Team Vicar in the Wilford Peninsula Team Ministry – Rendlesham Cluster PROFILE All Saints’, Eyke. St Edmund’s, Bromeswell “ Help us build our church at the “We are a living, heart of community.” lively church” St Gregory the Great, Rendlesham St Felix of Dunwich, Rendlesham St John the Baptist, Wantisden CONTENTS Page 1. Overview of the area and the Team Ministry 3 2. Introduction to the Rendlesham Cluster 6 3. Our villages – their localities and populations 7 4. Our church buildings 10 5. Strengths, opportunities and challenges 14 6. What are we looking for? what do we offer? 16 7. How we worship 18 8. Taizé worship 21 9. Youth, children, worship and pastoral care 22 10. The Ministry Team, Parochial Church Councils, supporting the church 24 11. Our mission and the Germinate initiative 25 12. The Vicarage 27 13. St Edmundsbury & Ipswich Diocese 28 Table 1: Existing pattern of services 31 Table 2: Parish statistics 32 2 1. OVERVIEW OF THE AREA AND THE TEAM MINISTRY Rendlesham Cluster is part of the Wilford Peninsula Team Ministry, which is the largest benefice in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich. The benefice is referred to as a Team Ministry throughout this profile. The Diocese is divided into Deaneries, overseen by two Archdeacons. Our Team Ministry, together with 5 other benefices which constitute the Woodbridge Deanery, lies in the eastern Archdeaconry of Suffolk. The Team Ministry has 17 parishes and 18 church buildings, a population of 8,500 and covers an area some 10 miles by 14 miles. Suffolk Coastal District Council is the local authority covering the area, almost all of which falls within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The landscape is coastline, sandlings, heath and woodland with gently rolling arable farmland. Two former US Air Force bases - for Woodbridge and Rendlesham – have left legacies which have helped shape the present team ministry. Occupied during the Cold War, then abandoned, these now host varying sizes of housing developments, business premises and growing local communities. 3 There are 6 primary schools across the team ministry – 3 state maintained (Rendlesham, Hollesley and Sutton Heath Sandlings) and 3 either voluntary aided or controlled by the Church of England (Bawdsey, Eyke and Orford). There is no secondary provision locally, most children moving on to state academies at Farlingaye High School in Woodbridge or Thomas Mills in Framlingham. Primary medical care is provided by a group practice with branches in Orford and Alderton, and by another practice centred in neighbouring Wickham Market with a branch in Rendlesham. The nearest general hospital is in Ipswich. There are 2 care homes for elderly people, including frail elderly, in Rendlesham and in Hollesley. There is light but no heavy industry. There are some large family farms, which offer permanent and seasonal employment and whose former patriarchy has left a legacy of pastoral care within the communities. Elsewhere housing developments and employment opportunities have drawn young families to the area, many of whom have not been brought up in the church tradition, creating a challenge towards mission, to engage those who may be new to church. 17 out of 18 churches have medieval origins and all have their tales to tell, of social and ecclesiastical history: a 6th century recanting of a new Christian faith, Domesday Book mentions, right up to the reconsecration of an American chapel. The area attracts people for weekends and holidays and second homes have grown in number, their owners often later retiring here, bringing their professional interests and experience, and this pattern is reflected in the age profile. Services are maintained in each church building at least twice a month, save one, which has become for practical purposes a ’festival church’. Orford Church is closely linked to the Aldeburgh Music Festival and Snape Maltings and with its rich acoustic has become a favourite concert and recital venue. The installation of a 1976 Peter Collins organ, a gift to the church, has just been approved. Music is, unsurprisingly, much loved across the Team Ministry; there is an accomplished choir in the Orford Cluster and music groups in the other two Clusters, including singers and instrumentalists. A Team Ministry-wide Music Group is anticipated within the next twelve months. The Team Rector (full time) is responsible for the parishes of the Orford Cluster – in Orford, Sudbourne, Butley, Chillesford, Iken and Tunstall. A full time Team Vicar is responsible for the parishes lower down the peninsula in the Hollesley Cluster – Boyton, Hollesley, Alderton, Bawdsey, Ramsholt, Shottisham and Sutton. The Team Vicar vacancy covers the parishes of the Rendlesham Cluster in Rendlesham, Eyke, Bromeswell and Wantsiden. There is one Methodist church in the area (at Orford) and four Baptist/independent churches (Tunstall, Sudbourne, Bromeswell, Boyton). There is a small but growing amount of ecumenical work between the denominations including a popular Quayside service in the summer at Orford, which gives thanks and prays for fishermen, sailors and lifeguards. ‘Praise in the Park’ brings Church of England and Baptists together every June in the marquee at Jubilee Park, Rendlesham. 4 The stipendiary Ministry Team is augmented by Readers, retired clergy as well as a Lay Pastor and Elders. There may be changes by 2023 when retirement may reduce the number of stipendiary clergy in the area. Services are mixed in style, ranging from Book of Common Prayer (BCP), Common Worship (CW), Family@Church to informal services/gatherings. Compline and Taizé offer shorter, meditative services. And for children and youth there is ‘Open the Book’, after-school clubs and holiday clubs for younger children across the Team Ministry, and a café club for youth, teens and young adults run with a Christian ethos by EvnU and EvnUth. The whole Team Ministry has since January 2018 been participating in the ‘Germinate’ project, which is organized through the Diocese, and is now embarking on its considered initiatives to grow the Church, responding to sociological and cultural change and in line with the overarching mission of ‘Growing in God’. The first priority is to develop communications across all parishes to consider possible benefits of interactive websites as well as co-ordinated leaflet dropping and use of poster displays to let our communities know what is taking place and invite them to participate. “Our future is exciting” “Community with God at its heart” 5 2. INTRODUCTION TO THE RENDLESHAM CLUSTER The Cluster covers about 15 square miles and extends along the A1152 from Bromeswell to Eyke, then to Rendlesham and beyond to take in Wantisden, which borders both Tunstall and Butley, on the south-east side of the Bentwaters US Air Force base. The road was designated an ‘A’ road to reflect the volumes of traffic when the airbase was in use. It marks the boundary of the AONB. The fast growing Rendlesham village is on the north-west side. Bromeswell is just over 3 miles east of the market town of Woodbridge, which lies attractively on the River Deben and provides the nearest shopping, supermarket and leisure facilities. An hourly train service on the Lowestoft line, connects to Ipswich and the mainline service to London (80 minutes). Coming from Woodbridge the next station is Melton, a mile closer to Bromeswell. The bus service is hourly Monday to Saturday to Rendlesham and on towards Aldeburgh, and in the other direction through Woodbridge to Ipswich. Reliance on cars and sharing of transport has created a challenge to meet the reasonable needs of teenagers for out of school activities and clubs. Other attractions include an award-winning gastro pub/restaurant ‘The Unruly Pig’. The well- loved ‘Elephant and Castle Inn’ in Eyke has been closed but people hope it will reopen soon. There are sporting opportunities here, at the Woodbridge Rugby Club, Woodbridge Golf Club, and Bromeswell Fishing Lakes. Sailing, walking, and bird-watching are all popular. Overlooking the River Deben and Woodbridge beyond is the Sutton Hoo site, owned and operated by the National Trust with the burial mounds of King Raedwald and his long ship, thought to have been buried early in the 7th century and excavated from 1939. Rendlesham Hall, a former landmark at the edge of the village towards Tunstall, was demolished in 1949, with housing development now earmarked in the Suffolk Coastal Local Plan for some of its parkland. On the other side of the road the former airbase runs southeast into Rendlesham Forest, renowned for a reported sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) in 1980. The forest was devastated by the storm of October 1987, but has recovered well. The boundaries of the Clusters have changed over time and whilst this has created the challenge of getting to know a new parish community, or, alternatively, a new Team Vicar, it has led to a certain disregard for barriers. Relatively small groups of disciples are increasingly willing to join together in worship and other activities. A strong team now exists to support the Team Vicar both in the organisation of church activities and in leading worship. 6 3. OUR VILLAGES – THEIR LOCALITIES AND POPULATIONS BROMESWELL “An overall sense of prosperity without obvious affluence” The village is close to Woodbridge yet spread out, and cherishes the rural heath and arable farmland as well as commanding views over the River Deben estuary, with access to sailing, fishing and golf. It extends half a mile or so from the A1152 to a picturesque centre around the church. The population is around 320, older than the national and diocesan averages with fewer younger people. Housing is mostly detached and owner-occupied, beyond the means of younger families and most first time buyers. The village would like to see more social housing to help younger people stay close to where they were brought up, and prevent isolation and loneliness for both the younger and the older generations.