Parish Profile: St Mary the Virgin Burghfield Bradfield Deanery, Berkshire
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Appointment of Priest-in-Charge Autumn 2016 Parish Profile: St Mary the Virgin Burghfield Bradfield Deanery, Berkshire Introduction from Olivia Graham Archdeacon of Berkshire Foreword St Mary’s is a flourishing all-age community which is well connected into the life of the parish. It has undergone something of a transformation under the highly appreciated, relational ministry of the previous incumbent. Lay people are active and engaged in all aspects of the ministry of the church, and there is more to do in supporting and encouraging them. Here is a great opportunity for a warm, open-hearted and spiritually mature priest who will build on the strong foundations which have been laid, teach, nurture and equip God’s people in Burghfield, and challenge them to be more. The new Bishop of Oxford, +Steven Croft, has named his 3 main areas of focus as children & young people, equipping lay people to be Christians where they live and work, and working with those who are suffering from material or social deprivation. He encourages us to serve our communities and be a blessing to the whole world, taking the Church to where people are and being the Church in new ways. Burghfield is already engaging with this agenda, and has the energy and capacity to make a real difference. Bradfield deanery is small, with a friendly and supportive Chapter. The benefice has just been suspended pending deanery discussions about boundaries and the deanery is thinking further about how mission priorities will shape the organisation of ministry in the future. The opportunity exists to be in at the beginning of this discussion. I commend this parish to you who are reading this, and if you feel energised by it, and drawn to explore further whether this might be where God is calling you, do feel free to telephone me, or the Area Dean, contact details below, for an informal conversation. Ven. Olivia Graham Archdeacon of Berkshire 01635 552820 Revd. Will Watts Area Dean of Bradfield Deanery 01491 671714 1 Parish Profile for St Mary’s Burghfield 2016 St Mary’s is a warm and welcoming church serving the villages of Burghfield and Burghfield Common. We seek to be an inclusive village church. Our church family is diverse in age and in background and in Christian maturity. This makes for a great richness, and affords opportunities to learn from one another and to grow. There is always something interesting and challenging happening at, or led by, or supported by, St Mary’s; either in our church buildings or in the community. Over the past two decades a lot of energy, hard work and resources have been put into fitting our buildings for twenty first century use. Another very important focus has been to engage more with the community at large. We are now well placed to focus on mission explicitly as we have built the foundations of good relationships with our neighbours, and have somewhere physically appealing to invite them to join us in. We have grown in numbers and wish to continue that growth alongside an eagerness for opportunities for us all to increase in maturity of faith. We are looking forward to working with the next minister that God is sending us to build on our strengths, and to explore new areas of challenge together. 2 Our strengths: We are a warm church family who are increasingly willing to participate in the leadership of the church. There is a strong tradition of raising up and nurturing new lay leaders. Within the congregation people have many and varied gifts, which they willingly share. We currently offer a wide range of worship styles across the week and month on a regular basis: perhaps a greater variety than might be expected from a church family of our size, and in this way we hope to provide something to suit most people. We are very proud of our recently re-ordered church building (although there are still some improvements to make). We also have lovely modern church hall facilities too, in our attached Parish Centre. Strong links with the community have been built over recent years: more residents of the local villages are starting to view St Mary’s as their church, rather than “the church”. We have a well-deserved reputation for great hospitality (the “ministry of the teapot” is alive and well in St Mary’s!) As a body we are open minded about change and trying new things, even though this may involve stepping outside our comfort zone. Our challenges: Our congregations include many new Christian families, in need of nurture. We are not satisfied that we are offering sufficient growth groups, although we do have some established small groups meeting to learn together. As a church we all need to grow in depth of faith, now that we have started to grow in numbers. In addition, we have the scope for inviting many people who already feel they have some connection to our community to “seeker” courses, but we are not currently making the most of this opportunity. The work undertaken in the past few years to involve the church in the local community has created lots of further potential for growth in numbers. As a village church we want to continue to offer a wide diversity of worship styles but this can be difficult to sustain with limited resources. We have a varied community which we serve, and many sizes are needed to fit many! We need to increase the offering to older children and teenagers, particularly as the young children already in our congregation reach this age. We wish to build on the recent provision established for young people in the form of “The Boat” which provides both social and teaching opportunities for our youngsters. 3 Services At present there are two services each Sunday: a traditional service at 9am and a more contemporary offering at 10.30. In addition, we have a large but irregular Messy Church congregation meeting twice termly on a Saturday afternoon and a small congregation meeting for a Book of Common Prayer Service (followed by fellowship over delicious tea and cakes) monthly on a Sunday afternoon at a service called “Taste”. Both regular Sunday services are Eucharistic in nature. The priest will usually wear vestments to preside. The same message is generally preached at each service, but with the particular wording and emphasis adjusted to suit each specific congregation. St Mary’s has a long tradition of encouraging and nurturing lay ministries; although the sermon is most often given by the clergy, many different voices have been heard and appreciated over the past few years, including visiting lay preachers (some formally trained, some not), members of our own congregations and other local congregations, representatives of charities and people from the community with a particular story to tell. Some people attend both services, or may attend either one on a given day. 9am Service The 9am service is generally attended by smaller numbers, and tends to attract more mature (in both senses of the word!) Christians, although this is not universally true. Enabled by this worship several of these people underpin other aspects of the mission of our church; attending, leading or serving at other services and events, and fulfilling various roles. The service has music provided by a pre-programmed hymn machine, operated by a small team of volunteers. There is much lay involvement; prayers, the Gloria, and the reading of the first lesson are lay led and the chalice is administered by authorised lay people. The priest is usually assisted by a server. Printed service books are used and the Common Worship Service (Eucharistic Prayer D) forms the basis of the service. At each of these services prayers for healing are offered in the chancel during and after the Eucharist. Members of the congregation come for healing prayers for themselves, or for others, and the healing team offers prayer for others requesting support too. 4 10.30 Service The 10.30 service is more contemporary: music is provided by our wonderful music group (piano, guitars and saxophone, to name but a few, combined with lovely voices) and the order of service is projected on a screen rather than using handouts. Again there is plenty of lay involvement: usually with prayers, reading and chalice administration. At this service provision is made for our children and young people. A team leads the teaching of pre and primary school aged worshippers on a rota basis: a separate group called “The Boat” has recently been established for our pre-teens and teenagers. The Boat provides teaching on some Sundays: at other times the Boat members are part of the main service. On major feast days we combine our services to meet as a single family at 10am, and enjoy all age worship together. Recently we asked the children what they thought our new vicar should be like. Here are their responses: Someone who knows lots about God and Jesus; someone who likes quiet; could be a man or a lady; nice; gentle; clever; funny; playful; cool; a little musical; bit of a sense of humour; fun; awesome; imaginative; loving; kind; caring; powerful. Messy Church A strength of St Mary’s over the past few years has been an increasingly outward looking face, including going out and “being church” among our friends and neighbours and colleagues, not just remaining within the walls of the physical building. This has encouraged people to count themselves as part of the St Mary’s family, however loosely, and to view St Mary’s as “our church” rather than “the church”.