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Wychert Vale Benefice Profile

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Welcome Wychert Vale Benefice is a new network of churches serving a group of vibrant and growing villages between and in . Our leadership is team-based with many lay and ordained people working together. We are seeking a missional pastor and collaborative leader to join us as Associate Rector, to share in the strategic development of our benefice and enable mission and ministry in our churches and wider communities.

Our shared vision and values The Wychert Vale Covenant has emerged from our discussions and prayer together. It sets out how we want to relate to each other and gives our vision and values:

We have agreed four Covenant Principles for working together:  To share resources of all kinds.  To get to know one another and to work with, listen to, support and value one another.  To determine to play our part gracefully in the improvement and strengthening of communications throughout the new benefice upwards, outwards and benefice-wide.  To commit ourselves to ongoing prayer.

We have discovered three emerging Covenant Purposes:  Worshipping God  Serving Community  Sharing Life These help us to focus our role as the Body of Christ in our villages and have become the ‘motto’ or ‘strap line’ of the new benefice. A provisional mission action plan for the new benefice can be found on page 19 of this profile.

Our Benefice prayer Heavenly Father, Your Son Jesus Christ prayed on the night before he died that all may be one, just as he is one with you. Grant us unity as the Benefice of Wychert Vale. May we seek to work well together and may our love for one another increase and flow out to our communities. We ask in the name of your dear Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Amen

Building together for Mission When seeking a name for our new benefice we found that our local building material, ‘Wychert’, is unique to the villages in our part of the Vale of Aylesbury. Taking the name Wychert Vale reminded us that, in our lives and mission together, we are building a dwelling place for God's Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:10-16). Follow the link here for a reflection on our name.

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Our leadership vision for the Benefice The parishes in our benefice have a highly enabled approach to leadership and ministry. Almost all aspects of church life are supported by teams of church members, both lay and ordained. We have a Benefice Office as an administration hub and are in the process of developing the post of Benefice Operations Manager. Where there is a benefit in having a benefice-wide approach, we have a joint programme: for example with organising occasional offices and with our schools collective worship programme. In making the most of this ‘economy of scale’ we are also keen to keep the life of each parish locally focussed. Each parish has its own PCC, to enable the local church to be shaped for mission and ministry in the particular communities they serve. The Ministry Team serves across the Benefice but most members are more rooted in some parishes than others. This provides a team but also enables local pastoral connection. We are developing a Benefice Council to facilitate communication and coordination between the parishes.

A benefice with two full-time clergy roles The vision for Wychert Vale is for two full-time clergy to each have a local focus on three of the six churches to give pastoral and leadership connection. They will then each take benefice-wide responsibility for different aspects of ministry and mission. The exact roles can be adjusted according to the gifts of the person appointed. The essential quality is enthusiasm for working in teams, strategic thinking and ability to support the overall vision. As we work as a team, committed to mission we hope to see the Kingdom growing in our new benefice.

About the Rector The Revd Margot Hodson has been in the Haddenham Benefice since 2009, working to develop a network benefice based on the episcope model; releasing ministry and talent to grow the churches. Margot's vision for Wychert Vale is to be a united benefice gaining from the strengths of combining together while also enabling each parish to flourish as a unique expression of church. She has a special concern for Christians and churches to seek to serve their local communities, and loves both modern and traditional worship. Margot is a training incumbent and also takes ordinands on placement from Ripon College (RCC) and Wycliffe Hall. As the new benefice develops, it is anticipated that she will have primary pastoral focus on Haddenham, and . Her provisional management roles will be: overall oversight; discipleship; preaching and ministry; the development of structures for occasional offices and pastoral care. Margot's outside interest is in faith and environmental issues. She is Associate Lecturer in Environmental Theology and Rural Ministry at RCC, and on the management boards of the John Ray Initiative and A Rocha UK. She lives with her husband, Martin, in the vicarage in Haddenham.

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Key points about the new post of Associate Rector  Pastoral and leadership focus for Cuddington, Stone and Dinton  Strategic management focus across the Benefice for two key areas of ministry. Provisionally these are: children, youth and schools; and mission and evangelism  Working with both evangelical congregations and those of more mixed tradition  Working with teams and enabling their development

What sort of person are we looking for?

What support can we offer?  Welcome, friendship and fellowship across the benefice  A supportive ministry team and rector  Committed teams of lay people leading ministries and the day to day running of the churches  Support for the need for days off, holidays, family life and recreation  A lovely home in the heart of Stone village with good transport connections. Stone is the best of both worlds, with beautiful countryside nearby and towns within easy reach

Accommodation Stone Vicarage is a well-proportioned family house on a large corner plot in a cul de sac near to the centre of the village and the church. It was built in 2004 and is well fitted. It comprises of: a large Hall; Cloakroom; very large Sitting Room; Dining Room/Study; fully fitted Kitchen and Breakfast Room; Utility Room; four Double Bedrooms; two Bathrooms (one en suite); Detached Double Garage; spacious Garden. For more pictures of the house see here.

Follow this link for a detailed role description and person specification.

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Introduction to Wychert Vale Communities Wychert Vale covers the villages of Haddenham, Cuddington, Kingsey, Aston Sandford, Dinton with Ford, Upton, Gibraltar and and Stone with Bishopstone, and Hartwell, all within a seven- mile radius and all with very different characteristics. They vary in population size from 50 to 5,000, from small villages and hamlets to larger communities with a more suburban feel, but each has retained an engaging individuality. This sense of uniqueness has spread to the church life of the five parishes, and in terms of worship each fills a niche within the overall benefice framework, providing a great breadth of spiritual expression.

Communications Our villages combine a rural setting with unusually good transport connectivity. There is a bus service running through the villages between Aylesbury and every 20 minutes (Arriva 280). The road and rail communication links are good with a 10-20 minute drive to the M40, and a half- hourly rail service to London from the stations at Haddenham & Thame, Parkway or Aylesbury Town. A new railway line has been opened recently to Oxford Parkway.

Village facilities Stone with its hamlets of Bishopstone, Sedrup and Hartwell has a Historic House Hotel, two village pubs, a village hall, a sports recreation ground and club, an active Methodist church, a post office and a small Co-op convenience store and lies within easy reach of Aylesbury. Cuddington has a post office shop, hairdressers, village hall, public house, recreation field and club and various sports facilities. There is also a Methodist church.

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Dinton with its hamlets of Ford, Upton, Gibraltar and Westlington has three popular village pubs and a thriving village hall, recreation ground and cricket club in Dinton. There is a popular farm shop and café just beyond the parish. Haddenham has a wide selection of facilities: shops, post office, restaurants, public houses, churches, village hall, medical centre, dentist, garden centre, business park and a recreation ground for a wide range of sporting activities. It is a vibrant village community with groups for every age group and many interests (more details on the village haddenham.net website). St Mary’s parish church is part of a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) with the Roman Catholic, Methodist and Baptist churches. Kingsey and Aston Sandford are made up of farms and houses with the church at the focus of each village. Both have very warm community spirit. The villages span the vale between Thame and Aylesbury, with both offering further facilities.

Schools and health There are three Church of primary schools in the benefice: Stone; Cuddington and Dinton; and Haddenham St Mary’s (infants). In addition there is a county infants and junior school in Haddenham. Secondary schools are in Thame (comprehensive), Aylesbury (grammar), (secondary), and ( secondary). The nearest NHS general hospital is in , and there is a large medical centre in Haddenham.

Population and planning The villages have a broad socio-economic range and church members are well integrated into the wider village communities. All the villages have had a noticeable influx of young families in the last few years. Haddenham is one of the five strategic settlements for growth in the local District Plan, and the route of HS2 is close to Hartwell and Bishopstone. Haddenham has completed a Neighbourhood Plan with significant church engagement in the process.

Facts and figures

Civil Church 2015 Parish Households Population Electoral Roll Parish Share Haddenham 4800 2170 151 £57,891 Stone & Dinton 3396 1400 99 £18,234 Cuddington 569 250 75 £21,492 Kingsey 207 50 15 £4,287 Aston Sandford 64 21 21 £4,912

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About the Congregations The large variation in size and make-up of the village communities in the benefice has led to the development of a distinctive ministry in each parish. Worship styles range from informal and evangelical to more traditional worship. There are three fresh expression congregations with a Café or a Messy Church focus. Though each parish has a distinctive style of worship, there is a common goal to worship God and share his love. Most people worship in their own parish church, but the range of worship provides a choice that allows different styles to flourish. The ‘flavours’ of church can be best summed up as: St Mary’s, Haddenham: Open Evangelical with renewal influence. St John the Baptist, Stone: Mixed tradition. St Peter and St Paul, Dinton: Mixed tradition. St Nicholas’, Cuddington: Open Evangelical. St Nicholas’, Kingsey: Rural BCP with a Café church. St Michael and All Angels, Aston Sandford: Traditional. A detailed chart of Sunday Worship can be found at the end of this profile.

Ministry in the benefice Wychert Vale Benefice is highly lay-enabled and has a large volunteer team preaching and leading services as well as leading many other activities. It brings the following groups to the benefice merger: The Benefice Ministry Team meets monthly and all those ministering within the benefice who are ordained, LLMs or ordinands are invited. The Benefice Preachers’ group currently meets with the ministry team to reflect on the content of the preaching series and to improve the quality of teaching in the church and of services. It liaises with the home group leaders meetings. This group provides a very strong lay basis for ministry in the benefice. Benefice Service Planning group meets from June each year to plan the teaching for the following calendar year. The annual teaching theme gives significant direction to the churches and helps to draw the churches into a common sense of purpose.

Weekday worship There is an Anglican service each Thursday morning in Haddenham, held in the Roman Catholic Church at their invitation (it is smaller, warmer and much more accessible than St Mary’s midweek). It has an attendance of about 25. Morning prayer is held in St Mary’s, Haddenham on Tuesdays, at the Prayer Centre on Wednesdays in St Mary’s Centre, and in St Nicholas Cuddington on Thursdays.

Sunday worship Appendix A (page 18) gives a chart to set out our Sunday worship and the rich variety that we have in our benefice. Each parish also has their own description.

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Occasional Offices We have a strong commitment to occasional offices and have drawn from the recent national research projects to shape our ministry to be very accessible to people beyond our congregations. We hold two marriage preparation days each year and have regular baptism preparation evenings and confirmation groups. There is a bereavement visiting team linked to Haddenham parish and we aim to provide a bereavement visitor to support each funeral.

The Benefice Ministry Team Revd Jonathan Hawkins: SSM Associate Minister based in Haddenham with a focus on Cuddington and also serving across the benefice. He is chair of Aylesbury Vale Youth for Christ. Jonathan has experience of mentoring LLM trainees and is an Aylesbury Deanery Vocations Adviser. Revd Trish Mander: SSM Curate (Associate Minister from June 2016), ordained in 2013 with a focus on Haddenham, also ministering in Kingsey. Trish is an experienced Spiritual Director in the Diocese. Nadine Rose: will be ordained in July 2016 to be Stipendiary Curate for Wychert Vale. She will live in the parsonage house at Cuddington and serve across the benefice. Revd Canon Cavell Cavell-Northam: retired clergyman from the Chilterns, who takes the Aston Sandford monthly Communion service. Ven Dr Gordon Kuhrt retired to Haddenham in 2012. Gordon has joined the Benefice Service Planning group and chairs Haddenham Worship and Witness PCC subgroup. He preaches around the benefice and elsewhere. He is an Associate Tutor for the Diocese, especially teaching courses on Preaching. Olive Kuhrt: retired but active LLM based in Haddenham where she is also Music Director. Adrian Collier: retired and an LLM based in Haddenham. Adrian anchors the midweek communion and services mostly in Haddenham and Kingsey. He supports the Youth Café and Cell Group. He is active in pastoral visiting. Nigel Featherston: LLM and OLM ordinand in training from Cuddington. Nigel has a full-time secular job. He lives in Dinton and has a focus on Cuddington and also serves across the benefice. Avril Clark: retired and LLM based in Stone with Dinton Authorised Preachers: We have six authorised preachers: David Pickup; Dr Martin Hodson; Andy Hardy; Richard Fisher; Graham Carr; and Prof Markus Bockmuehl. We also have a number of more occasional preachers and service leaders who are members of the preachers group. Youth Worker: our youth work is provided by Aylesbury Vale Youth For Christ (AVYFC). Through them, Martha Barnes is our part-time Youth Worker. Martha grew up in Stone and Haddenham and is a performance arts graduate with considerable youth work experience.

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Children and Youth . With an influx of new families and thriving schools, the children's ministries have been growing in Wychert Vale. The majority of the activities are led by teams of volunteer lay people. There are all age services and Sunday children’s groups in most of the churches, with some midweek groups. We have a weekly youth café and cell group in Haddenham, which we hope will develop more widely.

Schools Ministry The Benefice has strong links with all five schools in the area. For Collective Worship we have been jointly following the Bible Society ‘Open the Book’ programme, with teams taking assemblies in all schools either weekly or fortnightly. There are currently three teams who collaborate together on this very popular programme. These are ecumenical and involving ministers and lay members of the other churches in the villages. Church members also serve as school governors and in other volunteer capacities. There is a clergy ex-officio governor role at Cuddington and Dinton and Foundation Governor places in each of the church schools. Alongside school based assemblies, we have developed monthly schools worship in parish churches attended by children, parents and staff.

Lighthouse Thame and Villages Each summer churches in Thame and the surrounding villages host a large holiday club. ‘Lighthouse’ runs for a week and provides activities for over 800 children, usually based at Thame showground. There are over 400 volunteers, including over 150 teenagers who 'chill out' with their own ‘Halogen’ activities in the evenings. Silver Lighthouse for older people, runs alongside and is usually based at St Mary's Thame. Full information can be found here.

Ministry among older people There are a significant number of retired people across the benefice. Each of the churches has initiatives to provide for activities and support for people in the older age group. Haddenham has a weekly ‘Monday Club’ providing a variety of activities and the Thursday midweek service is mostly, though not entirely, supporting the older age group. It has supported the ecumenical Outlook movement and in 2015 hosted a very successful ‘Holiday at Home’ aimed at older folk who find it hard to have holiday. St Mary's church members are involved in groups in the wider village including a 60+ group and a trust to support a disabled vehicle. In Cuddington, there is a fortnightly coffee morning and many folk are involved with the local Sunshine Club. There is considerable pastoral care for older people in the individual parishes. Much of this is lay-led and ranges from involvement with day-time home- groups to visiting folk in nursing homes.

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Ecumenical links Churches Together in Haddenham (CTIH) has a local committee and a number of united events and services, mostly focussed on seasonal festivals. Stone and Dinton parish maintains strong links with Stone Methodist church, holding ‘Living Stones’ in the chapel building and have joint services on fifth Sundays. Cuddington has good links with their Methodist church and help support Cuddington Baptist burial ground. There are strong missional links with Thame, especially in supporting Lighthouse (see above). There are also growing links with Aylesbury, particularly in support of foodbanks and the Aylesbury Town Chaplaincy.

Prayer In most parishes, church intercessions are lay-led. Cuddington church members meet for prayer on Sunday and Thursday mornings and in home-groups. Haddenham has a weekly prayer group and a prayer ministry team that offers prayer ministry during communion services. They host a Quiet Room at Cafeplus+ and have held a number of prayer events. Stone and Dinton meet for prayer before the PCC. As we move to become a benefice together we will seek to deepen our understanding of and commitment to corporate and individual prayer.

Music Wychert Vale is blessed with a significant number of talented musicians and singers who are involved in Sunday worship and support midweek. All the churches have working organs and there are pianos and keyboards in some parishes. Worship in Stone and Dinton and in Kingsey are supported by choirs. Haddenham has a contemporary worship band and a medley of different musicians and singers who provide music for different styles of services. There is a ‘Fifth Sunday Choir’ that convenes to support benefice evensongs. There are a number of organists, pianists and singers who provide music for weddings and funerals.

Global Mission The parishes engage with Global Mission as partners with Christians in different parts of the world. We recognise that we are Christians together, working to build up God's kingdom in different parts of the world, sharing our gifts and resources as God enables us. Stone and Dinton have partnerships with Send a Cow, Christian Aid, and the Anglican Church in India. Cuddington has had a long term commitment to a variety of mission concerns, including Crosslinks, CMS, Five Talents, Tearfund, Scripture Union and Christian Aid. Haddenham is also a long-term mission supporting parish with a Global Mission Group and a monthly prayer meeting. Partnerships include CMS, A Rocha UK, Tearfund, Christian Engineers in Development, Kong Kmeng (Cambodia), WEC (Jordan) and Bible Reading Fellowship.

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St Mary's, Haddenham Follow this link to find out more Haddenham is the largest community within Wychert Vale Benefice. St Mary’s has a large and active congregation. It was one of the early renewal churches and retains a deep commitment to seeking the guidance and refreshment of the Holy Spirit for its worship, mission and church life. St Mary's describes itself as having a 13th Century building and a 21st Century heart. The church has been developing pastoral care in the community, including bereavement care, food banks, CAP budgeting courses and its wide engagement with local organisations. The church leadership team is seeking to develop worship that will be accessible to local people taking their first steps in the Christian faith, enabling a gentle charismatic strand, and a strand of more traditional worship. Members have run many Alpha courses over the years and are currently experimenting with the more informal ‘Uncover’ course.

Caféplus+ Caféplus+ runs from 9.30-12-noon in place of the 10.30 service on the first Sunday of the month in the Village Hall as a free monthly drop-in café for the community. Its vision has been to create opportunities for building personal relationships, provide a neutral space for exploring faith in Jesus and be a place to demonstrate kingdom life and values. There are children’s activities, a special space for toddlers, a ‘Quiet Space’ and a ‘Food for Thought’. Caféplus+ has been running for over ten years and has had a significant impact in our engagement with local community.

Home-groups About 100 people meet fortnightly in 12 daytime and evening groups. These groups are overseen by three Home-group Co-ordinators and are a significant source of pastoral care for church members. Currently groups are following material linked to the Sunday and annual teaching theme.

Buildings St Mary’s Church The church is a Grade I listed building dating back to Saxon times, with most of the present building being completed in the thirteenth Century. The church has recently been refurbished making it a more welcoming and versatile space for worship.

St Mary's Centre and House This houses the Benefice Office and has a range of rooms that can be used by the benefice and are also let to different groups. The church also owns the three-bedroom school house next door which is currently let.

Information about our Mission Action Plan can be found here.

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Stone and Dinton with Hartwell Follow this link to find out more We are one parish with two open churches and one (Hartwell) that is no longer used. Our parish covers a number of different communities and we seek to be available to them all.

The Parish and its Membership We have an enthusiastic congregation with a good mix of ages and people willing to lead or contribute to services and church ministries, such as leading public prayer, participating in the prayer chain, pastoral care, visiting and schools work. Services currently alternate weekly between each church building. There is also an annual open air evensong at Hartwell where the Church of the Assumption is situated, now looked after by Churches Conservation Trust. There is a strong musical tradition with an established choir for special festivals and a band of bell ringers who ring at Dinton before services and at weddings. We also enjoy an excellent relationship with Stone Methodist Chapel with annual Christian Unity and Christian Aid services together as well as fifth Sunday shared services.

Stone and Dinton lead a monthly ‘Living Stones’ afternoon that is similar to Messy Church. There are regular All Age services and activities for children. Dinton supports a lunchtime club at the junior site of Cuddington and Dinton School on Fridays.

Church Buildings The church of St John Baptist, Stone is a Grade II* listed building with the earliest part dating from 1135. family of Hartwell held the patronage of the church for generations but it was presented in 1965 to the Grocers’ Company. Renovation was undertaken in the 1980s and in 2008. The parish plans to install toilets and a kitchen. The churchyard is closed for burials and is only used for interment of ashes and existing family plots.

St Peter & St Paul, Dinton is a Grade I listed building with, to quote Bishop Alan’s blog, ‘one of the finest outlooks in England’. The building of the church commenced about 1140 on the site of a Saxon Church. A project to restore the six bells and strengthen the 16th Century frame was successfully completed in 2000. The church has a capacity of approximately 175. There is a Hill two-manual pipe organ with a tracker action. The church recently installed toilets and kitchenette. This extends and enhances the church's use as a community amenity for concerts and events.

Information about our Mission Action Plan can be found here.

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St Nicholas, Cuddington Follow this link to find out more Cuddingtion has very active village life and St Nicholas Church is at the heart of the village. Worship is contemporary within the framework of traditional Anglican worship. The 10.00am Sunday services are the lynchpin of church life and lay involvement is a particular feature of these services. Average Sunday attendance is about 50 adults and up to 25 children. We have a committed band of bell ringers who ring before every service and at weddings. The church has an active leadership and a vision for mission.

Children and Youth Meeting the needs of these members is an important aspect of our church life and the monthly All Age service is a focus for that. There is children’s ministry available on every Sunday throughout the year and this is supported by midweek groups including a Toddler Singing Group and an after school club.

The Christian Community on Weekdays An essential part of the Christian life in the community is provided by the Home Groups. At present 48 people are involved in the six home groups which meet fortnightly. There are regular Lent courses and other events such as harvest and an annual parish supper. Support for the Community Support for the community is often provided informally in Cuddington. Once a week there is a ‘Drop-In’ held in church where coffee and refreshments are provided mainly for older members of the village community. ‘Village Voice’ is produced monthly by church members and distributed to every home in the village. There is a weekly collection for a food bank in Aylesbury.

The Church Building The church dates from the eleventh century and is a grade 2* listed building. To support the thriving Christian community in Cuddington and its outreach locally, there has been a successful internal re-ordering of the church building and it is now a light and airy space with a stone floor, easy wheelchair access and comfortable, moveable seating which gives the building great flexibility. There is a good sound system and a screen (behind the chancel arch) plus a data projector. It also has a small kitchen and WC.

Information about our Mission Action Plan can be found here.

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St Nicholas Kingsey Follow this link to find out more Kingsey is a small village with about 50 houses. There are records of a village here since the twelfth century and of a church on the site of our present church since the thirteenth century. Our largest annual community event is our Village Fete.

Sunday Worship Kingsey has undergone considerable change since the introduction of the ‘Kingsey Breakfast Service’ in 2011. This meets monthly and gathers around 27 people including a dozen children. Almost all are from the village. Church members provide breakfast including real coffee, tea, bacon sandwiches and muffins. There is a play area for children and the breakfast culminates in a short All Age Service provided by members of the ministry team. The breakfast has had a significant impact in re-energising church life. The PCC is primarily of a slightly younger generation and is seeking to take the parish forward to build on the growth that they have been blessed with. Kingsey also enjoys traditional worship with two Prayer Book communion services a month and occasional Matins and Evensongs. Our love of music is enhanced by our choir which sings one Sunday a month. Each year the church hosts a Benefice Evensong, usually on a summer evening.

Mission and Community outreach St Nicholas Church is very much at the heart of Kingsey Village. The breakfast service has stimulated a number of village activities especially the fete, which is held in the grounds of Tythrop House (Kingsey's manor house). In August 2016, we are planning a mission project to have an ‘Artist in Residence’ to renew our Easter Altar Frontal. We have plans to use this project to explain the link between seasonal colours, worship and the Christian faith. We hope to have engagement with local schools and other organisations as well as talks, displays and refreshments in the church.

The Church Building The Church was built in 1893, has a very fine organ built in 1894 and excellent acoustics. Having been built relatively recently, the church is generally in a reasonably good state of repair. The north side of the roof was re-tiled in 2012. The growth of the breakfast service has re-opened discussions on the practicality of having water, a kitchen and toilet.

Information about our Mission Action Plan can be found here.

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St Michael and All Angels, Aston Sandford Follow this link to find out more Aston Sandford, known as the smallest village in England, lies approximately one mile from Kingsey and Haddenham. Formerly a farming community, there are three farms in the parish, plus a conversion of some farm buildings into small commercial offices.

The Congregation Our typical monthly congregation is about 35 in number. Of these, about 6-10 will be village residents and the remainder come from neighbouring villages. Numbers have been known to increase to around 70 for the Christmas Eve service. Those attending from surrounding villages say they prefer to come to the quiet, traditional, reflective style of service. Whilst the average age of the congregation is high it remains fairly constant as new members come to the Church. There are 21 people on the Electoral Roll of whom 11 are resident in the village.

Services and Community Outreach Aston Sandford holds a Communion service on the third Sunday of each month and services on Easter Sunday, at Harvest Festival, on Remembrance Day and a Carol Service on Christmas Eve. The services are all traditional in style using Common Worship Order 1 and have usually been led by a retired priest who has acted as chaplain to this congregation. After services the congregation is invited to coffee in one of the houses in the village.

The Church Building The Church dates back to the 13th Century and can accommodate only about 50 seated people. It was extensively remodelled in the 1870s to its current form. The roof tiles and bell-cot shingles were completely refurbished in the mid 1990s. There are three bells hanging in the bell-cot. A few of the congregation are being encouraged to learn how to ring the bells so they can be used more often.

Mission history Thomas Scott, grandfather of the architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott, was Rector 1801-1821. He was the author of the commentary known as Scott’s Bibles copies of which are in the church, where he is buried. Founder of the Church Missionary Society, he trained the first missionaries in the Rectory.

Information about our Mission Action Plan can be found here

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Aylesbury Deanery Buckinghamshire is a large, mainly rural county which stretches from the outskirts of London northwards towards the Midlands. The Aylesbury Deanery is one of ten within the archdeaconry of the . The deanery serves Aylesbury town itself, a rapidly expanding urban centre of 70,000; Princes Risborough, a small country market town, and its surrounding communities to the south; and four rural benefices to the west towards Thame, which include the larger villages of Brill, Haddenham, and Stone and smaller community centres and hamlets. The diversity and richness of life in the deanery offers many challenges and opportunities. Working in partnership, it is seeking to engage with the evolving mission in our existing rural and urban communities. It must also respond to the new mission needs of large scale developments around Aylesbury which will eventually house 10,000 – 20,000 more people. One phase has already been completed (Buckingham Park), a second is underway (), including a new school Academy sponsored by the Diocese of Oxford. Building is just beginning in the third (Kingsbrook) and the first houses are due for sale in the second half of 2016.

All new clergy appointments arise from, and reflect, the deanery’s on-going process of mission action planning (MAP) which is guided by the following principles:  The prime concern of MAP is to promote growth in the deanery – both in numbers and depth of discipleship – to identify opportunities in every benefice and parish and how they can be pursued.  This principle means that the deanery is prepared to confront the facts about our current context, ministry and mission plans. Every minister, benefice and parish must engage with the need and potential for doing things differently.  The MAP needs to offer a fullness of Christian ministry for every person in the deanery – a diversity of styles of worship; provision for baptisms, weddings, funerals; Christian teaching and preaching; pastoral and practical care; discipleship support and opportunities to be introduced to the Christian faith.  This principle means that the deanery will not change existing ministry provisions to serve areas of new growth without ensuring that the needs of those currently being served are going to be addressed through creative and innovative use of stipendiary, non-stipendiary, lay ministry and other resources.  In all respects the MAP must seek to enable collaborative ministry and mission – each church expression has gifts and specialisms to offer to others and each also has areas in which it needs the help of others.  This principle means that the deanery’s plans must identify ways to share gifts and resources across the deanery to the benefit of all. Mission and deployment plans will not begin from an assumption that there will have to be formal pastoral re-organisations but the deanery believe that much can be achieved through informal collaborative arrangements. For general information on the Aylesbury area, schools, facilities and future plans follow this link: Living in Aylesbury Vale

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The Diocese of Oxford The Diocese of Oxford serves the mission of the Church in Buckinghamshire, and . The Diocese comprises more than 600 parishes, with over 800 churches, serving a diverse population of more than 2 million people located in all types of settings. There is currently a vacancy for the Diocesan Bishop and an appointment is anticipated sometime in 2016. Due to the size and complexity of the Diocese, we have three Area Bishops who exercise considerable strategic oversight for their Episcopal areas. The is the Rt Revd , who has been the Area Bishop since 2004.

. ‘Living Faith’ directs our Diocesan vision and values. Living Faith places holistic mission and spirituality at the heart of daily life. It contains five key values which inform our strategic directions:  sustaining the sacred centre  creating vibrant Christian communities  making disciples  making a difference in the world  shaping confident collaborative leaders

These values are built on the principles of not neglecting the past but building on it; not so much about strategy but culture; not top down but liberating the local; not targets but directions; not about structures but about relationships; not one size fits all but flexibility and not about complexity but elegance. We are currently exploring and consulting on how Living Faith needs to be taken forward in the future. It is expected that all clergy appointed into the Archdeaconry of Buckingham will want to commit themselves to this Diocesan vision and its strategic directions.

Full information on Living Faith for the future can be found here.

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Appendix A: Sunday Services:

Sunday 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th in month 8.30am 8.30am HC (BCP) [20] HC (BCP) [20]

9.30am-12.30pm 10.30am 10.30am 10.30am 10.30am Caféplus+ in Morning worship All Age Worship Morning worship Morning worship village hall with communion. often with Baptisms with communion. (mission-focussed) HADDENHAM *[150 with [100]*# [100]* [100]#* [85]* 30% non-church]# 6.30pm 6.30pm 6.30pm Praise Service, Wellspring HC (CW) Benefice Evensong informal service with prayer for (rotates around the with a worship peace and wholeness benefice) [50]* band (25)* [20]* 8.30am HC (BCP) 10am 10am 10am All Age Communion Family Service All Age Communion [59] [59]* shared service STONE 4pm AT DINTON with Stone 6pm Living Stones Methodist Chapel Evening Prayer (messy church) at (rotates with Stone Dinton)* Methodist Chapel*#

6pm 10am 10am Evening Prayer Morning Prayer HC (CW) DINTON AT STONE AT STONE (rotates with (BCP) [59]* [59]# Stone)*

10am 10am 10am 10am 10am HC (CW) All Age Worship HC (CW) Morning Worship Morning Worship CUDDINGTON [55]*# [70]* [55]*# [45]*# [55]*#

9.15am 9.15am 9.15am The Kingsey HC (BCP) with HC (BCP) Said KINGSEY Breakfast Service Benefice choir [11]

[27]* [18]

11am ASTON HC SANDFORD (CW – Order 1, Traditional lang.) [35] * Services which are lay led or have significant lay involvement (most services have lay people read and take intercessions). # Services where children and young people spend part of the service in their own special activities. [00] Usual Sunday attendance at each service

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Appendix B: Provisional Benefice Mission Action Plan Prior to merger, the parishes of Haddenham, Cuddington, Kingsey and Aston Sandford worked together to develop the following strategic goals. Having set out our vision and values in the new Wychert Vale Covenant, it is hoped that we will also develop a new combined mission action plan in the next couple of years. This will replace the one below and each parish will be also developing their own MAPs in harmony with the emerging benefice one.

Worshipping God, Serving Community, Sharing Life.

1. To strengthen our pastoral care at Benefice level Most of our ministry is provided by volunteers, both Lay and Ordained. We have a large elderly population and many young families. The pastoral needs can be most effectively met by developing pastoral care teams and networks in each of the parishes. These need further development and strengthening, by providing the carers with support and training, as well as seeking to grow the volunteer teams, for general visiting, bereavement care and home communion.

2. To strengthen our youth and children’s ministry St Mary’s, Haddenham has been developing an effective youth ministry and we would like to develop youth cell groups in Cuddington and Stone. We also need to develop further ministry among the many young families within all our congregations and out in the wider villages. We hope to do this through services, Fresh Expressions ministry, other church-based activities and through our links with our benefice schools. We need to build up our volunteer teams. In our schools we have been successfully using ‘Open the Book’ for three years. As we come to the end of the programme, we need to review and devise a plan for the future.

3. To reach out in mission In village communities we frequently find ourselves ‘Sharing Life’ through ‘Serving Community’. We continue to raise our profile as parish churches and strengthen our role at the heart of our communities, through occasional offices (baptisms, weddings and funerals) and informal community involvement in our villages, for example through local events, through our schools (above) and work with elderly people. We also plan to hold benefice confirmation groups and parish enquirers groups in 2016.

4. To retain and strengthen our diversity of worship We have a whole range of types of worship within and across the five parishes, which is one of the strengths of our benefice. We will continue to enrich our worship at parish level. We plan to improve communications to facilitate those moving to our parishes to find a place of worship as well as helping existing members connect more fully.

5. To continue the process of coming together to form the Wychert Vale Benefice We have been very pleased with the positive coming together of our new benefice. Our key aims have been to develop good relationships and a proper agreement. All the parishes have affirmed our benefice covenant and we now need to establish this. We are delighted to have been offered the increased clergy resourcing for the new benefice. We are prayerfully seeking a new full time Associate Rector, and we are looking forward to Nadine Rose coming as our curate in July. We will need to support our new clergy and our ministry team as it begins this new phase.