The Diocese of Leeds is delighted to welcome Revd Jude Smith as its first Director of Church Revitalisation and she brings a wealth of energy and expertise to this vital role.
Jude is currently Team Rector in the Moor Allerton and Shadwell Team in North Leeds and served her curacy in South Leeds, working across Beeston and Holbeck, and led in the outer estate of Hawksworth Wood as Team Vicar and Pioneer Minister.
Funded for five years by the Church Commissioners, Jude’s major new task is to nurture confident Christians who are growing churches, transforming communities and helping share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
“I’m delighted to be taking up this role at what is both a challenging and exciting time for the church,” said Revd Jude.
“It’s clear to me that though these last twelve months have been incredibly hard for so many of us, God has been faithful, and has been drawing people to Himself as we have paused, prayed and experimented in our worship.
“I look forward to working across the diocese as we emerge from the pandemic and work together to see our churches thrive and our communities ever more transformed,” she said.
Diocesan Secretary Jonathan Wood said Revd Jude would be a tremendous asset as we look to resource and support churches as we move forward.
“Jude brings great experience across a whole range of areas as well personal commitment and imagination to church growth. I am thrilled she is joining the team as we continue to look to serve the diocese,” Jonathan said.
Revd Jude is passionate about seeing churches, in all the varying contexts of the Church of England, flourish, grow and be good news to their communities.
Before ordination, Jude lived in Luton (she’s a keen fan of Luton Town FC), working in education, youth, schools and community work before involvement in 24-7 prayer led her to be the abbess of a new monastic community in the City of London.
As Director of Church Revitalisation, she will work alongside bishops and senior leaders to oversee the continuing development of our strategy for church growth in line with the Diocesan strategy, vision and values.
A key aspect of Jude’s work will be to ensure that models of ministry are developed and implemented in a financially viable and missionally appropriate context in order to deliver our vision of growing and planting churches across the diocese.
She will also actively support our existing Strategic Development Fund projects, as well as helping us look to develop new ones.