Our Church: the building, and the appointment of a new vicar.

Dear Everyone – whether you go to church or not –

Our vicar Rob Axford retired in September, and the process of replacing him has begun. The Tyndale Benefice is made up of St Mary’s parish in Wotton, St Martin’s in North Nibley, and St Kenelm’s in Alderley. Tresham Church is technically a ‘chapel of ease’ for St Kenelm’s – we are in the parish of St Kenelm’s, Alderley with Tresham. The new incumbent will serve all three parishes in our benefice, as Rob did with the help of his wife, Chris.

The first thing is to write a Profile of the benefice, which goes in the advertisement. Kay Pettifer (church warden of St Kenelm’s) and I are doing this in co-operation with the other churchwardens. Kay and I are asking our parishioners for any suggestions they would like to make. The questions below give a structure to possible ideas you may have, and I would welcome them. They will be kept completely anonymous.

As you may know, I am hoping to hold a village meeting soon in the church to discuss ways we might alter it (“re-order”) so as to make the building of more use to everyone in the village when it is not being used at services. The idea is to keep its traditional side while creating space and facilities for people to use it for a range of other purposes – this now happens in many churches. The Diocese (which owns it) is very supportive of such re-ordering, and I went on a course they ran recently to help parishes consider how they can make their church buildings more relevant to local needs. So I have put a question in below about what sort of time would be good for a meeting, bearing in mind that it is now getting rather dark in the evenings.

You can answer by forwarding (if on email) the email back to me with your comments typed in by the question, or if on the paper copy, by just writing on it and letting me have it back. I will put a box for replies in the church porch, for people that end of the village who do not use email.

In order that Kay and I can move forward on this in the time we have, I would be very grateful to have your responses as soon as possible, and if at all possible, by November 2^nd.

Our Church:

• What do you feel is working well in our Church?
• What do you feel could be better?
• What makes our church special?

The new incumbent:

What gifts and skills would you like to see in the new incumbent? For example:

• Preaching – talks and sermons
• Prayer and Spirituality – a sense of closeness to God
• Theological – study and teaching of faith
• Pastoral – care for others
• Liturgical – style of services

Anything else?

A meeting about our church building (to be held in the church):

• Likely best time for you…..
• Weekday – best time of day? (sunset to be taken into account?)
• Weekend – saturday or Sunday? Best time of day?
• Should there be two meetings, at different times, eg one in the day time and one in the evening?

Many thanks and best wishes,

Sue – Coombe Head
susan@envirostrat.co.uk