The Parish of St Mary with St Peter and St Jude London SW10

2016 PARISH PROFILE

Rooted in faith, Open in thought, Reaching out in service

This profile describes the conditions, needs and traditions of the parish in five parts with an appendix:

Part 1 Overview Part 2 Person Specification – What we seek in a Vicar Part 3 Sunday and Mid-week Worship and Activities Part 4 Our resources and parish geography Part 5 Where we are now and where we would like to be

Appendices A. Mission Statement B. Further sources of information C. Capital Vision 2020 D. Attendance and Financial Statistics E. The Vicarage; Description, photos, and floor plans

Part 1: Overview

We are a Eucharist based church in the best central Anglican tradition.

Our vision is to be rooted in faith, open in thought and reaching out in service.

Our mission is to bear witness to the great commandment to love God with all our hearts and minds and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

We consider our strengths to be; that we welcome everyone, that we respect diversity and are non-judgemental about social status, gender, sexual orientation or diversity of belief.

Our Parish is in a residential area of inner south west London (SW10), in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. There are good transport links, shopping and services on Fulham Road, Kings Road and Brompton Road are within easy walking distance.

Situated in an obviously wealthy area, St Mary’s stands as a symbol of openness and inclusivity with 50% of the congregation travelling in from outside the parish.

The wealth of the area is not, however, reflected in our financial statement.

Church Attendance: Average Sunday morning attendance, including children, in 2015 was 98, and average number of people taking Communion on Sundays was 76.

Electoral Roll: 202 at 2015 AGM.

Team: Three paid administrative staff (Administrator, Verger, Cleaner) and a self-employed Director of Music.

Finances: We have experienced two lean years, running deficits. This year we budgeted for a reduced deficit this year. We now expect to end the year with a balanced budget. Free reserves are lower than we would like, but restricted funds held in a trust fund provide some support for building maintenance issues. We have an established Planned Giving Programme and an active programme of giving to other charities.

Buildings: Victorian church, Grade 2 Listed, well maintained with 20th century church hall and flat attached. The Vicarage is a short ten-minute walk away.

This profile provides an insight into the life of our parish. Please explore our website at http://www.stmarytheboltons.org.uk/ where you will find current news, Annual Reports and the Clarion, our parish magazine.

Part 2: Person Specification - What we seek in a new Vicar

- A priest who will lead us in Christ, be a bridge and a bond between church, parish and the wider community, and develop our worship within the central tradition of the Church of England.

- A gifted and confident communicator, who, through teaching and preaching, is able to make us think, rather than teach us what to think. We are seeking a person who can listen and respond to the needs of the congregation. We appreciate both bible-based and thematic teaching, bringing living theology together with real life experience within our rich culture of liturgical music and religious art.

- A spiritual leader with ceremonial respect for the Sacraments, who will be visible and present to the congregation and the wider parish, willing to network and build relationships with a great variety of people. We are seeking a person who understands the value of a good media and social media profile for the parish.

- A vicar who is confident with the administrative work of parish life and who recognises and values the contributions that all members of the congregation can make. We are seeking a person who prioritises spiritual leadership and pastoral work while managing the day-to-day details and delegating effectively to paid staff and volunteers.

- A person of prayer who will thrive as a leader in a host of settings, from silent retreats to children’s worship, from small groups to large occasions. We are looking for a person who will pray with us and for us, whose own life is underpinned by prayer, and whose own discipleship inspires discipleship in others.

Part 3: Sunday and mid-week worship

Sunday Worship

Holy Communion at 8.00 am is a said service with a small but regular attendance using the Book of Common Prayer. A member of the congregation usually serves at the altar.

In practice the church starts to come alive soon after 9.00 am with the arrival of the Director of Music, then choir members or professional soloist(s). A team of 3-4 Sidespeople usually arrive 30 minutes before the service to provide a warm welcome to everyone.

Sung Parish Eucharist at 10.30am with hymns, a psalm, sermon and often an anthem. A voluntary Parish Choir sings at the popular festivals, and most Sunday’s one member is cantor for a responsorial psalm. Until recently funding was available for a professional soloist for some other Sundays to sing as cantor and also to provide an anthem during Communion. Music plays an important part in our worship and at Christmas and Easter our budget still extends to employing professionals to provide music of a high quality. All Age worship usually happens once a term, when Sunday School stays for the whole service.

During the 10.30 service a combined Sunday School and Little Lambs programme is currently run, for all children from birth to confirmation, by parent volunteers. Sunday school begins in the hall after the first reading, returning briefly for a blessing while adults receive Communion, and at the end of the service to share their learning.

Refreshments are served in the south transept after the 10.30 am service and many stay for a further half hour of conversation and fellowship. Parish Lunch is served in the church hall on the first Sunday of each month.

Mid-week worship and activities

Morning Prayer is said on most weekdays at 8.30 am.

Holy Communion is celebrated on Wednesdays at 12 noon. This is a said service and takes place in the Lady Chapel. On the first Wednesday of each month it incorporates prayers for healing. Attendance varies from three to twelve and occasionally more.

Our Bible Study Group meets on Monday evenings. The group would appreciate additional input. There is an active prayer network that responds to particular and ongoing needs. Another group, which for some years had been meeting for silent prayer at home, has recently started to meet in church. As a result the silent prayer group is growing.

The church is open during the day on weekdays from 8.30am to 2.00pm and very often at other times as well, attracting many visitors for prayer and stillness. A number of local community groups and schools make regular use of the church for larger assemblies, recitals and school concerts or study workshops. These include:

 Bousfield Primary School  Falkner House Girls School  Help the Aged  The Children’s Heart Foundation  Alcoholics Anonymous  The RNLI  London City Singers  St Mellitus College

During Advent there are usually two or three charity carol concerts in church.

PART 4: Our resources

The team The Vicar would be the only ordained member of staff. The administrative team consists of:  Parish Administrator, part time, 20 hours per week, appointed September 2016  Verger, full time, lives on site, in post for ten years  Director of Music, self-employed, appointed in 2012  Cleaner, part time, appointed 2014

Volunteers The PCC has 15 members (including ex officio members) and meets about five times each year and usually spends a Saturday together in January for review and planning.

Volunteers also run our Charities Committee, Communications Group, Adult Formation Group, Buildings Group, and Hospitality Team. A Volunteer Booklet was produced as a result of the 2014 Away Day (available on the website). We would like to widen our pool of volunteers.

The buildings St Mary’s church is a well-maintained, grade 2 listed Victorian building with fixed pews in the nave. It underwent a thorough restoration programme in 2000 when all the pews in the north and south transepts were removed and some from the west end of the nave. The most recent Quinquennial survey, completed in September 2016, indicates that there is some work to be done defrassing stone work.

A notable new feature of the church is the Craigie Aitchison Memorial Window - the Crucifixion - which was installed in 2012. A new sound system was also installed in 2012. An office for the Vicar was created in the south porch when the church was restored, together with a glazed room for children under the gallery (with speakers to allow parents to hear the service). At other times it is used as a small meeting room. A mezzanine office in the Vestry comprises a computer deskspace and meeting area. The Parish Administrator works from an office under the gallery on the opposite side of the nave from the small meeting room.

A Faculty has been granted for the installation of radio masts and telecommunications equipment in the tower. In October 2016 construction work commenced f or the installation of the masts. This involves significant work to upgrade access to the tower room where the telecommunication equipment will be installed. This project will meet a long term aim to upgrade the access to the tower room (regularly featured in previous Quinquennial Reports and in the church’s Risk Assessment) and will provide additional income for the parish.

The church hall was built on to the church in the mid-1960s. It consists of a large hall on the ground floor with a small, well used kitchen. The hall kitchen is in need of a major overhaul to continue to meet its level of use. The lavatories were comprehensively refurbished in 2014.

Above the large hall there is a one-bedroom flat (the Verger’s accommodation), a store room and a small hall. Both the large hall and the upper hall are let during weekdays to OSFTED registered Paint Pots Paint Pots Montessori School (http://www.paint-pots.co.uk/the-boltons/).

A new 10 year lease is currently under negotiation to replace the existing arrangements which expires in January 2017. The lower hall is let most weekday evenings to community groups and the upper hall is let on an occasional basis. At weekends the large hall is regularly used for children’s parties. Although easily accessible from church, the hall complex is self- contained and sound insulation is good.

The car park provides a further source of income. The Parish Administrator has discretion to set a charge appropriate for the user.

The church lies at the heart of The Boltons Conservation Area. The large enclosed gardens, immediately adjacent to the building, are part of the Quiet Garden scheme. These are open to the public during the day and are locked at night, providing additional security for the church. The neighbouring gardens of The Boltons are for keyholders only. We enjoy good relations with our neighbours who permit us to have our annual Summer Fair in the north garden. The Boltons Residents Association, having provided external flood lighting for the church, pay for some of this running cost.

The Vicarage is a short walk from the church at 24 Fawcett Street. Property particulars are in the Appendix. In September 2016 the external redecoration of the Vicarage began, the final colour scheme may differ from the photos in the Appendix D. Scaffolding will remain in place into October and possibly beyond.

Financial Resources The PCC aims to have a reserve of unrestricted funds equal to six months restricted operating expenditure. In the last two years it has run deficits which have used up some of our previous reserves. Total gift aided income and income tax recovered have in most years covered our contribution to the Diocesan Common Fund. In 2017 the Common Fund contribution will be £82,215. We may struggle to meet this key financial ratio, but we will maintain our commitment to contributing 105% of the Standard Parish Cost. An Annual Stewardship Programme is now a fixture in parish life. It is evident from our financial accounts that the PCC relies on rental income to cover its total budget (previously from the

hall but in future we will also benefit from the income generated by the mobile phone masts. The PCC is very conscious of the need to make regular investment in the fabric of the hall complex to maximise income.

St Mary’s benefits from three trust funds, each with a distinct purpose. The largest fund can clearly be used to invest in property and we have explored how to access the capital in the others. The long term aim is to use the combined resources for investment in a residential property that could be used to provide accommodation for an Associate Vicar. Given the current strength of the property market in London, we anticipate that it will be necessary to borrow additional funds to achieve this. Prior to the recent two years of losses we had anticipated that rental income from the mast project might go towards this project.

A donation of £2,000 is held as a restricted fund for spending at the discretion of the incoming Vicar. This is a one-off fund. The PCC will pay normal clergy expenses in full.

More about the geography of the Parish Institutions: There are no Church of England schools within the parish, but Bousfield Primary School lies immediately to the north of the church and for the last few years a member of the parish has been a member of the governing body. Bousfield Primary uses the church for assemblies and lends support for our Summer Fair. Our nearest church school is in the neighbouring parish of St Cuthbert with St Matthias. A number of volunteers from St Mary’s participate in a reading support scheme at St Cuthberts School. St Mellitus College, which opened in November 2012 at St Jude’s Church is located within the parish. We hope to build a stronger relationship with the College as it grows. St Mary’s has provided overflow space for study groups during the last academic year and we are discussing the possibility of doing the same for the current academic year. (https://www.stmellitus.org/)

Three hospitals are within a few minutes’ walk of the parish: the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust Hospital, the Royal Brompton Hospital and the Royal Marsden Hospital. An established care and nursing home, St Teresa’s, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, lies just within the parish. From time-to-time there are residents and elderly parishioners who appreciate home communion.

Social Need Overview: The Church Urban Fund mapping of the Index of Multiple Deprivation shows that the larger part of the parish is in the ‘Less Deprived than Average’ category. There are areas in the north of the parish that fall into the ‘About Average’ category and some parts to the north east of the parish fall into the ‘More Deprived than Average’ category. Cost of housing locally in extremely high and there are high barriers to obtaining housing; less than 10% of the population lives in social housing.

Part 5: Where we are now and where we would like to be

Having enjoyed seventeen years of stability and security our Parish has come through two years of uncertainty; 15 months of interregnum through 2014/15 and an incumbency that lasted for less than a year.

We are united in our desire to grow our trust and faith, and to heal. There are issues we recognise which will need to be explored/examined/discussed/raised with the Patrons and Parish Representatives by those called to interview.

We recently adapted our offering for the younger age group by running our Little Lambs and Sunday School together. This group requires support and direction.

We have adopted a new approach for our parish choir turning it into a Come and Sing Choir. The musical programme draws on amateur singers, both children and adults from the congregation as well as professional singers and instrumentalists. This is a co-habitation relatively rare in central London churches and is one of St Mary’s distinctive features which the congregation would like to see continued. Though traditional music is treasured, there is an openness of thought as demonstrated by the PCC’s decision to adopt the new A&M ‘Hymns and Songs for Refreshing Worship’ soon after its publication.

We hope to attract more people from the parish’s largest demographic group, those aged 30- 44, into our mainstream activities and to grow our pool of volunteers.

Financially, we would like to be a community that continues to pay its own way, and is generous in sharing with others. Socially, we would like to be both a bridge and a bond in a time when wealth and faith are increasing divisions. Our Mission Plan states that we aim to be rooted in faith, open in thought and reaching out in service. In Advent 2014, we looked again at what this meant for us individually, as a Parish, and also in the context of the wider church.

The rootedness of our faith and the openness of our thought is the love of God though the presence of Jesus Christ. We are a community on a journey from darkness to light. Join us. We travel with peace and love in our hearts, knowing that as an older congregation we must ensure that in the next incumbency there must be an intergenerational transfer of our values. These things have been given to us and these things we are ready to share.

Appendices

Appendix A: Mission Statement and Mission Action Plan

St Mary’s is a community that aims to be rooted in faith, open in thought and reaching out in service.

Our mission is to bear witness to the great commandment to love God with all our hearts and minds and strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

We will do this by

 Worshipping and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ  Supporting people in their journey of faith through teaching, discussion and study of God's word  Engaging openly with and promoting without prejudice the issues of social justice in our community and the world  Caring for the whole of God's creation

St Mary’s will interpret these aims in the light of the London Diocese Capital Vision 2020 to be confident, compassionate and creative http://www.london.anglican.org/mission/capitalvision-2020/

Appendix B: Other sources of information on the internet

Our website: http://www.stmarytheboltons.org.uk/

Streetview: https://www.instantstreetview.com/@51.488908,-0.184657,63.92h,18.33p,1z

Church Urban Fund: http://www2.cuf.org.uk/parish/230183

Church of England: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/parishfinder.php?SW10%209TB

https://www.churchofengland.org/media/2432327/2014statisticsformission.pdf

Appendix C: Capital Vision 2020

As part of the Diocese of London, we share a vision of a church in 2020 that is Christ- centred and outward looking. This vision was the product of almost 2,000 conversations across the Diocese in 2012, distilled into Capital Vision 2020 which was launched at St Paul’s Cathedral on 6 June 2013.

As a Diocese our vision is that we will be:

More confident in living and speaking the Gospel of Jesus Christ

More compassionate in serving communities with the love of God the Father

More creative in reaching new people and places with the Good News in the power of the Spirit

To enable this we have committed to 10 priorities. These are areas where we will become sharper and more purposeful in the coming years. Each church within the Diocese has been asked ‘How will you be part of the story?’ It is vital that each parish plays a role in making this vision a reality over the coming years, both by considering its own vision within the context of the diocesan vision and by prayerfully working within deanery, area and Diocese to make this a reality.

Capital Vision 2020 is expressed in a 90 second film, http://vimeo.com/dioceseoflondon/capitalvision2020 and detailed on our website www.london.anglican.org

Appendix D: Attendance and Financial Statistics

Statistics from the registers 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 Communions: Easter 126 106 108 Christmas Midnight 126 106 101 Christmas Morning 97 76 101 Sunday Average 73 78 77 Average Sunday morning attendance 106 107 104 (inc. children) Occasional Offices: Baptisms 37 27 31 Confirmations 1 6 6 Weddings 9 12 8 Blessing of Marriage after Civil 0 0 1 Ceremony Funerals in church 3 3 9 Memorial Services 3 5 3 Electoral Roll 202 210 186 187 227

Financial Statistics 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 £ £ £ £ £ Total Incoming Resources 179,560 217,622 235,668 272,171 246,093 Total Resources Expended 206,455 230,367 223,888 280,202 244,277 Net Incoming/ (outgoing) resources -26,895 -12,745 11,780 -8,031 1,816 Net Assets 72,619 99,514 112,259 100,479 108,510 Planned giving plus Income tax 75,313 80,219 106,982 88,999 87,931 Common Fund contribution 78,000 76,385 74,160 72,000 69,000

Appendix E: St Mary’s Vicarage, 24 Fawcett Street, London SW10

This family home is situated in an attractive tree lined street of similar properties just a short walk from St Mary’s. The accommodation is arranged over four floors, which offers flexibility of occupation. The attached plans will give an idea of layout, and potential occupation for our new incumbent to consider. The lovely rear garden is unusually large for central London and very private.

The lower ground floor (with garden access) is an example of the occupation choice available with two main rooms and a bathroom at this level, ideal for a family with children/teenagers or visitors who may be staying.

In essence, the Vicarage is an elegant south facing Victorian house in close proximity to the shops and restaurants of the Fulham Road and is located in a prime residential position with immediate access to amenities including schools, buses, tubes, museums, art galleries and theatres.

All that Central London has to offer is within easy reach.

Accommodation

The generous living space on each floor level is afforded good natural light and high ceilings.

There is a kitchen overlooking the garden at ground floor level; a bathroom/toilet at lower ground;

Two further toilets at the second floor; a shower room and an additional bathroom-dressing room with built in wardrobes, also at second floor level.

Floor Plan of the Vicarage