The United Benefice of , and Withybrook

Parish Profile 2016

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BISHOP’S INTRODUCTION

Wolvey is a lovely village in the north of , within easy travelling distance of the M6, M1 and M69 motorway systems. It is also very close to some nationally known Carp fishing lakes!

The fishing analogy might be useful for this part-time role however, as the post provides an excellent opportunity to ‘fish’ spiritually in one major lake and two smaller lakes – the village of Wolvey and the two smaller villages of Copston Magna and Withybrook.

The villages would benefit from a priest who will lovingly help the congregations begin the processes of change towards becoming inwardly and spiritually healthier, and also more outward-looking and growth oriented.

The post has the advantage of Wolvey being a reasonably self-contained village with a Church of school, so there are very positive opportunities for village ministry without having an unsustainable number of parishes to look after as well.

We are being flexible with this post and look forward to applications from priests seeking a House for Duty, Self-supporting, or half-time post.

I commend the post to you.

With my prayers

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DEANERY INTRODUCTION

Nuneaton Deanery has one of the largest populations in the Church of England, and is also one of the largest for numbers of clergy, although we currently have a lot of vacant posts, mainly due to clergy retirements. It is also one of the poorer areas of Warwickshire and Diocese, and has often felt under-resourced considering the demographics of the area.

The Deanery Chapter has a mixture of stipendiary, self-supporting and retired clergy, from a range of traditions, including evangelical, liberal Catholic, and Resolution C, with the majority being evangelical. We support each other by meeting for prayer and discussion, and sharing lunch together, taking turns to host our colleagues. We have an interesting mix of rural and suburban churches and we endeavour to support each other as much as we can.

The Deanery is currently subsidised financially to the level of about 2.3 full-time posts by other Deaneries in the Diocese, but we are starting to take up the challenge of supporting each other rather than relying on financial help from outside. Rather than simply cut back on posts, however, we are strategically looking at opportunities for considerable growth, and we think that these parishes, especially St John the Baptist, Wolvey, have the potential for considerable growth and influence. We are therefore looking for a new vicar to help the parishes grow spiritually, numerically, and financially. The congregations have expressed a willingness to change and become more mission-focussed. Wolvey have plans to start a Messy Church in the autumn and there are potential areas for growth with links to the school and the Army Barracks.

We look forward to welcoming the new vicar to the Wolvey Group and Deanery!

Frank Seldon Area Dean

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BACKGROUND TO POST

Wolvey, Copston Magna and Withybrook are 3 small villages in North East Warwickshire in the Midlands. They lie close to the Midland motorway network, and for those interested in fishing, there are a number of excellent carp fishing lakes within the parish.

The group used to be 4 villages, but one village has now been linked with . The largest village in the group is Wolvey, which is where the vicarage is located.

The parishes have had a full-time stipendiary post for many years, subsidised by the Deanery and wider diocese. This level of resource for such small villages and small congregations, in what are comparatively wealthy areas compared to the rest of the deanery, is unsustainable. The post has therefore become a House for Duty, Self- supporting or 0.5 stipendiary post.

The congregations have been fairly central in a Eucharistic tradition, but have been rather inward looking. They will need gently discipling into fuller expressions of Christian faith and mission in their particular rural context.

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ROLE SPECIFICATION

The role of the next vicar of the Wolvey group will be to deliver the Diocesan Mission Purpose of:

 Worshipping God  Making New Disciples  Transforming Communities.

S/he will achieve this by developing the 8 Essential Qualities in the lives of the congregations:

 Empowering Leadership  Gift-oriented Ministry  Passionate Spirituality  Inspiring Worship  Holistic Small Groups  Need-oriented Outreach  Loving Relationships  Functional Structures

Further information on these qualities can be found at http://www.dioceseofcoventry.org/healthychurches

PERSON SPECIFICATION

We would welcome candidates who:

 Have an authentic and infectious love of Jesus and the Bible, and can help us catch this love too, and become more confident in building, expressing and sharing our faith in a rural context.

 Are able to identify leadership and other gifts in people, and train and develop people for all areas of Christian ministry.

 Can gently help us face and address the realities of necessary change for growth, including structurally and in worship, aware of the attachments people have to the present way of doing things.

 Have a track record in the development of small groups (preferably in a rural context).

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THE CHURCHES AND THE 8 ESSENTIAL QUALITIES

In order to assess where the Churches are in relation to the Natural Church Development (NCD) eight essential qualities for Healthy Growing Churches, each congregation conducted their own survey in the spring/summer of 2015. The following paragraphs are based on those results.

Empowering Leadership

There is a good sense of collaboration across all 3 churches, and the congregations appear to be happy with the level of lay leadership in the churches, including leading services, preaching, leading intercessions, fund raising, management of the Millennium Building, building and church yard maintenance, production and distribution of Church Magazine, choir, Lent and Advent Courses, and Confirmation preparation.

However, across all 3 parishes there were identified weaknesses in our leaders not being concerned for those who did not know Jesus Christ, and worryingly low scores related to the lack of expectation in our leaders for growth.

We therefore believe it to be imperative that our next vicar has a deep concern for helping people access Christian faith, and raising expectations and the reality of growth within our churches.

Gift Based Ministry

In Wolvey and Withybrook people seem to enjoy the tasks that they do in the Church and feel their tasks are a positive challenge to their faith. There are a number of groups that carry out these tasks (cleaning, flower arranging, choir, sacristry, serving at the altar, eucharistic ministry, church and church-yard maintenance, and fund- raising). They feel that God is using them, that they have had training for their tasks (though less so in Withybrook), feel supported and they experience the benefits of working in a team. However whilst people know what their gifts are they feel that the church does not always provide tasks that match those gifts.

In Copston Magna, whilst people know what value their work brings to the church and that the church helps them to discover their gifts, people didn’t feel that their tasks in the church stretched their faith and this question even produced a negative result (very rare!). It appears they do not enjoy the tasks that they carry out either.

As with the Empowering Leadership quality, most of people’s time, gifts and energies are spent within, rather than outside, the church.

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Passionate Spirituality

The NCD surveys present clear contrasts in the levels of spirituality across the benefice. In Wolvey people are enthusiastic about their church, and find times of prayer an inspiring experience for them; people experience the transforming influences of their faith on their lives and are willing to share with others the times when they have experienced something from God.

At Copston Magna and Withybrook scores were generally low. The highest scores were relating to people’s enthusiasm for their local church, but otherwise the results indicate perhaps a lack of genuine enthusiasm in relation to faith itself. Copston achieved another negative score in relation to people believing that God will work even more powerfully in the church in coming years. This effectively means the congregation are expecting the church to decline. These churches have small congregations which may have influenced the results but clearly there is work to do here in helping people engage with the realities and vitality of Christian faith.

Across all churches there are low scores in relation to enjoying reading the Bible on our own and the influence of the Bible in our everyday lives.

We would welcome a vicar with an infectious Christian faith, who loves Jesus and the Bible, and who can help us catch this love too.

Inspiring Worship

At Wolvey and Withybrook people appear to enjoy and benefit from the worship, though the existing patterns of worship do not seem to attract un-churched visitors. The music at Wolvey is positive, with a very good organist and a small robed adult choir (mainly ladies and one man). People look forward to attending the worship, they listen to the sermons, they connect with God and feel that the worship has a positive influence on them. They say attending worship is an inspiring influence on them, and can explain why they come, and are also ready to participate in the service.

At Copston Magna the scores followed a roughly similar pattern to those at Wolvey but a few low scores are of more concern. People cannot explain why they come to a service, the music for many does not help them to worship God (also true for Withybrook), for some attending worship is not an inspiring experience, and people do not seem to look forward to attending the services. The fact that trying new things produced a low score in the previous section, it seems like the worship at Copston Magna has become ‘stuck’. This will need addressing if we are to see growth there.

We would like our Vicar to review our services. There are lots of positives (for example at Wolvey and Withybrook). We would however like to improve, and also to develop newer and different forms of service which may be more inspiring and attractive for those who do not yet come to church. We are already actively trying to recruit helpers to start a Messy Church in Wolvey. Such new forms of service are probably going to be easier to achieve in the first instance in Wolvey and Withybrook.

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Holistic Small Groups

This quality has probably attracted the most diversity in responses across the group.

Wolvey has a small fellowship group which meets regularly for Bible Study. There are a number of other informal small groups which, although attached to the church and are part of the church, are not necessarily organised by the church directly (eg Art Group, Sewing Group). People appear to appreciate the groups that they are part of, but they could improve on their pastoral care and prayer for one another.

At Copston Magna people value being part of a small group, but feel that there has been no training for them.

At Withybrook all the scores relating to small groups were quite low. Few people thought that their group helped grow their spiritual life or that people in the group would pray for them, and only a few felt at home in their group. Training of group leaders is also an issue in Withybrook.

Thus, although we have had successful combined groups (e.g. Lent and Advent courses held in churches other than Wolvey), the overall picture is that we need help in developing the small group life of our churches.

Need–oriented Outreach

The NCD surveys reveal a dichotomy between aspiration and reality in this area. The reality is that not many new people are engaging with us in terms of coming to know Jesus and being discipled, but we like to think we are good at it! If people came to faith, or turned up at church, we would be very welcoming! But we are not engaged in many overtly evangelistic endeavours. We tried ALPHA but it did not result in any new people.

The church tries very hard to help those in need, for example we have a food bank box in the church which often gets full, and in the past we have responded to appeals for clothing, shoes, and old spectacles.

There is a consistent low score across the churches in terms of creativity in evangelism, so a vicar who could help us be confident in our faith, and in sharing our faith appropriately, sensitively and creatively for our rural context would be very welcome.

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Loving Relationships

This quality seems to be one of the strongest across the group, giving the (hopefully accurate!) impression that overall this group of churches have happy people where the congregations get on well together. Our new Vicar should find it easy to relate to all of them and find a warmth of welcome from all of them. There are issues that need tackling, but they are generally not of a major or urgent nature.

We value people, giving praise often. We are able to sort out any disagreements ourselves without holding grudges or resentments, and there is a lot of joy and laughter in the church.

Effective Structures

The three parishes have been part of a United Benefice of four parishes since it was formed in 1986, the fourth parish wishing to be combined with a neighbouring parish during the current interregnum.

We are now 3 churches with 3 separate PCCs. The viability and sustainability of at least one the churches (Copston Magna, in a very small village of about 24 people) has been questioned, but this would betray over 200 years of service of the current warden’s family. Such questions need sensitive handling.

It is our intention to make the administrative side of the vicar’s role as easy as possible. We are aware that no-one wishes to run around on Sundays rushing from church to church, and having loads of PCC meetings. But we do not know how to implement this within our context. Some wisdom and sensitive help with this from our next vicar would be welcome. We know rationally and even in our hearts that we need change, but many of us are worried by it! Partly it is because we have not had experience of different ways of doing things.

In relation to our current structures, people generally seem to be happy. We could always improve on our communication across the group.

We suspect that investment into our spiritual health would bring more rewards initially than trying to change structures, and would provide a healthier foundation on which structural changes could then be discussed and made.

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THE INDIVIDUAL CHURCHES OF THE GROUP

Wolvey

Wolvey is a small village located in North East Warwickshire along the border with and the Leicester Diocese. It is close to the Midland motorway networks, especially the M69, M6 and M1.

The village has a Post Office and shop, two public houses a Bowling Club, Village Hall, a car sales garage, a wetland nature reserve, and a sports field. In addition there is a substantial suite of offices belonging to Galliford Try (a large construction company) and several small businesses. There is a branch Surgery of a GP Practice (the main surgery being in Burbage five miles away).

The Village has a history of success in the Rugby in Bloom awards and in 2015 won no fewer than ten awards including one Gold and two Silver gilt.

There are two churches in the Village, St. John the Baptist (Anglican) and the Baptist Chapel. There is an open Churchyard and a separate open cemetery. In addition the Baptist Chapel also has an open burial ground.

There has been a church on the site of St John the Baptist Church since Saxon times. The current church (Grade II*) is generally of 13th and 14th centuries in origin, remodelled in Victorian times, but with some parts dating from the Medieval times. It has a ring of six bells which are rung twice weekly. It contains tombs and memorials of the de Astley family who at one time owned Wolvey Hall, and other local families.

The church bases its theology on Eucharistic ministry and once a month has an All Age Worship service, plus a Café Style service one afternoon a month. Mid-week there is an evening Service on Wednesdays (either Night Prayer or Holy Communion). Before the Interregnum there was also a Holy Communion service on Thursday morning followed by a light lunch.

Within the church yard is the Millennium Building – a newer and well-equipped small centre which serves as a meeting room with a kitchen, and servery, plus an office and toilets. This will hold about 30 people seated. The building is used extensively by Church groups, The Fellowship, Art Group, Thursday group, and for Lent and Advent courses. In the summer, afternoon teas are served. It is also let for meetings and training events and is self sufficient in financial terms.

The Church has strong links to the Wolvey Primary School which is a church school. The last Vicar was a Governor of the school a mantle taken on by one of the Readers for the duration of the Interregnum. The Church appoints two other governors, one of whom is the Chair of the Governing body. During the interregnum one of the Readers has continued to take a whole school assembly every half term and congregation members are involved in hearing, reading and reading bible stories to small groups of children. The school also comes to church for the Harvest Festival, Christmas, Easter and at the end of Summer Term.

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This school is perhaps unique in that about a third of it’s children are from Traveller families and a further significant number are of Nepalese origin being the children of Gurkah Soldiers based at 30 Signal Regiment at Bramcote Barracks.

The Church Building is a Grade II* listed building generally in good order. Following a quinquennial review last year, a significant amount of stonework erosion was found, and defects to the roof. The PCC have established a Fabric Fund for the Building and will be applying for grant aid to get the work required completed over a four year period. The roofing issues have already been dealt with as a result of an anonymous donor, however the estimates just in show that the stonework will cost approx £90K to put right. About a third of that has been raised so far.

Copston Magna

Copston Magna is a small village about 2 miles from Wolvey and one and a quarter miles from the border with Leicestershire close to the ancient site of High Cross. There are just 18 dwellings in the Parish, 13 of which lie within the village where a mix of young families and retired people live.

Until the sixth decade of the last century the parish formed part of the Denbigh Estate, the ’s residence being at Newnham Paddox, , some four miles South of Copston Magna. Gradually the population changed as land, farmhouses and farm workers cottages were sold off from the Estate.

On a gentle rise from the village green lies the large open Church Yard and the church of St. John, which was built in 1849 at the instigation of the Earl of Denbigh and his sisters. At that time it was a Chapel of Ease to St. Edith’s Monks Kirby, but after 1975 in the reorganization of the deanery it became a Parish Church in a United Benefice with Wolvey.

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The Church is a grade II* listed building and is generally in good condition, the local families over the years having tried to keep the maintenance of the building up to date. There is a single bell rung from within the church.

The Worship pattern is two Holy Communion services a month, both in the mornings at 11.15am, and two BCP evensongs at 6.30pm. The congregation is very small and mostly comes from a wide area, several people having historical connections with the village.

There are no shops or public houses and the school was closed in 1949. All village community events are held either in the Church or in local homes.

Withybrook

Withybrook is a small village about 3 miles west of Wolvey, 10 miles north of Rugby and has a population of 260 people in 110 households. It has one public house and restaurant, and a village hall which is used by the Church for fund raising and social functions. There is no school as this was closed many years ago and sold for residential development.

The church of All Saints, is situated east of the village, and stands in a small open churchyard. It consists of a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, north chapel, south porch, and a tower built into the north-west corner of the church. It was rebuilt in the 14th century when the aisles were added. The only evidence of an earlier church is a late 12th century font. Late in the 15th century the tower was built, the aisle being widened to accommodate it, the chapel and clerestory added, and the chancel partly rebuilt. It was restored in 1821 in 1890 and in 1995. The church contains the remains of an Easter Sepulchre, discovered during renovation work.

The worship is on Sundays at 11.15am, with a lay led Family Service (First Sunday), lay led Matins on the third Sunday and Holy Communion on the other two Sundays.

The church is a grade II* listed building and is generally in good condition, having had roof lead replaced with steel after a lead theft, and stonework repairs to the Tower within the last five years.

Vicarage

The Vicarage is a modern 4-bedroom building situated in Wolvey.

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Services

The current pattern of services is:

 First Sunday in the month.  9.30am Eucharist Wolvey  11.15am Said Eucharist Copston Magna  11.15am Family Service (Lay Led) Withybrook  4.30pm Café Style service in Millennium Building

 Second Sunday in the month  9.30am. Eucharist Wolvey  11-15 am Eucharist Withybrook  6-30pm BCP Evensong Copston Magna

 Third Sunday in the month  9.30am Eucharist Wolvey  11.15am Said Eucharist, Copston Magna  11.15 am Withybrook Mattins (Lay Led )

 Fourth Sunday in Month  9.30am All Age Worship Wolvey (Lay Led,)  11.15am Eucharist Withybrook  6.30pm BCP Evensong Copston Magna

 Fifth Sunday in the month  9.30am Group Eucharist Wolvey

In addition there is a said Eucharist at Wolvey at 7-00p.m. on Wednesdays except the first Wednesday when the service is Night Prayer (Compline). Prior to the interregnum there was also Morning Prayer at 8-00a.m. on Mondays and Fridays and a Eucharist on Thursday mornings. All three of these services have been discontinued during the interregnum due to the lack of people to take them.

It is hoped that a new incumbent will continue to ensure one service per Sunday in each of the churches either ordained or lay led, which may be fresh expressions of church rather than our current pattern. It is also hoped that the midweek Wednesday evening Communion or Night Prayer will continue and the once monthly Café Style service will continue as this is led by lay people.

In 2015 there were three Baptisms and six weddings at Wolvey two Baptisms at Withybrook and one Wedding at Copston Magna. In 2016 we have four baptisms booked and four weddings, all of which are at Wolvey.

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Schools

Wolvey CofE Primary School is the only school in the benefice. The vicar is an ex- officio Foundation Governor. A page summarising the work of the DBE with schools can be found here: http://www.dioceseofcoventry.org/images/document_library/UDR01414.pdf.

Finance and Stewardship

Payment of the Parish share for the benefice was effected by means of a verbal agreement between the PCC’s brokered by the incumbent. This has now been incorporated into the Deanery allocation and each Parish now receives an allocated amount which aggregates to the Benefice share.

All three Parishes are currently financially sound. Withybrook has substantial investments as a result of a historical sale of educational premises. Wolvey has a significant difficulty in raising sufficient funds for running the Church but has most years been able to pay its full parish share and manage to break even on its income and expenditure account. There is however a substantial amount to be raised in order to repair stonework damage reported at the 2014 quinquennial review. This has been costed at £90,000 without any sum for contingency. This sum has to be raised over the next four years as well as continuing to balance the normal running costs account. So far with some clever consolidation of funds and additional fund raising about a third of this amount has been raised.

Copston Magna being the smallest in terms of congregation and demographics manages to pay its parish share and running costs. All three parishes do however organise events in order to raise money, for whatever purpose. There is a stewardship scheme in all three churches and full use is made of Gift Aid to recover income from HMRC. In Wolvey the offertory only yields one eighth of the cost of running the church each week, and is in need of some rejuvenation of the stewardship scheme. Wolvey has a scheme for villagers not necessarily churchgoers to have a collection box for the church.

In terms of giving from the church Wolvey supports a child through school in Mtwapa, Kenya, members of the congregation support the Children’s Society through the Box scheme and the Millennium Building is used to organise Coffee mornings whose proceeds are for various charities.

There is no formal ‘Tithing’ system in place at any of the churches. There is also an ”Old spectacle” collection scheme at Wolvey which is onThe table below summarises our financial situation in 2014. Full sets of accounts for the last three years are available on request.

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Wolvey Withybrook Copston Parish/Benefice Magna Total

General 13,497 1,753 5,750 21,000 Income Planned 11,540 2,589 1,427 15,556 Giving Gift-Aid 5,361 562 5,923 Fundraising 7,974 9,228 969 18,171 (eg fetes) Grants 2,000 100 2,100 General 16,471 8,113 3,256 27,840 Expenditure Parish Share 20,420 3,667 2,089 26,176 Contribution Unrestricted 15,250 22,591 14,083 51,924 Reserves Restricted 4,393 301,906 306,299 Reserves Any special £100K considerations, for future Stonework expenditure repairs etc?

Parishes are expected to fund the costs of their own ordained ministry. This in effect means paying the full cost of all clergy. Currently the contribution for a vicar with all ancillary costs is approximately £56,000/annum, so our benefice has been on the receiving end of substantial generosity from elsewhere in the Diocese for a very long time. We recognise there is a large surplus/shortfall between current contributions and the full costs so have had to accept a reduction in the level of post from the previous incumbent.

We would hope, if a half time minister or a self-supporting or House for Duty Minister is appointed, to be able to contribute as much as we can afford back into the system from which we have received for so long.

A copy of our accounts for the last 3 years is available on request.

FURTHER DETAILS

For further information about the post please contact the Area Dean, Rev Frank Seldon on tel: 02476 346413 ([email protected]) or the Archdeacon Missioner, Ven Morris Rodham, on 0750 673 1892 ([email protected]).

An application form can be downloaded from the Diocesan Website: http://www.dioceseofcoventry.org/vacancies/current Applications to be submitted by noon Friday 3rd October Interviews to be held over two days on Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th October.

Enhanced DBS disclosure is required for this post.

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