He said the diocese had been discussing how to sustain ministry in vacant parishes, as fewer people are coming forward for ministry, with only eight ordinations across the Church of Ireland this year.
“We have been developing this as we have held discussions in various vacant parishes about ways of sustaining ministry going into the future,” he said.
“We have begun to take seriously the presenting challenges of the context of our times; that is not so much a shortage of finance but a shortage of ordained clergy.”
The Bishop said the diocese was looking at “creative” ways of addressing the shortage, including expanding the role of lay people in ministry.
Two parish readers have begun training for Ordained Local Ministry (OLM), while nine people are currently training to become parish readers.
OLM allows lay people to train for ordained ministry within their local diocese.
There are three OLMs currently serving in the diocese, with Bishop Ellis describing their contribution as “invaluable”.
He also said the diocese was considering bringing groups of parishes together to create larger ministry teams, potentially including an incumbent, OLM, diocesan reader, parish reader and other roles.
“We are at the early days of this, but our hope is that in a short while one new group might be able to advertise for an incumbent to be the team leader of a suitably resourced team,” he said.
Bishop Ellis said the approach would allow a wider range of skills to be used in ministry, while potentially freeing clergy from administrative work.
“One advantage is that a wide variety of skills are available, it’s not just one man or woman,” he said.
He added that the model could also allow money to be used to employ a group administrator, helping to reduce the administrative burden on clergy and allow them to focus more on pastoral work.
The comments come as the diocese prepares for two clergy retirements at the end of September.
Archdeacon Paul Thompson, Rector of Derryvullen North and Castle Archdale, and Rev Alan Capper, Rector of Lisnaskea, are both due to retire.
Bishop Ellis paid tribute to both men, highlighting Archdeacon Thompson’s “diligent and effective service” to the diocese and saying Rev Capper had “contributed much” to the diocese and the parishes he had served since becoming Rector of Lisnaskea in 2009.
Canon William Jeffrey has been named as Archdeacon Thompson’s successor.
The Bishop also paid tribute to several people who had served the Diocese in many ways, Una Bourke and Robert Fyffe who had died in recent times.