Our Mission

Lindisfarne exists to support the Church in the North East by encouraging discipleship and growing ministers in intentional communities of Christian hospitality, learning and prayer.

Our Aim

To advance the Christian faith by the promotion and delivery of education for discipleship, initial ministerial education, and continuing development for ordained and lay members within the region.

We believe

God is calling the whole Church into new patterns of worship and service, and this will require ministers who are:

Attentive to God:  prayer underpins all our activities, and our learning community is a praying community, a community formed in relationship with God.  We want to grow people who can hear God’s voice – in the Scriptures, the Traditions of the Church and in the world today.

Attentive to ‘Place’ and ‘Context: the North East is a distinctive region with a recognisable identity, but also an incredible diversity – rural, urban, sub-urban, industrial, post-industrial, city centre – and more.  We want to grow disciples who can see how God is present and at work, in every aspect of life.

Attentive to others in the local team and context:  some of the stories that are told and inscribed in the places and communities in which we live are life-giving and some of them crush the soul and life.  We seek to nourish a ‘hopeful people’ who are confident that God has not given up on the region, and to seek to learn to serve God in the context of the local church.

Attentive to the urgency of our times:  these are indeed challenging times economically, socially and spiritually for our region. We seek to grow disciples and leaders who can flourish in the increasingly liminal place in which the Church finds itself in the North East – an uncomfortable place to be.

Attentive to our leading partners:  we are joining conversations that are already happening.  Our diocesan partners understand their contexts, and the people whom they send to us to form and train for ministry.  They are discerning, with their partners, the leadership that is needed to make God known in the world, bringing hope and blessing communities in Jesus’ name.  With them we seek to grow rooted, resilient, reflective and collaborative leaders who can fulfil God’s dreams for the Church.

Attentive to the ‘self’: we are seeking to grow ministers who pay close attention to their physical, spiritual and mental health. We will support them in cultivating disciplines that foster growth in character and Christ-likeness and the capacity to learn from experience.