Parish Priest & Development Adviser Bolingbroke Deanery OUR VOCATION Our calling from God is to work together across the Bolingbroke Team to reconnect dispersed communities with the transforming love of Jesus through our fellowship, inclusiveness and service OUR VISION In 5yrs time we aim to have more visible links between people of faith and our local communities by working together in a ministry of encouragement across boundaries. To achieve our vision we will: Promote a Culture of Invitation Create a Schools Group Hold an Annual Schools Festival in the Deanery Provide High Quality Hospitality Spilsby Stickney Marden Hill Partney South Ormsby 1 The Church in the rural parts of Lincolnshire is being led by God and His people to work in a very different way from the expected model of Church. The Church of England, for a long time, has had the expectation of one priest with one church hard wired into its psyche, however unusual that situation has now become. In fact, the idea of a Group of Parishes was very successfully invented and developed in our Deanery. The South Ormsby Group, in the north of the Deanery, has for 60 years been a powerful expression of God’s love to people within and beyond its boundaries. However, the basic concept that we can continue to keep the parish system alive by continually making larger and larger groups to create a Group that fits the available resources and supply of incumbents is evidently destined to failure. Thirty Churches to one incumbent is unworkable and unsellable. Nor is it acceptable that we make the shape fit our “ideal” by closing down Churches and concentrating on a few centres. This simply pretends that all is well with the “Parish” when in fact all we are doing is becoming just another gathered congregation. In Bolingbroke Deanery we believe that God is calling us to use the tremendous resource we have been given, people and plant, in a way we don’t yet fully understand, yet seems to be based on the renewal/revival of small groups of Christians living and praying within their own communities and groups. We are looking for a priest who will help us all to take this vision forward and help co- ordinate the many different initiatives that will result if we continually put ourselves in God’s way. The idea is to free the individual as much as possible to be creative, receptive and innovative in the context of an area that is ripe for fresh growth. There is nothing new under the sun but change is part of the living process and we need to find expressions of the Gospel that are appropriate for our context. We don’t want to restrict the field to any particular tradition or type but we need a person who will delight in all of our life together and bring out the rich gifts that are so often not allowed to grow. The task is not to do it for us but to enable us all to become what we truly are. We work collegially both in the individual Clusters and across the whole area. The Glory of God is a human being fully alive and our shared mission is to celebrate and assist life where ever we find it. http://lincoln.ourchurchweb.org.uk/spilsby/ 2 If you join us, you will experience a wide and varied ministry stretching from the Stickney Cluster in the South… Old Station Picnic Area Stickney …to South Ormsby in the North. Blue Stone Heath Road From Snipe Dales County Park in the West… Wetland Area in the Country Park …to Candlesby in the East. Edge of the chalk wolds 3 With the market town of Spilsby at the centre. Sir John Franklin's Statue- Spilsby High Street Spilsby has significant historical links, being the birthplace of Sir John Franklin, Lincolnshire’s most famous explorer, and just down the road is Somersby, the birthplace of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Old Bolingbroke is the birthplace of Henry IV, and Partney is the birthplace of Henry Stubbe, physician and scholar. The Bolingbroke Deanery also holds tales of the end of life, most notoriously the story of Priscilla Biggadyke from Stickney, hanged in 1868 for the murder of her husband, a murder which she was later found not to have committed. This is an area rich in history, situated in an area of amazing beauty, wolds and fen. Lincoln 4 Diocese showing the Bolingbroke Deanery The Diocese of Lincoln The context in which we minister “Outsiders had strange views about the shire and its inhabitants, which opinions were not infrequently based upon profound ignorance.” For many people, Lincolnshire remains an unexplored territory somewhere in the north or the south, or the midlands or the east, according to perspective. In truth it is a huge area (2,673 square miles) which is impossible to pigeon-hole with any accuracy. The terrain runs from fenland to wolds, from hamlets to industrialised conurbations and from coast to the rolling countryside of the shires. What follows cannot encapsulate the diversity that is Lincolnshire but is intended as a starting point: Lincoln is the largest diocese of the Church of England by area. The south eastern area is mainly fen and has many links with East Anglia. The south and south west are increasingly part of London’s commuter belt and often look to local centres outside the Diocese such as Peterborough, Nottingham, Doncaster and Hull, for commerce or culture. The centre is essentially part of the East Midlands, although the east coast, being more holiday resort orientated, is quite different. The Wolds are distinctively rural; but Gainsborough and Scunthorpe, with some significant deprivation, correspond in many ways to former mining towns of Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire. Much of the northern area, which contains a mix of urban and rural, is linked by economic and transport infrastructure to the North of England. The Diocese is largely either urban or rural, with comparatively little suburbia. The Diocese contains areas of considerable post-industrial deprivation, the richest agricultural land in the UK and pockets of modern industry and commerce. The many small market towns of Lincolnshire often serve as the focus for significant areas of countryside which surround them. 5 Population The population of the Diocese is 1,038,800. The County of Lincolnshire is the fourth most sparsely populated in England which reflects the substantial areas of agricultural land. However, the majority of people in the Diocese live in urban areas; Grimsby and Cleethorpes, 130,000; Scunthorpe, 88,000; and the City of Lincoln, 94,000. The population is slightly older than the UK average, with an associated burden on local authorities and churches alike. The establishment of two top flight Universities in Lincoln has, over the past few years, substantially changed the demography of the city and brought with it a breadth of education and employment. Subject to the usual regional variations, the overall picture is one of low unemployment, but also of lower than average wages and considerable job insecurity. Cultural Diversity Ethnic minorities comprise only 2% of the population, mostly scattered in very small clusters. The largest single BME community in the Diocese is of 2,000 people of Asian ethnicity in Scunthorpe. The majority have English as a second language. Seasonally labour-intensive agricultural and tourist industries rely on migrant, mainly European, labour but there are also increasing numbers of permanent or semi-permanent European immigrants. Artistic Culture and Diversity Lincoln, largely through the Cathedral, has a strong musical tradition and is on the tour circuit for a number of nationally recognised companies including the Halle Orchestra, English Touring Opera and The 16. 6 The Ministry Team of the Bolingbroke Deanery A United Deanery to be worked in Parish Clusters Whole Deanery a United Mission Community The Bolingbroke Deanery Plan is growing towards all the parishes of the Deanery becoming part of One United Mission Community. This will make Bolingbroke Deanery into one ecclesiastical unit but each Parish will remain a distinct area with its own PCC. At present we work with two United Benefices, Bolingbroke Team & South Ormsby (looking to become a United Parish). Working as a Team Ministry Twelve years ago each of the Deanery’s 5 Groups had its own incumbent (Vicar, Rector, Priest in Charge) but this is no longer practicable or even sustainable. As a team the clergy and lay ministers will work together to serve the whole area. Parish Clusters We value the relationship between a Parish and its Parson. Working together initially with the 5 existing clusters, a person is to be chosen as designated Parish Minister for each cluster of Parishes. That person can be ordained or lay, stipendiary or not, chosen by the PCCs to be part of the deanery ministry team under the guidance of the Rector/RD. In our case the team will consist of: 3.25 Full Time Clergy & 1 Half Time Team Administrator (currently 1.5 Full time + 1.75 vacancy & 1 Half time Administrator) Rector based in Spilsby – Canon Peter Coates • Parish Priest & Deanery Facilitator (RD) Vicar based in North of Deanery (Partney & South Ormsby Clusters) – You? • Parish Priest & Deanery Development (Intern co-ordinator) Vicar based in South of Deanery (Stickney) - The Rev’d Fran Jeffries • Parish Priest & Diocesan Developing Discipleship Advisor Team Administrator (Half Time) in Deanery Office in Spilsby – Mrs Jane Howsam “House for Duty Priest Type Posts” ?? • aspiration to appoint .25 HfD post The staffing structure is considered necessary because of several factors: • Volunteer & Lay Ministries need time to develop 7 • No slack (health problems have high impact) • Recruitment • High value people place on Full time Ministers • Continuity of Leadership The Deanery Synod has committed itself to maintain at least the level of giving requested by the Diocese.