PARISH PROFILE Colworth Rd E11 1JD www.standrewsleytonstone.org

Since 1887, St. Andrew’s has stood as a beacon of God’s light and love in East London.

As a church in the liberal Anglo-Catholic tradition we pride ourselves on being generously orthodox and seek to give all a warm welcome to the Body of Christ, irrespective of race, age, gender, physical ability, way of life or sexual orientation.

We rejoice in the great and wonderful diversity of God’s creation and we recognize and celebrate the beauty of his image uniquely revealed in one another.

Overview

St Andrew's is a small parish with a diverse population in East London. We aim to serve God by serving others through community engagement, beautiful worship and a warm welcome. We seek a priest who values our sacramental tradition and can help us to grow in faith and encourage us in our mission in the local community.

We are looking for a priest who • values the Eucharist and other sacraments as part of a catholic-oriented liturgical life • encourages each member of the congregation to develop their gifts, talents and skills in the service of the wider community and the church • reaches out to those in need but especially to the bereaved, sick and elderly to provide pastoral care and support • can guide us toward working more closely with other parishes as part of Bishop Stephen's "Transforming Presence" initiative • relates well to people from diverse backgrounds and circumstances • works with and encourages young families to become and remain part of our worshipping community

St Andrew's Parish Pro/le Page 1 About the parish

St Andrew's is the smallest parish in the deanery of Waltham Forest, with a population of 3,400. The parish is on the edges of and the East End of London.

Half the parish is Epping Forest land and the rest consists of mainly terraced housing, some small and some large, the latter often divided into 5ats. The church, which was built between 1887 and 1893 in order to meet growing demand for a large church in the area, lies within the Forest Glade Conservation Area.

St Andrew's is a 15 minute walk from Leytonstone tube Station, which is 25 minutes from Central London, or 5 minutes from the 257 bus stop and within easy access of the A406 North Circular Road and the M11 Motorway. It is also well placed for trains from Stratford or Stratford International. University Hospital, a major district general hospital, is located just outside the parish. Many of the local population commute to central London for work, and the area is a popular residential location for hospital staff.

St Andrew's is adjacent to Leytonstone School, a mixed 11-16 comprehensive. Within the parish there is also a pub, a Hindu temple, and some small shops. The local primary school, Gwyn Jones Primary School, while only a couple of hundred metres from the church, is situated outside of the parish. There is no church school in the parish.

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 2 About the church

People

The ethnic and socio-economic mixture of the congregation is very diverse, with a high proportion in the 50+ age group. We aim to welcome people with a broad range of backgrounds, beliefs and views. This 'unity in diversity' is evident at PCC meetings where the ability to present different ideas and debate them properly and in a spirit of good humour has been demonstrated. In general the community is open to growth and change.

The number of children and young people who attend church services is growing and the church offers Sunday School most Sundays as well as a regular pattern of All Age worship.

Lent groups, Advent groups, and occasional study groups are usually led by members of the congregation, while con/rmations groups are led by the incumbent.

There are around 85 people on the electoral roll, with attendance of 50-55 on an average Sunday morning.

Churchwardens: Ian Burns – Ian, a retired solicitor born and brought up in Leytonstone, has been worshipping at St Andrew's for 45 years. He has been on the PCC for many years, served on the Deanery Synod and is now on his 3rd stint of being Treasurer and 3rd year as a church warden.

Rosemarie Bettout – Rosemarie grew up in Leytonstone and still lives in the area. She has served on the PCC for many years and takes an active volunteer role in addition to her duties as church warden.

Organist: Kathryn Rose – Kathryn studied at Trinity College of Music before coming to St Andrew's and learning the organ. In addition to her musical duties (including choosing hymns and helping plan liturgy) she directs fundraising efforts for the organ repairs (which are due to be completed later this year). Kathryn also serves on the PCC, helps with the @StAndrewsE11 Twitter account and is the parish administrator.

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 3 Regular Services

The main service is the 10am Sunday sung Eucharist and sung Compline on the /rst and third Mondays of each month.

Our churchmanship is 'modern' Anglo- Catholic, ie with incense, bells, robed servers and robed choir, but we have a willingness to change, develop and adapt within that tradition. Four members of the congregation are licensed to assist with the administration of communion, while a number assist with reading lessons and leading intercessions. Members of the congregation are also actively involved with All-Age services for occasions such as Harvest and Christingle.

Side chapel ready for Compline Community

Our aspiration is to be a church that is there for the community. The church community seeks to be a beacon of God's love, by actions as much as by words, to all people irrespective of their faith or belief. The church hall is the only large community building in the parish and as such is valuable community resource.

Since 2009 the church has run a community cafe, Café Refresh, which has been very popular with local residents and teachers at the local schools. Unfortunately it is currently in abeyance due to the last manager moving away from the area, but the church would like to re-open it as soon as practicable, perhaps as a weekly luncheon club for the elderly later this year. As an offshoot of the Café, on the last Friday of each month (except August and December) an evening bistro has been held at which more substantial fare has been provided. While the Café has been primarily a social provision for the community, breaking even or making a small surplus, the bistro has been a successful fundraiser.

We have a growing good relationship with Leytonstone School next door to the church. In recent months we have started to give assemblies and attend workshops in the school, and

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 4 we have been asked to run a prayer group there. They exhibit some of their art work in the church and we aim to run a weekly homework club in the church for students who don't have access to suitable study space at home.

There is a Hindu Temple in the parish which draws its worshippers from a wide area, and we are successfully working to build personal links with members of that congregation. The Near Neighbours programme has provided funding for a 'Faith Friendship Club'.

The hall is used by a number of external organisations during the week as well as organisations linked to the church. A pre-school nursery (run by a member of the congregation and recently rated as 'Good' by Ofsted) opens /ve mornings and two afternoons per week and is steadily increasing the number of children attending. There is regular evening use by karate classes and art classes, as well as the local Scout group.

The hall has also been used for several years by two of the local councillors as the location for their surgery, now happening twice a month. It is also occasionally used by the local residents group for meetings. The parish has recently commissioned an architect to draw up plans for the development of the hall and is hoping to submit a bid for funding in 2017. The parish is generally involved with the local community, especially over planning considerations for building on land behind the church.

St Andrew's is a member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. The local Churches Together group meets regularly and organises a number of joint services during the year.

The church is also used for exhibitions or concerts as part of the E11 Arts Trail or Leytonstone Festival every summer and has in the past taken part in the London wide 'Open House' weekend when historic and architecturally important buildings are open to the public.

St Andrew's members would like to continue to develop in their service to others, not just to the elderly and youth but also the community as a whole.

WW1 Afternoon Tea, August 2014

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 5 Building

The church is a Grade II listed building built between 1887 and 1893 as a memorial church to William Cotton, a local resident, by his son Henry, a distinguished Lord Justice of Appeal. It was designed by Sir Arthur Blom/eld and originally seated over a thousand people. In the 1910s vestries were added as an extension. In the 1970s it was re- ordered with a full height partition, the lower part of which has large multiple folding doors. Left closed this creates a space at the west end which normally serves as a separate hall, but it can also be opened up to form the full dimensions of the church.

It has a /ne variety of stained glass windows, many of which are by Margaret Chilton, an Arts & Crafts stained glass designer. The organ by Lewis, built in 1914, is renowned for its tonal qualities. In 2011 substantial repairs to the guttering, roof and drains were completed with the aid of a grant from English Heritage. Recently cracks have appeared in the structure of the vestries as a result of apparent changes in the water table. These cracks are currently being monitored. In 2014 new gas heating was installed in the church hall area to improve the comfort of users, reduce running costs and improve its attractiveness to new users and the parish has recently applied for a faculty to introduce new gas heating into the church.

Vicarage

The vicarage is located in Forest Glade, about 3 minutes walk from the church. A large corner property overlooking the forest, it has 3 large reception rooms (one usually used as a study by the incumbent) plus kitchen, utility room and cloakroom downstairs, with 4 large bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. The garden is private with high close boarded fencing on the road frontages. It is in good decorative repair, having recently been fully renovated.

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 6 Finance

St Andrew's has an excellent history of paying its parish share in full and as a result of careful management, at the beginning of 2015 the church had general reserves of around £18,000 and money from bequests over around £7,000. A substantial proportion of these have been used to fund the new heating system and carry out repairs to the electrical wiring in the hall. The church pays the usual rates of clergy expenses, which in recent years has been in the order of £1500 - £2000.

Opportunities and Challenges

We have begun discussions on the subject of which parishes we might work with more closely in the diocese as part of Bishop Stephen's “Transforming Presence” initiative and hope to conclude arrangements before 2017. We are also working very closely with St Peter's in the Forest, , with whom we share a parish boundary, similar churchmanship and outlook. Discussions on the various mechanisms by which we may work even more closely with St. Peter's have commenced and it is probable that de/nite arrangements will have been determined prior to an appointment to St Andrew's.

We would be interested in resuming a weekday lunchtime said Eucharist.

We would love Café Refresh to open properly again but it is a large commitment for the volunteers involved and it needs to be sustainable.

With a school next door and a nursery newly opened in the church hall, there is a huge opportunity to develop our work with children and young people.

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 7 What can we offer?

I like that everybody was welcoming when I arrived here and I felt like I could really get involved in things. I also really like the reverence of our worship. -Atiq

I feel comfortable here. -Joy

You pray and Jesus is there. -Willow There are lots of fun things to do and it's God's house. -Alexandra

We can offer long experience of lay people accepting responsibilities, both in acts of worship, and also in organising and maintaining the physical church.

Many have commented on the friendliness and positivity of the congregation. Genuine affection between us is evident, and people will literally go the extra mile to help each other. You can expect a really warm welcome!

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 8 The Diocese: A message from Bishop Stephen

In the Chelmsford Diocese we believe that God is calling his church to be a transforming presence. Our vision is that the church - that is the people of God here in Essex and East London - should be a transforming presence in every one of our parishes.

These are our priorities –

 To inhabit the world distinctively  To evangelise effectively  To hold ourselves accountable to one another and to God for the stewardship of the gospel  To re imagine the way we minister so that each ordained minister and each individual Christian discovers their part in God's ministry and so that each church $ourishes.

To this end we are looking for priests who are excited by this vision of becoming a church which is itself transformed, and which is becoming a more visible and effective presence in the huge diversity of communities that make up this most exciting and energetic part of England. There are many challenges ahead of us.

 We are a diocese generously subsidised by the national church. We need to become (nancially self-suf(cient.

 Leadership often seems distant. We are creating patterns of leadership that are closer to the parishes. And we are looking to develop missionary leadership at all levels of church life. Nearly half our clergy will retire in the next ten years. We need to (nd out how to minister with fewer stipendiary clergy and with a re-imagining of how stipendiary ministry works. We need to re-organise the way parishes relate to each other in what we are calling Mission and Ministry Units.

 Some of our congregations still think ministry is what Vicars do. We have a vision of ministry where the whole people of God are involved in the whole of God's ministry. We are also experimenting with new forms of authorised lay ministry.

 Church must be a safe place. All those in ministry will be expected to undergo training that will equip them to respond well in situations associated with safeguarding.

 Levels of church going are below the national average. We need to get evangelism on to the agenda and into the lifeblood of every church. We encourage and train churches to put on weekends of mission and outreach. One of our aspirations is that every bene(ce should have a trained lay evangelism enabler.

 We are developing missionary discipleship, so that every church in the diocese is a place where Christians are formed in order to be sent out in witness and service.

Despite planning for a future with fewer stipendiary clergy, we remain as committed as ever to the local church. And what is the local church, but that community of men and women gathered around Christ, and living and sharing the gospel in the networks and neighbourhoods of their lives? But we need priests to lead and to serve.

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 9 We know we need to change. We can only be a transforming presence when we have allowed God to transform us. Therefore at the heart of all we do is a longing for intimacy with God and a renewed life of prayer. First and foremost a priest is a minister of the word and sacrament. All ministry $ows from this. But a priest shares the ministry of the bishop, therefore presbyteral ministry will increasingly be a ministry of oversight, guiding, nurturing and directing the mission of God's church in the communities we serve.

It is an exciting time to be part of God's missionary movement for the world, and the Diocese of Chelmsford is an exciting place to serve. We have a clear vision and we are looking to appoint clergy who will share this with us. In every parish we long to see each person and each community grow in faithfulness and ministry so that together we may serve in the world and Christ may be made known.

+Stephen

St Andrew's Leytonstone Parish Pro/le Page 10