Holy Trinity Long Itchington

and

St Esprit Marton

PARISH PROFILE

Page 1 of 26 BISHOP’S INTRODUCTION

We’ve recently conducted a Diocesan-wide consultation on rural ministry here in the Diocese of Coventry and I am really encouraged by the number of our rural benefices picking up the challenge to adapt and change for more effective ministry and mission in the 21st century.

The Feldon Group, as it was previously named, showed particular imagination and tenacity in this process, and their combined creative, forward looking approach to ministry in their contexts is very impressive. Long Itchington (the largest village, with its own Church school) and Marton have continued their historical link to create an excellent opportunity for 0.5 stipendiary, self-supporting or House for Duty incumbency. The other 4 churches have merged together to form a single PCC (The Offchurch Group). This has all been achieved in a friendly manner with minimum fuss!

The parishes have some excellent disciples of Jesus Christ who contribute effectively in their parishes and are really looking forward to their new spiritual leader.

The parishes lie in a beautiful part of rural Warwickshire, with Royal Leamington Spa and Rugby in close proximity, and Coventry and other towns in easy travelling distance.

I warmly commend the post to you.

With my prayers

Page 2 of 26 DEANERY SUMMARY

The Southam deanery is the smallest deanery in the Coventry diocese, currently made up of 18 parishes within a six mile radius of the market town of Southam. Recent structural discussions for our Deanery Plan have resulted in the creating of the new Offchurch Group which combines four of our small rural parishes into one single entity.

As a deanery we have a strong focus on mission and collaborative ministry. We have a deanery mission team that organizes evangelistic events under the national Hope banner, that provide high quality occasions we can be confident in inviting non- Christian friends to.

We have a deanery prayer meeting in the heart of the deanery, Kingdom Come, where people gather from across the deanery, though in small numbers, to pray for the work of God in our parishes and our deanery focus. There are also a number of deanery Christian exploration and nurture courses that continue to be run, which include Just Looking, Alpha, Discipleship Explored, Lost for Words, and currently Table Talk. We have also streamed lectures from the School of Theology based at St Mellitus College in London, which have been both well-received and stretching! We use one of our local pubs for many of these courses.

With only a small number of clergy in the deanery, we try to work together, especially with mission and training, and new clergy appointments to the deanery would be encouraged to add their gifts to this creative mix. As a clergy team, we would not be able to function without strong lay teams around us, and we are looking for ways to develop and strengthen these teams both within individual parishes and deanery- wide.

HS2 will have a significant effect on the deanery as a whole, as we lie directly in the path of the planned route. We are also experiencing huge changes with new housing developments in a number of villages and Southam town itself, so working together and supporting each other, as well as developing new leaders and exciting new ideas for growth will become even more important. As a deanery, we have often come up with forward-thinking plans, as the plans for Long Itchington and Marton show, and so it's a creative and stimulating deanery to be a part of.

Rev’d Martin Green Area Dean, Southam Deanery

Page 3 of 26 BACKGROUND TO POST

This post will make an excellent 0.5 Stipendiary, Self-supporting or House for Duty incumbency, being responsible for a medium-sized village with its own Church of England school, and a small additional village. Disciples in both villages are committed and involved.

Holy Trinity and St Esprit have been part of the Feldon Group of 6 parishes for 13 years under our previous vicar, the Reverend Tim Britton. For a while, he was assisted by a part-time House for Duty Assistant Priest, who retired in 2012. This post was not replaced. An OLM was also helping but has not been well lately.

As the vicar approached retirement, discussions began about succession planning, and there was a growing feeling that the existing configuration of the post (6 separate parishes with 6 PCCs) would not be an attractive proposition for a future incumbent. These discussions were not finalised by the time the vicar retired in March 2015 and discussions have continued since. These discussions began to indicate that 4 of the 6 parishes would prefer to work together rather than in a group of 6. It would be fair to say that Holy Trinity and St Esprit were initially saddened by this approach, as they had felt the group was beginning to work together well. However, as all 6 parishes have separate PCCs with the churches held in plurality, we had no legal recourse to prevent the others following their preference and so eventually, and at first reluctantly, accepted the ‘writing on the wall’.

As we have come to terms with this new landscape, we have come to realise more of the positives, as we are indeed lovely village communities and can see the sense of having one person with a priority focus in Long Itchington and Marton without being stretched across 6 villages.

The remaining four parishes have formed the Offchurch Group, with one PCC, one ‘main’ church and 3 Chapels of Ease. As both posts will be advertised closely together, we wish it to be known that the initial opposition to this scheme has subsided and we are looking forward to our new future. Relationships with the Offchurch Group are good.

Our congregations are increasing. Holy Trinity is gradually growing a small but regular children’s group on a Sunday and a thriving quarterly Messy Church. It has a large Church school with which there are good links but which could be much further improved. Brownies, Guides, and more recently

Page 4 of 26 Scouts, Cubs and Beaver packs are in the village, so opportunities to reach younger families are increasing. St Esprit has been developing its All Age service and are delighted that families are regularly attending this service.

Over 2012/13 Holy Trinity had to raise £125,000 to repair the church tower. We are privileged and proud to report that within 18 months the village community had

raised the total sum and the work has been completed. Similarly in 2013 St Esprit raised £18,000 to put water, toilets and a small kitchen into the church. These are examples of the high regard the church is held within our communities. Members of the congregations are actively involved in a large range of activities and events throughout the villages.

We have all felt a little isolated by and through the vacancy but we look forward to a new future with a new priest.

Page 5 of 26 ROLE SPECIFICATION

The role of this post is to lead the churches in fulfilling the Diocesan Mission Purpose of:

 Worshipping God  Making New Disciples  Transforming Communities.

This will be achieved by developing 8 essential qualities in the life of the church:

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

PERSON SPECIFICATION

We welcome candidates who:  Have an infectious passion for sharing their Christian faith with people of all ages in our community (and can help us as a congregation get infected too!), with a track record of growth in Christian disciples.  Are empowering leaders with experience of developing and training lay leaders and disciples to use their gifts and skills well, in and beyond the life of the church, including within the development of small groups.  Have successful experience of linking church with schools in a way which is mutually positive.  Wish to be a full and active member of our wider village communities, helping us to deepen our relationships with all aspects of village life.  Will love and support us, with all our idiosyncrasies, and be able to laugh with us as we enjoy the future journey together.

Page 6 of 26 HOLY TRINITY AND ST ESPRIT IN RELATION TO THE 8 ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF HEALTHY CHURCHES

HOLY TRINITY

We conducted our Natural Church Development (NCD) survey in the parish in July 2016.

Empowering Leadership

During the vacancy our congregation have taken on a considerable amount of parish responsibilities, far in excess of what they thought they were capable of! We have increased the number of lay members leading our worship to include at least two services per month when Non-Eucharistic services take place, and this has been enthusiastically received by the congregation. Our Reader has been invaluable in helping with this process. We are now wishing to develop and extend this approach to leadership into all areas of our church life.

We have enjoyed this increase in leadership participation, and whilst welcoming a new priest to help give spiritual direction, we do not want to lose the empowering and training of disciples in the church. We would therefore welcome a priest with a track record in empowering and equipping laity in leadership.

Gift-Oriented Ministry

We try to make use of people’s gifts but we do need to be more intentional about this, including our involvement with the wider village community. Identifying and developing people’s gifts with appropriate processes to help this is not an area we are experienced in, so we will need help with this.

Passionate Spirituality

Like many churches in our Diocese, we scored low in Passionate Spirituality. We readily accept the need to address this. We love our church and our village, and members of Holy Trinity are good neighbours as a matter of course. The generosity of spirit is palpable in the village, especially when people are experiencing severe problems or distress. There is a great pool of goodness residing here, but we do not relate it directly to our faith. We do need to be more confident and open in actually talking to others (even within the Church) about our faith. This is going to be new territory for most of us, so we would welcome an incumbent who is passionate about their faith but who can also help us become more confident and passionate too.

Page 7 of 26 Inspiring Worship

This is a strength for our church. Our worship does seem to help people connect meaningfully with God and has a positive influence on them. Historically our worship has been quite traditional, but our vacancy has provided us with the opportunity to try different forms of worship, including the introduction of new non-Eucharistic services, which have been very successful. They have been welcomed by the existing congregation and have also attracted new visitors who hopefully may become more regular worshippers, though we recognise more work needs to be done if we are going to attract more regular visitors, especially in the younger generation.

We have a small core group of young families who regularly attend Sunday services. The children are welcomed and valued by the whole congregation. Activities are provided for the children at every service. These take place at the back of the church rather than in a separate room. We are currently using the Scripture Union ‘On the Way’ resources on most Sundays, with seasonal variations.

In order to ensure that we serve the needs of the younger generation in our community we recognise that different provisions will have to be made. We look forward to learning from the Diocesan initiative Acceler8 about how to engage with 20-30 year olds.

Meanwhile, Messy Church has been a very positive development, with attendances of between 38 and 49 children with a similar number of adults. Run quarterly, it provides an easily accessible way for a large number of children and young adults to get to know Jesus. This is a team effort with all parts of the congregation participating and helping in different ways. We are now at a point where we need to give more attention to growing new disciples through Messy Church.

Holistic Small Groups

There is only one home group, the Monday Group, concentrating on Bible Study, faith development and fellowship. The Worship Group plans all non-Eucharistic services. We need support to create and grow more home groups to allow the opportunity for greater numbers to benefit from them. This is one of the areas which will enhance our action in the arena of Passionate Spirituality. However, we need guidance and training to lead more groups, plus the reading and understanding of the Bible.

Page 8 of 26 Need-Oriented Outreach

The congregation provide a lot of informal pastoral support in the wider village, showing loving care and concern, both visibly and quietly behind the scenes. We organise and are involved in Church Teas. As a church community, we support social events being run by other organisations, and always try to be visible at events, e.g.Village Carnival, Spring Show etc. We are

starting to involve our buildings in wider village activities such as social and musical events.

We have some positive links with the local CofE (Voluntary Controlled) Primary School, but these could be further developed.

Our experience in our village is that people support the church in the community. They like it to be available when they want to use it - for baptisms, weddings and funerals mostly. This, however, can often be the limit of their involvement, other than attending special festivals like Remembrance, Easter and Christmas.

We therefore need help in helping our neighbours in the village progress in relation to exploration of faith and discipleship for those who are interested. It is fair to say that the gifts and practice of evangelism are not things that come naturally to us in this church!

Loving Relationships

This was very much the strongest quality in our NCD survey, which is re-assuring to us, as we think we do try to provide a welcoming atmosphere to everyone. After all of our morning services we share refreshments and fellowship. We do have some strong characters in our parish, and people don’t always agree on everything, with some people in our parish quite prepared to challenge decisions and activities, and who find change a difficult concept to grasp. We need to learn how to handle these sorts of situations constructively and positively.

Page 9 of 26 But overall we take heart from this section that our church is a loving and welcoming place to be part of.

We organise many events to complement our efforts in encompassing Loving Relationships, includingthe wider village, including:

 Annual Church BBQ.  Safari Supper.  Harvest Supper.  Thursday Teas (free afternoon teas in Church from April to September then monthly to the end of March, for all the village plus visitors).  Charity Christmas Card Sale (a number of Charities are invited to sell their cards in the church on the first Saturday in November. This is always very well supported by the community).  Christmas Tree Festival which incorporates local businesses and organisations.  Christmas Market involving local craftspeople and businesses.

Functional Structures

Until the interregnum, if one had asked about structure within our church it would have been what the vicar wanted and planned! But during our vacancy we have tried to be a little more inventive though this is by no means fully developed.

The main decision making process within the church is the PCC and although thorough and diligent in its duties there is a need for more transparency in its deliberations with the congregation. The PCC meets 6-8 times per year. The PCC is a forthright team who all see the need for outreach ministry within our community and look forward to a new incumbent with the necessary skills to guide us.

There are undoubtedly some within our number who are against or scared of change. They see the church as a holy place only to be used for prayer and services. They are in a minority, but we try to respect their viewpoint without letting it dominate, or stop progress.

Our aim is to streamline our structures to allow our church to flourish. We do not want our new incumbent to be weighed down with administration and paperwork but to be engaged with the whole community, encouraging those already with a faith but most of all working with us to seek new disciples. We will need to spend time with the new incumbent deciding on the most efficient structure for the benefice to achieve this.

Page 10 of 26 ST ESPRIT

We also conducted our Natural Church Development (NCD) survey in the parish in July 2016.

Empowering Leadership

The 8 EQs survey shows that this is one of our weaker characteristics. We currently describe ourselves as being in ‘maintenance mode’ and we recognise that we are getting little outside support beyond services. However there are real positives in the survey about our approach to ‘all member’ ministry which recognises that there are opportunities for everyone to use their gifts for the benefit of the church and the village.

A lay leadership team was established under the previous vicar in St Esprit church based on the PCC, and this group has taken responsibility for the continued running and development of the church during this period without further support. Much of the leadership team’s effort has been focussed on:

 Growing the membership of the church.  Encouraging the wider village to engage more in the practical care of the church and churchyard.  Developing new ways for the church to be actively and visibly present in the life of the village (such as the community good neighbours scheme and our festival services).  Starting a new ecumenical home group that has grown to 10 members and meets every week to learn together, share and pray together  Putting on new services in the church so that there is now at least one service every week, each with a different worship style (formal or informal, guitar or organ, sung or spoken).  Maintaining the church fabric (e.g. replacing the lighting with low energy LED lights).

During this time we have been very ably supported by Rev Rob Rogers, an ordained minister in secular employment, who has led our monthly family service and our services of Holy Communion, and has been very valuable to the PCC and congregation.

We have been trying new things – different approaches, different lay leaders – and have been encouraged by the results to date, but we need more intentionality and process in identifying and using gifts of leadership.

Page 11 of 26

St Esprit’s patronal festival is celebrated as the church’s birthday and is enjoyed by all ages.

Gift-Oriented Ministry

We rely entirely on the gifts and skills that people have offered voluntarily for the running of the church. The gifts range from hospitality through serving on the PCC, to leading aspects of our worship services. The survey results show that some people recognise their gifts, use them in the service of the church and consider themselves well supported in their ministry. There is clearly some work to be done however to help the remaining members who are not quite so involved to identify their gifts and to provide opportunities for them to use them in and beyond the life of the church.

As a church and leadership team, we encourage everyone to take an active part in every aspect of church life. Against all expectations, we had new people offering themselves for election to the PCC this year after a couple of members retired. It is wonderful that hearts are being stirred and that people are keen to serve.

Less exciting tasks would benefit from being spread round more widely, especially towards those who enjoy them.

We actively encourage all of our members to seek roles within the life of the church that will allow them to serve our communities and that will provide them with the opportunity to grow spiritually. The majority of the people serving on the PCC, for example, were not members of the PCC 5 years ago.

Passionate Spirituality

The standout weakest question in this quality was “I enjoy reading the bible on my own”. We are very encouraged that some people have now signed up for daily readings and meditations that arrive by email or text.

The survey shows that prayer time is valued. In church prayer times, and in the home group, we encourage prayer for specific situations and people so that we can demonstrate the relevance and importance of our prayer lives. The prayers in the

Page 12 of 26 home group include a virtual prayer walk where we bring to mind each street in the village, every person in the street, and pray for them and any needs that we are aware of.

There is still work to be done to turn enthusiasm for the church into ‘Holy Gossip’ that people will take into their work, leisure and home lives. We have seen some early green shoots in that we have noticed changes in the village – but we long for more!

Inspiring Worship

The survey indicates that we are very positive about our services (although the survey was completed after a lively family service so may not be a completely accurate indicator of the quality of all of our services!). We try to provide something that meets the needs and style preferences of all people that attend services and which will attract others to join us. The service that has seen the most growth is the All Age service which includes lively, multimedia presentations and is led by Rev Rob Rogers along with contemporary guitar worship with activities for our younger members. Our other new services include ‘In the Spirit’ which is an informal guitar- led service and ‘Reflection’ which is a monthly spoken service (both currently lay- led).

We introduced a monthly evening Matins service at the suggestion of some of the members of our congregation, but both this service and the monthly traditional communion service have not yet attracted new members and have continued to decline.

Holistic Small Groups

For a small church like ours, every group is effectively a small group. There are a number of groups that meet to share something of themselves whilst serving the church (flower arranging, church cleaning etc) and over many years deep relationships have resulted. There have also been small groups, typically cross- parish, that have largely not sustained through the current parish structure changes although one cell continues and goes together to New Wine annually, camping together as an Act 2 community involving the cell, their families and friends. Our great joy has been the planting and growth of an ecumenical home group in Marton that is attended by up to 10 people every week.

Every measure in the survey shows that the home group is meeting the real needs of the people that have joined, and that they are growing through being part of it. Two members of the home group attended the recent deanery Alpha course.

The lowest measure in the survey is the issue of home group multiplication. In our view the group is not yet quite ready to be multiplied as many of the individuals are at early stages of their faith journeys. We look forward to the day when there are multiple home groups.

Page 13 of 26

Most of the PCC members are regular attendees of the home group and their desire to serve the church is a result of their faith journeys.

Need-Oriented Outreach

St Esprit is a local community focussed church. We believe that we may be the only ‘Jesus’ that some people will meet and that we are called to be sent as His hands and feet to serve the needy in our community and beyond.

We have recently worked with our village Parish Council to set up a ‘good neighbours’ scheme, so that those without access to the internet/email can ask for help when they need it. We also support other local, national and international initiatives. Within our community we support a regular afternoon tea club and a coffee morning in the church for the older folk in the village.

Amongst our other activities we:

 Provide a foundation governor at a local school.  Have a heart for refugees and asylum seekers, regularly providing clothes, furniture, food and direct help.  Support a local food bank.  Sponsor a child through Compassion.  Volunteer as Lay Chaplains at the hospitals.  Have supported one of our young people on mission to Mozambique with BMS.  Support a couple of CMS missionaries in Nepal.

The survey however shows that there is a gap in the church in terms of equipping people to actively engage in evangelism. People clearly feel encouraged to speak about their faith in a safe environment like the home group or church but are not yet at the stage where they feel comfortable talking about their faith within their homes and their workplaces. This is an area where we need help.

Loving Relationships

This is our strongest quality. There is no shortage of laughter inside or outside the building. People clearly feel loved and supported by the church community. Everyone is personally welcomed to services, is invited to tea-coffee beforehand and tea-coffee-cake after (or during if needed). There is forgiveness and lack of resentment.

Our family services and festival services tend to be well attended and good fun with a good community spirit often combined with the sharing of food. We are learning as a community to be more relaxed about using technology and the issues that sometimes result – for example when the projector doesn’t work!

Page 14 of 26

The Queen’s birthday celebrations provided and opportunity for outreach

We would like to build a deeper relationship with the diocese. Currently some of our members sing in choirs at the cathedral and elsewhere but there is little further interaction.

The statistics show that we are an ‘older’ church (25% young families, 40% middle aged, 30% older), but we are encouraging families with young children to come along to our All Age service. We have seen positive results of this work but want to reach more young people in our community.

We also hold a village Progressive Dinner involving about 80 villagers, enjoying each other’s company and building community. The Nativity Tableau and carols again brings over 100 of the village together to celebrate Christmas, and share hospitality and the gospel.

One of the challenges is that we do not have a school in the village, children travel quite widely to attend school. We are geographically close to the Roman Catholic school, Princethorpe College, so have a significant number of Roman Catholic families in the village, the links between the parish church and the Roman Catholics are the home group, In The Spirit and community focussed services eg the Nativity.

Christmas at St Esprit

Page 15 of 26 Functional Structures

As we are a small village church, the only structure we have for running all aspects of the church is our PCC, which meets monthly and is chaired by a lay person. It is reasonably effective, very supportive and friendly. The PCC decides the pattern and structure of our services (we have introduced a couple of new services in the last year), our giving (the church tithes its income and we review the charities we support every quarter), appoints a lay governor to a local school as well as a representative to the deanery synod and to the deanery mission team (new appointment this year), and supports our church wardens in their roles. It is very pleasing that the people who retired from the PCC at the last AGM were replaced by new people who had not served on the PCC before. All of the meetings are structured with an agenda and formal minutes are produced, but meetings are far from dry and there is a lot of fun and laughter!

THE PARISH OF LONG ITCHINGTON

Long Itchington is situated in the Stratford on Avon District of Warwickshire and is part of Coventry Diocese. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book, when it was 20 times larger than Birmingham! Long Itchington is about 2 miiles from the market town of Southam, 2 miles from the village of Marton (also in the benefice), 6 miles from Royal Leamington Spa, 8 miles from Rugby, 10 miles from Coventry, and 20 miles from Stratford.

Long Itchington’s parish consists of four main settlements:  Long Itchington  Model Village  Bascote  Bascote Heath

We also have an increasing residential community on the Grand Union Canal.

Page 16 of 26 Long Itchington is the birthplace of St. Wulfstan who was to become the Bishop of Worcester in 1062. The stained glass window in the St Wulfstan Chapel within Holy Trinity Church celebrates this historical fact. We celebrated his millennium in 2008 in partnership with Our Lady and St Wulstan Church in Southam.

The current population is 2,300 across 934 households. However, the community is due to grow considerably over the next few years as planning permission has recently been approved to build 297 dwellings mainly on three new developments. We see this significant planned growth in our local community as an important opportunity for our church to welcome new residents into our village and our congregation.

CHURCH

We know from the Domesday Book that there was a Saxon church in Long Itchington although it may not have been on this site. Indeed in those days Long Itchington was worthy of 2 priests!

In Norman times the Barons de Limsie from Hertford built a church on this site in the 12th Century style and gave it to Hertford Priory. The nave was wider than the present nave and there was possibly a small chancel. The church passed into the ownership of the de Lindseis and the de Pinkneys and then to the Odingsels, who added the south aisle in the 13th Century, provided priests for the church and carried out improvements to the aisle resulting in the present chancel and tower. In 1333 the church passed from Hertford Priory to Maxstoke Priory by order of William de Clinton. Changes in the 15th Century included higher nave walls enabling the clerestory windows to be added. Larger arches were constructed between the nave and south aisle.

During the Reformation control of the church passed from the priory at Maxstoke to the Duchess of Suffolk (Henry VIII’s sister) and then to Queen Elizabeth 1. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, bought the lordship, and patronage passed from the crown to the lord of the manor, and through the families of Leicesters the Leighs and the Newdigates.

The Bishop of Coventry became the sole patron in 1955.

The church itself is our only building (ie no church halls etc). It is in generally good repair and we are currently endeavouring to make the environment more flexible, having obtained a faculty for the removal of the pews, hopefully to replace them with comfortable chairs. This made the National Press recently due to a faculty issue over the style of chairs! We also use the Community Centre and pubs as appropriate for social activities.

We openly welcome the use of the church for community events such as concerts, teas and fund raising.

Page 17 of 26

The graveyard is approaching full capacity but approaches have been made to the Parish Council to resolve this issue.

THE PARISH COUNCIL

Long Itchington has an active, hardworking Parish Council which is diligent in seeking every opportunity to improve the environment for the benefit of the population. Parish Councillors regularly attend the weekly teas in Church to meet with their parishioners and gain their views together with the local Community Police officers. The Parish Council runs and maintains the Community Centre (attached to the School) which is a valuable facility within the village from which the following organisations hold their meetings:

 Women’s Institute  Brownies  History Society  Youth Club  Zumba  Wednesday Club for Senior Citizens  Cinema Club

BUSINESSES AND VILLAGE ORGANISATIONS

The three largest employers within the parish are:

 Cemex  Codemasters  Dalls Burston Polo Ground

The village is surrounded by working farms of various sizes. There is also a range of small businesses including Greenways Care Home, six Public Houses, Long Itchington Diner, Chinese Restaurant, Hairdresser, Heart of England Cooperative Store, Mitchell Engineering, Warwickshire Flyboats, Colecraft Narrowboat Builders and Catterall’s Coaches.

Long Itchington is a very active village with a wide range groups and societies including: Cricket Club, Football Club, Scouts, Cubs and Beavers, Guides, Youth Club, Golf Society, Tennis Courts, Allotment Society, Carnival Committee, Young Farmers, Crib, Dominoes and Chess Groups, Knit and Natter, WARMLI (developing

Annual Events held in the Vlllage include: Spring Show, Beer Festival, Carnival, Summer, Show, Christmas Card Sale, Christmas Tree Festival and Market.

Page 18 of 26 THE PARISH OF ST ESPRIT, MARTON

History

The earliest known reference to the parish church of Saint Esprit goes back to between 1155 and 1160, when the then Lord of the Manor, the Earl of Warwick, granted the church as a gift to the Nuns of the Fontevraud Order at the Priory of the Blessed Virgin in Eaton (now St Mary’s Abbey Church in Nuneaton). It is, however, likely that a church, probably built of wood, had existed on the site much earlier, and that it was a “hundredal” church; an early mission centre from which itinerant priests served a wide district. Its importance is exemplified in a decree issued by Bishop Richard of Coventry in about 1170 requiring “vills” from a wide surrounding area, including Rugby, Grandborough, Shuckborough, Napton, Ladbroke and Hunningham (amongst others), to pay “churchaumber” of corn to the church of Marton.

The dedication of the church to Saint Esprit, the French title for the Holy Spirit, is believed to be unique in England. The church was gifted to the Nuns of Nuneaton by the Earl of Warwick shortly after Robert Beaumont, Earl of Leicester had granted his manor of Eaton, in 1155, to the French Abbey of Fontevraud. It is conceivable that the combined politics of church and state led to the unusual dedication of Marton church early in the life of St Mary’s Priory. As well as the church, the Nuneaton Priory had substantial holdings around Marton, and local tradition has it that these included a “convalescent” or respite home for the Nuns of Nuneaton.

The ancient church, said to be one of the oldest in Warwickshire, survived and continued until 1870. In 1868 it was reported to be in a bad state of repair, and was substantially demolished in 1870. A restoration appeal was launched in 1871, with remarkable results. A special feature of the rebuilt church is the painted inscriptions on metal panels throughout the church.

Location

Marton is a small Warwickshire village situated near the confluence of the rivers Itchen and Leam, 7 miles equidistant from Rugby, Coventry and Leamington Spa. It sits astride the A423, which is an old coaching route between Coventry and Banbury. The parish of Marton was until recently a member of the Feldon Group of churches, and is part of the Southam Deanery.

Population.

There are around 200 homes in the village, with around 300 people living here. Marton is a real mix in terms of demographic – young and old, better off and less well off. The community spirit within Marton is excellent and creates a very positive village atmosphere, particularly at events and in the Pig Club! The facilities in the village are limited to the village pub (which is now a top class Bangladeshi restaurant as well as pub), the playing field and playground (including the cricket club), and the village hall (which hosts films, shows, village events etc). The post office shut and

Page 19 of 26 the local garage shut down recently, so the nearest shops are in Long Itchington, Southam or Princethorpe – with the major shopping centres of Rugby, Coventry and Leamington Spa all within 7 miles of the village.

The main Primary schools attended by children in the village are in Stretton and Long Itchington. Marton PCC appoints a foundation governor to the governing body of Knightlow School, Stretton. For secondary schooling children typically travel to Southam, Leamington, Warwick, Rugby or Coventry.

On the outskirts of the village there is a small industrial park with small businesses focussed on the motor trade. Within the village there are a number of self-employed people based in the village.

Buildings

The village home-based post office was recently closed down. The community facilities in the parish are the playing fields, the village hall, the museum and the church with all but the church maintained by the Parish Council.

The church is in reasonable condition as we have continued to maintain it. In recent years we have installed a toilet and small kitchen area, new lighting and removed some pews. The quinquennial survey took place in October with no significant issues arising and we currently have no further development plans.

The church building is used weekly for services and we have held an annual arts festival in the church. The local community have recently started to use the church as part of the village produce festival – and we are keen to encourage greater use of the building by the community.

We have a graveyard which is used as the burial ground for the village. It is maintained by donations from villagers.

Page 20 of 26 JOINT INFORMATION FOR LONG ITCHINGTON AND MARTON

Vicarage

The vicarage is a four bedroomed detached property which is in the attractive centre of Long Itchington village.

Church Services

An example of an average monthly service rota is shown below. We are willing to consider changes to this.

1st Sunday 2nd 3rd Sunday 4th Sunday 5th Sunday Sunday Holy 09.30 09.30 09.30 09.30 09.30 Trinity Holy Morning Holy Morning Joint Holy Long Communion Service Communion Service Communion Itchington with Marton St Esprit, 6.30pm 10.30 10.30 10.30 Joint service Marton ‘In the Spirit’ Family ‘Reflection’ Holy informal lay- service Informal ‘lay- Communion led service led’ spoken service

Additional worship activities in Long Itchington include:

 Welcoming service for the school during the first week of the new school year  Communion at Greenways Care Home (monthly).  Crib Service. This starts at the beginning of Advent with 2 Posada sets circulating, with the schoolchildren taking Mary and Joseph home for a night’s B&B and then caring for a lamb for the rest of Advent, culminating in the whole flock being brought to the stable on Christmas Eve. We are constantly replenishing the flock of knitted sheep as our congregation at 5pm on Christmas Eve for the Crib Service is 250+!  Toy Service. This started in Christmas 2015 with the schoolchildren and congregation being asked to donate a good quality used toy for those less fortunate.  Pet service. We have revived this initiative this year.

In Marton, the current service pattern is designed to ensure that there is a service in the church every week, and that across the month there is a style of worship to suit everyone. For the fifth Sunday of the month we have typically had a joint service with other members of the Feldon Group. We do not know whether this will continue under the new grouping.

Page 21 of 26 Additional worship activities in St Esprit include  Easter sunrise (at 9am to allow for late risers).  Village Nativity Tableau and carols involving as many of the village as possible.

In 2016 to date Long Itchington have had 9 baptisms, 5 weddings and 6 funerals held in the church, and Marton have had 2 weddings and 1 funeral.

School Links

A page summarising the work of the DBE with schools can be found here: http://www.dioceseofcoventry.org/images/document_library/UDR01414.pdf.

The village has one school - Long Itchington Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School. It has 177 pupils on the roll with the vast majority living in the village. The School’s stated Christian Values include hope, peace, respect, perseverance, friendship, courage, justice, trust and forgiveness. The School was inspected by the National Society of Anglican and Methodist Schools in January 2016 and was awarded a SIAMS grade of ‘Good’. The report concluded that:

 Long Itchington is a welcoming and fully inclusive school with Christian values at its heart.  The high quality strategies that support vulnerable pupils and their families are driven by Christian love and compassion.  The distinctiveness and effectiveness of Long Itchington as a Church of England school are good..  The impact of collective worship on the school community is good. The daily act of worship has a place of major importance in the life of the school and is greatly valued by staff and pupils alike. Worship is well planned by the coordinator. It is a driver for the school’s values as themes are planned around them. This enables pupils to make links between the values and their biblical roots. There is also a strong emphasis on the major festivals of the church year, stories from the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Displays in the hall strongly enhance the worship environment. They emphasise the core values and support pupils’ understanding of Christian symbols, liturgical colours and the Holy Trinity.

Mutually supportive links already exist between the school, the diocese and the local church. The school visits church to celebrate the major Christian festivals. The school choir also sings occasionally in parish worship and large numbers of school pupils attend ‘Messy Church’. The school is also involved in activities such as hosting and preparing a Christmas party for older residents. This enables pupils to experience putting their core Christian values into practice. Every child on entering the school receives a bible story book from the church and on moving to secondary school a copy of ‘It’s Your Move’ by the Scripture Union.

Whilst all these activities are good, we are keen to establish a much stronger and closer link between the activities, events and worship in the School and in Holy

Page 22 of 26 Trinity Church and to have pupils and their parents more actively engaged in programmes that unite the School and the Church in worship and within our community. We believe that developing this relationship is a fundamental and key objective for our new Incumbent.

Marton does not have a school in the village, but the PCC appoints a foundation governor to the governing body the Knightlow School – a nearby primary school attended by many of the children in the village. We also have informal links with Long Itchington Primary school.

Ecumenical Links

The only other Christian church in the village is the Long Itchington Congregational Chapel. The Chapel runs various activities including a bi monthly Women’s Group. The close proximity of the Roman Catholic school to Marton means that quite a few families are drawn to services in Princethorpe, Wappenbury or Southam. Marton has an ecumenical home group in the village and some Catholics attend our more informal services, particularly on festival occasions.

We hope and envisage positive relationships will continue with the Offchurch Group even though the formal links between us have changed.

Administration

At present we have a part time administrator serving the previous described six parishes of the Feldon Group. However the post-holder retired at the end of October 2016 and the position will not be filled in its present form. Long Itchington and Marton churchwardens feel it would be appropriate to wait until our new incumbent is in post prior to filling this post for our two parishes. In the interim the Churchwardens will endeavour to share the administrative load but this will be in the short term only.

The Vicarage as previously described has a purpose built office at the front of the building to accommodate this appointment with the necessary telephone/internet connections. We understand however that the Diocese now has guidelines advising that parish offices should not be located within vicarages. We do not know how this will work in our context.

Long Itchington does not currently have a web site but would welcome linking with Marton to develop a joint site.

Parish Communications presently include:  Weekly Pew News Sheet  Village Diary published bi-monthly in Long Itchington and monthly in Marton  Noticeboards  St Esprit, Marton Facebook page  Long Itchington Facebook page.  Marton Village website

Page 23 of 26 Finance and Stewardship

The table below summarises our financial situation in 2015. Full sets of accounts for the last three years are available on request.

Holy St Esprit Parish/Benefice Trinity Marton Total Long Itchington

General Income 10,500 2,034 12,534 Planned Giving 16.955 5,402 22,357 Gift-Aid 5,059 0 ** 5,059 Fundraising (eg 4,383 1,557 5,940 fetes) Grants 107 0 107 General 15,651 8,036 23,687 Expenditure Parish Share 22,254 5,018 27,262 Contribution Unrestricted 41,222* 14,567 55,789 Reserves Restricted 111,071 0 111,071 Reserves Any special considerations, future expenditure etc?

* Unrestricted reserves include a ring-fenced legacy of £9,516 indemnity for 6 years from 12 May 2015. ** Gift aid of £1,449 for last year will be shown in the St Esprit 2016 accounts.

The cost of a full-time incumbent in the Diocese of Coventry is calculated as:  Stipend (incl. pension and NI): £36,962  House: £6,500  Training Share: £12,972  Combined total: £56,434

A 0.5 post with a house and half a Training Share (other half with Offchurch Group) would be £31,487 (18,481 + 6,500 + 6,486). This may necessitate an increase in Parish Share to cover these costs.

Long Itchington and Marton PCCs have always managed to meet their requested Parish Share Contribution in full for the proportionate cost of clergy. This year the commitments are £23,481 and £5,290 respectively, both on course to be met again in full.

Long Itchington PCC sees the role of Stewardship in its approach to encouraging generous giving. Gift Aided giving is followed up throughout the congregation and friends of Holy Trinity in the village through envelope schemes and bank mandates. A substantial church restoration fund was set up in recent years when over £100,000 was raised for church restoration projects. In addition the PCC has been fortunate in

Page 24 of 26 being recipients of generous legacies. The PCC recognises the need to support the church’s mission by giving to relevant charities on a regular basis. In the last year £1,300 was given to charities including assistance in partnership with Dan and Philippa Mundy of CMS towards their work in Nepal.

St Esprit also encourages generous giving to support the running and maintenance of the church. We tithe (aiming at 10%) all of our income and use it to support a range of local, national and international charities focussed on mission, that we review on a quarterly basis. The charities we have supported this year have included Carriers of Hope, Compassion and CMS. Last year we gave £1,382 to the charities we supported.

FURTHER DETAILS

For further information about the post please contact the Area Dean, Martin Green on tel: 01926 613466 (E-mail: [email protected]). Informal conversations are very welcome.

An application form can be downloaded from the Diocesan Website: http://www.dioceseofcoventry.org/vacancies/current_vacancies.

Closing date for applications: Noon on Friday 17th February. Interviews: Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th March.

An enhanced DBS disclosure is required for this post.

Page 25 of 26

POSTCARD FROM LONG ITCHINGTON

A floral display from the Wulfstan Millennium Flower Festival (right) and a view of the Church with the River Itchen and water meadow.

On his visit to the school Bishop Christopher explained his vestments to children and viewed their work.

Below left the Co-Op Supermarket and right, the village pond.

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