the Deanery Donkey ✦ No 47 Lent to Easter 2015 ✦
GOODBYE, MARK!
The Deanery is bidding a sad farewell to the Area Dean the Revd Dr Mark Butcher at the end of this month, when he moves on to his new role as Archdeacon of Barnstaple (North Devon, in the Diocese of Exeter). Soon after I became Deanery Lay Chairman, several people commented that it must be a pleasure working with Mark, to which I enthusiastically assented: he is consistently efficient, fair-minded and, above all, fun. I know many in the Deanery will agree that North Devon’s gain is very much our loss. Mark will be installed (along with the new Archdeacon of Totnes and the new Bishop of Plymouth) in Exeter Cathedral at 5.30pm on Monday, 20 April during Choral Evensong, having previously been collated in Barnstaple in March. (‘Will you be stapled as well as collated, Mark?’ I asked. ‘I hope so’, he replied, ‘or I’ll just fall apart!’) Prudence Dailey
It says a great deal that when Mark Butchers was appointed Area Dean in 2012, those of us in the parish of Wolvercote were scarcely aware of the difference. The same could have been said when he added the parish of Wytham to his duties in 2010. From the moment of his arrival in Wolvercote in 2005, Mark made an impact. He learned names quickly, he made himself known in the community, and he made it possible for the congregation to recognise what needed to be done and to get on and do it. Michael Daniell
WELCOME WILL!
The Rev. Will Donaldson is our new Area Dean of Oxford. He is currently Chaplain at St Edmund Hall in Oxford University, and also Director of Pastoral Care at St Aldates Church, Oxford. Previously, from 2007, he was Director of Christian Leadership at Wycliffe Hall where he taught Leadership Studies and had oversight of all the ministerial training. Will has had twenty-five years in parish ministry before coming to Oxford and has been Vicar of churches in Bristol and London. He has also been a Director of Ordinands in the London Diocese, and a Bishop’s Ministerial Reviewer. Will is married to Ruth and they have four older children. He loves visiting places of historical interest, reading theological and historical books, travelling cross-culturally, going to the theatre and cinema, watching sport and is a keen Manchester United fan! My vision for the Deanery is still taking shape: but I love Acts 2.42-47… ‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved’. deanery news
PARISH SHARE 2016 AND BEYOND
The words ‘Parish Share’ are uppermost in a great many parishes. Prudence Dailey explains how the Deanery is looking to how it is worked out in the future.
Our current method of allocating Share between parishes within the Deanery is designed so that each parish covers its ministry costs as a minimum, plus a reasonable proportion of other Diocesan/national church costs based on a variety of criteria. This system was brought in over the four years up to 2009, and since then we have added on the percentage increase each year with various adjustments, particularly for parishes struggling to pay.
2015 would have seen a 12% increase in Deanery Share, had this not been capped at the Diocesan maximum of a 4.5% increase, and it is likely that the Oxford Deanery will be facing 4.5% increases each year for the foreseeable future. (This situation has been brought about by the decline in church attendance overall, which has impacted less heavily on the city than on rural areas.) It has become clear that applying this increase across the board year on year will simply not be sustainable for a number of parishes in the Deanery. The Deanery Treasurer, Alan McCullough, endeavoured to adjust the formula in various ways, but every attempt produced more anomalies.
We therefore decided to keep the current system for 2015, but to set up a review process to identify a new system for 2016. We have now held the first of a series of meetings for treasurers and incumbents in the Deanery, following which all parishes in the Deanery have been asked to produce a summary of financial and other information, to be shared with the group as part of a ‘transparency exercise’. The next meeting will take place in March.
Reminder
The next meeting of the Oxford Deanery Synod is on Thursday 26 February at 7.45 at St John the Evangalist, Vicarage Road, New Hinksey (off the Abingdon Road). St Andrew’s, Linton Road