ALL : CREATING A RESOURCE CHURCH FOR REVITALISING URBAN CATHOLIC MISSION

Background and Context All Saints is a large urban covering most of central Hove to the border with Brighton and stretching from the seafront to the Old Shoreham Road. It is one of the most populous in the diocese. There are many large blocks of supported flats for the elderly, but the dominant age-group is 30-44. Lone parents make up 31% of all households with children in the parish. All Saints has links with a primary and two secondary schools. Homelessness, mental ill-health and social isolation are prevalent in the community. A recent renewal of the liturgical and catechetical life of the parish has seen growth in the congregation both in terms of size and depth (12% numerical growth had been achieved from 2017- 2020, with ten new young families joining the monthly Family Eucharist), and a new sense of vision has emerged around mission and social justice. All Saints has exceptional potential to become an urban catholic Resource Church: visionary leadership, strategic location, a growing congregation, and extensive buildings, are all in place for All Saints to flourish with the right financial and human resources. Current fruitful ministries that hold significant potential for growth include: 1. Transformative sacramental worship, which is full of colour, drama and symbol, and has seen steady growth in recent years, particularly around the Church’s major feasts. 2. The Caritas programme providing monthly meals for the street community, served by a team of All Saints volunteers. 3. A flourishing choir of 26 members, which recruits widely from within the community and is a stepping-stone into church life. 4. Little Fishes toddler group which attracts young families from across the city once a week. 5. Robin’s Nursery School set up by members of the congregation and operating midweek from our site. 6. A thriving Messy Church which reaches over fifty young families bi-monthly. 7. A newly re-imagined children’s church, which integrates our Messy Church provision with our regular church provision and is centred on the richness of our worship through an engaging ‘Diddy-Disciples’ programme. 8. A popular free lunchtime concert programme of jazz and classical music that runs from May to October, attracting audiences of 60-100. 9. A Pastoral Assistants Scheme that is in its third year, with several pursuing vocation to ordained ministry. 10. A Faith Formation course, which inspires and challenges participants to think deeply about what belief in God means in our contemporary world and for their vocation. The latest cohort was 14 strong. 11. All Saints Food Spread community initiative, delivering goods to vulnerable people and working collaboratively with local charities. 12. Bible study and prayer groups for deepening discipleship running every Advent and Lent (20 participants) and an annual Parish Retreat Day to teach and go deeper in prayer. 13. Short evangelistic and discipleship courses for young people and adults for baptism preparation, first communion preparation, and confirmation preparation. All of these activities are co-led by strong lay teams and volunteers, many of which participate in the Advent and Lent courses and the Faith Formation programme which equip them with a vibrant scriptural imagination and holistic vision for mission and ministry. The PCC has been planning for change since their 2018 vision day and has been rejuvenated with new, younger members. It is from these foundations that All Saints is keen to build in this bid.

All Saints Vision, Values & Strategic Priorities The vision at All Saints is as follows: ‘All Saints Hove is an inclusive catholic parish in the . All Saints believe that there is a place for everyone to receive the unconditional welcome of God. They seek to give voice to those on the margins of our society and use of their facilities to support the homeless and vulnerable and champion the outcast and poor. All Saints believe in worship full of colour, drama and symbol. They believe that our faith should inspire and challenge us as we think deeply about what belief in God means in our contemporary world, to challenge, to question, to doubt and to explore.’ All Saints values are:

• Anglican identity: A confident and generous commitment to the depth and breadth of the Anglican tradition as both reformed and catholic with a presence in every community. • Beauty of holiness: Embodied especially in transformative worship, music and art and the life of prayer.

• Collaborative faith: Working collaboratively with other churches across Anglican traditions and ecumenically.

• Joy of learning: Impassioned life-long theological formation and learning that engages the whole person, society, and the world.

• Inclusivity and hospitality: Inclusive and radical hospitality lived out in the local community, the wider city, and the life of the nation. • Prophetic civic engagement: Intelligent, generous and critical public engagement that promotes the dignity and voices of the marginalised. • Partnerships in the common good: Fostering creative and reciprocal partnerships with local organisations and individuals that champion social justice and community regeneration. All Saints have identified the following four strategic priorities for 2020-2030: • Community Engagement • Transformative Worship • Evangelism and Discipleship • Partnership with Other Churches

Strategy for Growth at All Saints and Beyond There are currently three main realities putting a constraint on growth at All Saints:

• the capacity of the small staff team • poorly designed and under-developed buildings • a lack of lay leaders who have theological and practical confidence for ministry and mission.

This bid seeks to address those growth constraints. All Saints seek investment for: ➔ a wider staff team of lay and ordained members with ministry specialisms ➔ the reordering of a number of our facilities to make them fit-for-purpose ➔ a Missional Training Hub to provide training in theology, ministry and mission

Financial investment will bring All Saints to the next level of growth in numbers, depth and impact. Yet the vision is not simply for All Saints to grow bigger; it is also for All Saints to become a Resource Church for catalysing growth in other urban catholic churches in . Many of these are in long-term decline, are in areas of high deprivation, and lack resources and missional confidence. All Saints’ strategy for resourcing other churches to grow involves: 1) growing teams of Apostolic Workers out of All Saints, who are seconded to urban catholic parishes to catalyse growth in numbers, depth, and impact 2) resourcing the Missional Training Hub in partnership with the diocese, such that it is a centre for excellence in training, drawing in disciples from across the and the diocese, to be equipped as leaders in mission in their own churches.

This strategy will catalyse growth by taking people on a discipleship journey that moves them from community to core. Many at All Saints have begun this journey already and partner churches will also be invited to do so. A culture of invitation and participation is being created at All Saints to enable this movement. People will connect to the church through this journey inwards via a number of entry points, and opportunities for joining the apostolic teams in missional partnerships and getting involved with theological formation through small groups will be given. Involving people in mission to others will then enable the journey from the core back into the community to enrich and enliven them.

Project Outcomes for All Saints By the end of the project in 2026, All Saints expect to see the following outcomes against Brighton and Hove strategic priorities:

Church • Growing from 100 to 300+ committed adult parishioners within five years, with Attendance over 50 children attending children’s church on a Sunday morning. • The introduction of a new weekly choral service of Evensong with a congregation of 40 adults by 2024. Planting and • Five new missional partnerships within five urban catholic parishes in the first five Partnerships years spearheaded by the Apostolic Teams and reaching at least 70 new people in that time, leading to growth in terms of missional confidence and leadership in these parishes, and a numerical growth of at least 20%. • A growth from two to fifteen Apostolic Workers/pastoral assistants working in Anglican catholic parishes across the city in the first five years, with a further 18 drawn from our partner parishes on a part-time and voluntary basis. Evangelism • An annual cycle of catechetical and Faith Formation courses for children and adults reaching 60 children and 85 adults each year by 2026. Social Impact • 20 new missional projects across the city by 2025 targeting areas of need relating particularly to social justice and urban deprivation and children and families. • A thriving new church café, fully operational by summer 2021, training over 20 volunteers a year by 2025, working with more than 20 community groups annually, and generating 25 new church members each year. • A new community choir established in 2023, with 60 members by 2026, generating a context for the disadvantaged to experience transformative worship and the converting power of sacred music. Reaching Young • A vibrant programme of children’s events and activities, drawing families into the People heart of the church, with our toddler group doubling in size over the next five years, and with our Messy Church reaching 140 families by 2026. • A new nursery that is fully integrated into the life of the church established by 2024, with 30 children’s admissions each year. • The establishment of a children’s choir (6 strong) by 2022, expanding to 12 by 2026 and of four adult choral scholars by 2022. • A new creative music initiative in schools across Brighton and Hove, with 35 children each year involved by 2024. Leadership and • Training and resourcing leaders, both lay and ordained, across the diocese through Training the establishment of the Missional Training Hub in 2022, with over 300 attendees both online and in person by 2025.

Staff Team Expansion The present staff team at All Saints simply does not have the capacity to see the missional potential realised. In addition to the Vicar, there is a Curate, a Parish Administrator (part-time), an Events and Communications Officer (part-time), and two lay Pastoral Assistants. This bid seeks funding towards the creation of five new staff roles plus a team of lay Apostolic Workers at All Saints to provide the leadership, expertise, and accountability to see our vision for growth become a reality. Every staff member with ministry responsibility will be explicitly tasked with developing clear and fruitful pathways from the fringes of connection or attendance into core church membership and service. Every staff member will explicitly serve the four strategic priorities previously listed. Every staff member, apart from the Operations Manager, will belong to one or more of the Apostolic Teams, who will be seconded to nearby catholic churches for bespoke resourcing of strategic mission projects.

Associate Vicar and Director of Apostolic Teams This key pioneering role comprises two core responsibilities: 1. working in close partnership with the diocesan Apostolic Life Team, they will establish a Missional Training Hub at All Saints that will provide programmes of training in leadership, theology and mission to see significant numbers of disciples equipped for lives of confident and fruitful missional leadership. They will develop a curriculum and menu of training modules and seminars by drawing on the expertise and resources of the new Apostolic Team at All Saints, and wider theological educators in the diocese. The DNA of the Missional Training Hub will be one of ‘generous orthodoxy’, where different streams of Anglican tradition meet and enrich formation and learning. 2. as a senior member of the All Saints’ team, they will coordinate and lead a range of new Apostolic Teams who will be seconded to partner parishes and serve to catalyse Anglican catholic mission and ministry. They will spend the first year establishing networks and relationships between parishes and community groups in the city, discerning the particular needs of partner parishes, and recruiting the team of Apostolic Workers (below). At the outset of year two, this person will lead the deployment of the Apostolic Teams in short- or medium-term secondments to local partner churches. Again, the vision central to this role is for someone who can work with great leadership skill to equip people as they are drawn into the core of their church membership and commitment (the Missional Training Hub), and also to oversee them successfully being sent out to use what they have learned to serve the growth of other churches, while also continuing in their own formation through that very act of service. Through investing in this role of Associate Vicar, we will see: • growing numbers of All Saints lay members being trained for confident leadership in a range of ministry areas, enabling capacity in our teams to grow, and new ministries to begin. • growing numbers of lay and ordained people from Brighton & Hove (and the wider diocese) benefit from leadership development and deeper theological education, being more equipped for serving the mission of their own churches • other local urban catholic churches enabled to receive a team of Apostolic Workers for a season of bespoke support to resource their own mission. Please also see sections below on the Missional Training Hub and the Apostolic Teams and their deployment.

Apostolic Workers We will expand the existing Pastoral Assistant Scheme with recruitment of 3 residential Apostolic Workers, and a further 7 to 8 non-residential Apostolic Workers from across the two deaneries, to serve one-year long internships. These Apostolic Workers will be based at All Saints for worship, fellowship and training, and will be deployable in teams across the City of Brighton and Hove to enable specific missional projects with partner parishes. The roles themselves will be advertised at Eastertide for the following September. All Saints and St Peter’s will work together to enable Apostolic Workers and interns from both churches to benefit from different perspectives on mission from alternative and mutually enriching traditions. This would see, for example, both groups meeting to worship together, to discuss their experiences and theological reflections, and to receive training. The Apostolic Workers will typically be young Christians who are considering a longer-term vocation to some form of licensed ministry, possibly ordination. They may be raised up from within the All Saints congregation or may come to us from elsewhere. They may serve in a ‘gap year’ capacity, as post-graduates, or be school or college leavers. Apostolic Workers will be: • rooted in the life of prayer, particularly the daily rhythm of morning and evening prayer and regular attendance at the Eucharist; • taking a full role in the liturgical life of the church, including serving at the Eucharist, reading scripture, leading intercessions, occasional preaching and assisting in healing services; • participating fully in the pastoral ministry of the parish, including youth and children’s work, social outreach ministries, evangelistic courses and discipleship groups. The vision of their year with us will be both one of receiving and giving. They will receive an experience of community living, of spiritual formation, of urban catholic mission and continual theological reflection, and of leadership development (through the Faith Formation course and modules in the Missional Training Hub). They will give of themselves to each other in community, to the worship life of the church, and to serve on apostolic mission teams in line with their emerging spiritual gifts. They will be engaged as volunteer workers, have accommodation provided, and receive a small grant for living expenses. Individuals may be able to have their Working Agreement renewed with us for a second year, and we may encourage this for particularly gifted people, those in the ordination discernment process, and those where continuity of their engagement with missional projects seems in line with the will of God. Through the investment made in appointing the Apostolic Workers, All Saints will be able to make the step-change into becoming a Resource Church for urban catholic mission in Brighton & Hove. We will have the human resource to offer other parishes significant strategic help in catalysing their own revitalisation.

Missional Training Hub The Associate Vicar at All Saints will establish a new Missional Training Hub where a varied programme of seminars, modules and courses will be provided for lay and ordained disciples to grow in depth of theological understanding, and to be equipped for mission-focused servant leadership. The Missional Training Hub will work out of newly remodelled and refurbished seminar and teaching rooms on the All Saints site, fully equipped with technology for learning. The hub will be overseen by the Vicar and Strategic Team at All Saints in collaboration with the Department for Apostolic Life. The Department for Apostolic Life oversees the development of mission, ministry and church partnerships across the diocese. The Apostolic Life team cover broad areas of responsibility that connect with every parish church to encourage, enable and equip them to live out God’s call and engage fruitfully with the diocesan vision. Staff in the department have considerable experience in the development and delivery of theological training and education for clergy and laity, as well as drawing on a significant resource of qualified theological educators within the clergy and lay members of the diocese and at the Cathedral. The Missional Training Hub will become the location for missional elements of Initial Ministerial Education for OLM ordinands, courses for lay people seeking authorised ministry, and shorter training programmes covering leadership skills, practical ministry, and modules of theology. The Associate Vicar role holds together the teaching and practice of mission, grounded in both the Department for Apostolic Life and All Saints. The hub will be a place for reflection on the theology ‘of the street,’ and will draw upon the vibrancy of traditions in the Church of England found in Brighton and Hove. The Associate Vicar will ensure a curriculum is generated, for both lay and ordained, that will draw on the experiences of the new Apostolic Team at All Saints and the planting church leaders at St Peter’s, to generate a robust theology of mission for city churches and the . A flavour of anticipated teaching modules comes from our existing curriculum for the Faith Formation course, which teaches on: the Sacraments, the nature of God, the Liturgical Year, Vocation in Scripture, Models of Salvation, the Anglican Imagination, Augustine of Hippo, Benedictine Spirituality, and a Catholic theology of Mission. We will want to also see, for example, new streams of teaching on poverty and social justice, church planting, and children’s spiritual development.

Apostolic Teams and Partnerships The purpose of appointing each one of the new ministry staff members detailed above is not simply to deliver growth at All Saints, but also to enable All Saints to be a Resource Church for other parishes. As well as the Missional Training Hub, our strategy for resourcing other churches to grow involves forming Apostolic Teams. These are small groups of staff, pastoral assistants, and lay members, who spend at least a day a week sent out from All Saints to serve elsewhere. They will go to other local urban catholic parishes to deliver a bespoke mission project in order to catalyse growth in the receiving church. Within Brighton and Hove there are a large number of parishes in the Anglican catholic tradition, the vast majority of which are in areas of significant deprivation which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Several of these parishes are isolated, under-resourced and lacking in confidence, due to financial pressures, lack of lay leadership, and minimal engagement with young people and children. All Saints will be able to offer these churches the gift of a team of people to come to work with their existing congregation to begin a new piece of mission work. Projects will need to be in line with our strategic priorities of Community Engagement, Evangelism and Discipleship or Transformative Worship. Oversight of these partnerships and the teams will be the responsibility of the new Associate Vicar at All Saints. Initial conversations have begun with four local parishes about the formation of such partnerships, and clergy consultations have taken place across both deaneries. In their first three to six months in post, the Associate Vicar will focus these conversations and begin to work with partner parishes to flesh out the bespoke mission project they seek to see happen. In the Spring of 2021, every in the diocese is undertaking a mission audit and review, so the groundwork of identifying parish mission needs will be fresh and will be post-Covid. We will seek partnerships with churches where:

• there is clear need and clear goodwill (we come at the invitation of the PCC and Vicar) • we are confident, under God, that our involvement will result in growth

• we are confident that there is strong potential for sustainability of the mission project once our team withdraws, i.e. that there are sufficient lay members at the partner church who are keen to be trained to continue the project in the longer term. Examples of Apostolic Partnerships & Pathways into Growth These apostolic partnerships need to be adaptable and agile in their formation and implementation. The following are three potential examples of what such a partnership may look like and how they might lead to growth: ● Parish X invites a team to help them connect with their local Church of England primary school to reach children in their parish with the gospel. An Apostolic Team is formed comprising the Children and Families Minister, two Apostolic Workers, and two volunteers and the Vicar from Parish X. The team lead Collective Worship in the school once a week from September, and after October half-term, start a lunchtime club for years 2, 3 and 4. The team teach stories from the gospels through Godly Play. They run a stall at the school Christmas Fair and find creative ways to have a profile and connect with parents. At Easter the team runs an egg-hunt for the whole school and advertises a new monthly Messy Church for children and their parents. By the end of year one there are 12 families coming to Messy Church regularly. After a year the Apostolic Workers withdraw and are replaced by two parents from the school. After 20 months the Children and Families Minister starts to withdraw, because the members of Parish X can lead.

● Parish Y invites a team to help them connect with young people on a housing estate. An Apostolic Team is formed comprising the Hospitality Minister, two Apostolic Workers, an All Saints Cafe volunteer and four volunteers from parish Y. Free baking classes are advertised through the school and on the estate, and young people come to the church hall one afternoon a week, where they are taught how to bake, learn new skills, share friendship and social connection. Once a month they bake cakes for a local Residential Home. At Christmas the young people and Apostolic Team have their first act of worship together, with carols and readings. This leads to a new expression of church on a Wednesday afternoon with home-baked goods, Scripture reading, prayer and meditation. At Easter two of the young people ask to be baptised. After a year the volunteers from Parish Y, having also attended a course of leadership training at the All Saints Missional Training Hub, feel confident they can lead the group. The Hospitality Minister and Cafe volunteer continue to attend once a month for the second year, to help that transition. One day they visit to find the entire act of worship is being led by the young people.

● Parish Z invites a team to help them revitalise their church through music. An Apostolic Team is formed comprising the Director of Music, two Apostolic Workers, and two choir member volunteers from All Saints. The All Saints community choir goes to perform several times to a large local lunch club for isolated and unemployed adults that is run by a charity. Invitations are given to the guests to form a choir of their own. A choir is formed for those from disadvantaged groups, enabling new social cohesion and empowerment. The Apostolic Team rehearse the choir once a week in the church hall of Parish Z. After a year the choir starts singing monthly at the midweek communion service at Parish Z. The Director of Music specifically mentors one of the singers from Parish Z in conducting skills, with a view to them taking on leadership of the choir within 30 months. During this time, the church grows through its new expression of transformative worship and it has also been able to engage with a whole new group of people.