LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT
The Diocese of Colombo began its leadership skills development initiative to fill a need for fine skills training among clergy and diocesan staff. USPG has been supporting this initiative since 2013.
The Diocese has 111 clergy members who are scattered all over Sri Lanka and serve in the midst of myriad issues and situations. The challenges they face change constantly and they need to be able to think on their feet, keep an open mind and be ready to absorb new information and learn new ways of working in order to tackle the various situations they encounter. This programme aims to equip them to do that. Its main objective is to equip and train a group of leaders to advance the mission of the Diocese in initiatives towards sustainability of the environment and caring for the elderly. It aims to train clergy members to develop leadership qualities such as effective problem solving and prudent risk-taking.
Sri Lanka has suffered from many disasters, and the Diocese believes that the Church should not only be at the forefront of rescue and relief operations when disasters happen; it should also be active in preventing future ones and in training the younger generations how to act when disasters do occur.
In 2016 the Diocese conducted its first leadership programme for its staff. It followed this up in 2019, with the launch of a productivity programme. The impact that these programmes have created has had a ripple effect across the Diocese. Productivity and efficiency have increased and the Diocesan Office has been able to serve the clergy and all its mission stakeholders effectively and motivate and encourage the staff too.
The Diocese hopes that by 2022, all its activities will follow an ‘eco-friendly’ ethos and that clergy will work with a greater passion, leading their parishes with the skills they will have acquired by then.
