and for GDPR compliance reasons, I am distributing the questionnaire using the diocesan mailing list.

I have no other involvement in the research which is completely independent both of this diocese and the national church institutions.

The more clergy who complete the questionnaire, the greater will be the validity and usefulness of the research results.

Click here for FAQs, including how the research project is structured and what will happen to the answers you give. www.sheldonretreat.com/cdmsurvey

[Link to questionnaire - do not use - this is not live]

If it doesn’t work, please click here  [secondary link]

or email [email protected] for a fresh copy.

If you have not been through CDM it will take you about 10 minutes or so. If you have been through CDM or a related disciplinary process/assessment then you will probably need about 30 – 60 minutes.

Please could you make your response before the beginning of Advent.

This questionnaire link is not personal to you and it is fine to share it with any other ordained Anglican clergy you know. The researchers are especially keen to seek out clergy who are currently under prohibition or have left ministry, so if you are in contact with anyone you think might otherwise be missed please forward this message to them or ask them to contact Sheldon directly.

If you need any more information, or have any concerns before taking part, here are contact details and websites for further information:

• Dr Sarah Horsman, Warden of Sheldon [email protected]

• Bishop Tim’s Executive Assistant Adam Hobson [email protected]

• Lead Researcher Dr Carl Senior [email protected]

• Sheldon’s CDM project www.sheldonhub.org/cdm

• The Sheldon community’s website www.sheldonretreat.com

I do hope you will be able to share in this valuable endeavour which has the potential to feed into policy and legislative improvements for the church.

Yours in Christ