COCKINGTON WITH CHELSTON, DEANARY, PARISH PROFILE

MISSION STATEMENT

We are a Church family celebrating centuries of worship. We have a strong desire to be relevant in today’s world. Our mission is to bring people to God through sharing the love of God and the peace of Christ.

OUR PARISH

1 St Matthew’s Church 4 St Peter’s Church 5 Cockington Church

Vicarage

Our parish is on the west of , one of ’s major holiday resorts and is one of the largest in the Deanery with a population of over 8,400. It has a mixture of hotels and guest houses, with Victorian to modern private housing and a large post-war, formerly council-owned estate.

Cockington Village is a small, rural, picturesque village with a small population but it has a high visitor footfall throughout the year. The houses in the village are above the average in cost for the area and the owners are mostly retired. The row of alms houses within the village is still administered by a trust.

The immediate area around St Matthew’s Church is mainly Victorian housing and it was influx of people into this area that led to the church being built in the late 1800s

The area surrounding St Peter’s Church is densely populated with many young families.

OUR COMMUNITY

We have two churchwardens and one deputy who take responsibility for the parish. A number of assistant churchwardens ensures that there are strong teams at each church.

Our PCC has 17 members and meets about every 3 months. It addition to the standing committee, there are committees for fundraising and social; fabric, health and safety, Cockington Fayre, Christmas market and St Peter’s Church. All roles are voluntary.

There are 130 members on our electoral roll and the parish income in 2014 was £76,000. There are 40 subscribing Friends of Cockington Church not all of whom are parishioners and who keep in touch via the Parish Magazine.

C-Views is our monthly parish magazine which also includes general interest articles, mainly from members of the congregation. It is available from the churches and is on sale at local post offices.

The parish is experiencing a second vacancy in a short

period of time following the resignation of the last incumbent due to personal circumstances. The silver lining to this setback has been a strengthening of the teams at all the churches and increased support from the parishioners. We have given much thought to our position within the wider church and following a thorough consultation with the congregation and all others on the electoral roll, the PCC has recently resolved to re-visit resolutions A and B which were subsequently rejected by a substantial majority.

At St Matthew’s church a group of volunteers from the congregation ensure that the gardens and church always look good. This group along with several from Cockington Church are the mainstay of the fundraising and social committee which works tremendously hard to raise money for the Parish. They are also responsible for the popular Christmas market with a continental theme and Cockington Fayre in the summer, the largest organised by a church community in Torbay, which attracts many thousands and last year raised more than £10000 for the church funds.

We feel that our strengths as a community include: a caring, loving attitude evidenced by the number of parishioners who call on other sick parishioners and go out of their way to provide transport for those who would otherwise not be able to attend, a resilience to overcome difficulties evidenced by the fact that the churches have continued to thrive despite being without a leader for more than two years, a determination to pay our way despite having to pay for priests and for unforeseen maintenance such as dangerous trees needing to be taken down. In this instance the shortfall in our share contribution was exactly the same as the extra maintenance costs. We have a great awareness of those within the larger community who, although not members of the church, have problems, and we have sent large food donations to the local food banks.

OUR CHURCH BUILDINGS

Cockington Church was founded as a private chapel in Norman times, but only started serving an independent parish in 1881. We have three centres for worship.

Parish Church of St George & St Mary (Cockington)

The beauty of the setting in which Cockington Church is situated is only surpassed by the serenity and beauty of the church itself. One of the most visited parish churches in , this beautiful Norman Church is very well maintained by a group of parishioners. Typical comments in the visitors’ books include: “Beautiful church, so peaceful ”, “Truly a place for worship”.

Of particular note are the pulpit which is reputed to have been salvaged from a Spanish Armada ship grounded in Torbay and the intricately carved rood screen. The Church is open every day and many visitors light a votive candle. Recently we have added a kitchen to the vestry to enable refreshments to be offered after services.

Bells have been a feature at Cockington since the 13th century. Our peal of six bells herald each Sunday service and welcome our married couples to their new lives together.

Cockington is an extremely popular church for weddings. A large number are planned for 2015. In 2014 there were over 50 Baptisms and there will be a similar number this year.

St Matthew’s Church

This Victorian Church was designed by Sir Charles Nicholson and is thought to be his best. His brother, Archibald, was responsible for all of the beautiful stained glass windows, while the incredibly ornate baptistery was created by Frank Lynn Jenkins.

It is located near the Chelston shops. St Matthew’s is where we hold our extremely successful Christmas markets and monthly coffee mornings/jumble sales. We have recently refurbished the wooden block flooring and reinstated the Lady Chapel as a place for worship.

The acoustics and spaciousness of the building lend themselves to concerts and in recent years we have had three or four each year including some well-known professional artistes.

There is a kitchen area at the rear of the church, and beneath the East end there is an undercroft, with space for Sunday school, a universal access toilet, and store rooms.

The roof of the church is in need of major work and our team has been working on grant applications. Although unsuccessful in the first round of bids their application was very sound and will be re-submitted in the second round. We shall be making fresh applications to additional grant sources. The parishioners are committed to raising as much of the money towards the project as possible by holding concerts, jumble sales and coffee mornings.

St Peter’s Church

St Peter’s Church opened in 1962 to serve the rapidly-growing area of Chelston. It is in excellent condition, having recently been modified to include a large hall, a fully equipped kitchen and a range of meeting rooms. It has a small chapel, used for mid- week Communion

It hosts a wide range of community functions and its management committee have brought its finances back into the black.

The Vicarage

This five-bedroom house is situated in a quiet close within five minutes’ drive of all three of the churches. It has been re-decorated throughout recently and alterations made to offer a large office and two reception rooms downstairs.

The views from the front of the house look across Torbay to Brixham and Berry Head.

OUR WORSHIP

Our parish sees worship as a priority. We meet to worship throughout the week, making use of beautiful spaces in all three churches. Services are usually Eucharistic. We are currently planning a monthly all-age service encourage a wider participation in worship with our baptism families in mind.

At Cockington Church the service on a Sunday uses the traditional language and has a typical congregation of 30 - 40. It has a popular mid-week noon communion service which attracts up to 12 regular communicants but swells in the summer months with the addition of visitors. We also hold special services: Blessing of the Horse, Plough Sunday and two very popular Christmas Carols by Candlelight services which are held at 4pm and 6pm on Christmas Eve each attracting more than 250 participants. Midnight Mass attracts approximately 100 people. In addition we hold occasional evening services at Patronal festivals and seasonal festivals such as Rogation, Lammas and St George. We are eager to explore a wide range of Christian traditions.

At St Matthew’s Church we hold a traditional language said service with up to 15 regular attenders at 8am on Sunday and a modern language service with approximately 40 at 9:30am. Our Confirmation and Advent services are held at St Matthew’s.

The organist is versatile, supporting a wide range of worship music in both churches. Our small, but highly dedicated choir is supplemented by singers from other parishes on special occasions.

In addition, we have a weekly prayer meeting, and study groups meet during Lent and Advent.

At St Peter’s Church there is small chapel and the mid-week service attracts 5 or 6 regular worshippers.

OUR NEEDS

The person we are looking for should:

 Be able to provide strong visionary leadership to clergy and laity

 Be a person of prayer

 Have team management skills, and be able to empower others in their ministries

 Have a gift for teaching

 Appreciate, value and have a feeling for a wide range of Christian music

 Feel comfortable operating in an environment of congregations representing a wide range of traditions and Christian experience

 Be able to recognise others' gifts and encourage their use.

 Have a heart for reaching out to those with little or no Christian faith

 Be able to relate to people of different ages

 Be passionate about integrating children, youth and young families into the life and

mission of the church

 Have strong pastoral skills

 Have a good working knowledge of information technology

SUPPORT FOR THE INCUMBENT

In addition to the support that the PCC and the congregation will give, the incumbent will be able to call on the help of several retired priests who have been our main support during the vacancies and also a newly ordained self-supporting curate. All these have shown great commitment to the parish and have supported us in many ways as well as taking the services.

IN CONCLUSION

We would hope that our priest would be able to make full use of all three churches, with the help of a willing congregation, both for worship and also for outreach in all its various forms. We would welcome a priest who would feel able to engage with the realities and problems of daily life, both in leading our services and in reaching out to all those of all ages in our parish. We feel that there is great potential for growth particularly in the St Peter’s area where the majority of young families live, possibly involving additional but different forms of worship. The development of this area will lead to financial security for the whole parish. We look forward to working together under the guidance and spiritual support of our new priest.