THE DRAYCOTE BENEFICE

In the Diocese of , at the heart of , the “Our vision is to work Draycote Benefice comprises four rural parishes with four churches, at the heart of each village. with one heart to www.draycotegroup.org.uk become examples that inspire our communities ❖ All Saints’ in Stretton on Dunsmore with Princethorpe ❖ St. Leonard’s in to come to faith and to ❖ St. Nicholas’ in Frankton share the transformative ❖ St. Peter’s in Bourton on Dunsmore with Draycote power of God’s love.

As outlined in the deanery summary below,, plans are in place for a merger with the adjoining Leam Valley benefice, also currently in vacancy. A full profile for Leam is available. Recent updates from each parish have been added in Section 7 below.

THE LEAM VALLEY BENEFICE

The Leam Valley benefice comprises four small villages with five churches. We reflect in many respects the joys and challenges of many small rural multi-parish benefices. www.leamvalleychurches.co.uk ❖ St Mark’s in Flecknoe ❖ St Peter’s in Grandborough ❖ All Saints’ in (with Church of the Good Shepherd, Broadwell) ❖ St Nicholas in Willoughby

Contents 1. Deanery summary 2 2. Our vision and values 4 3. The role and person specification 4 4. Praying and praising at the core of the benefice 5 5. Living our faith in the community 6 6. Inspiring the next generation 7 7. Unique qualities of each parish 7 8. Commitment to safeguarding and pastoral care 11 9. Our Rector’s home 12 10. Keeping our churches running smoothly 13

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COVID-19 This profile was prepared before the Covid-19 crisis, which has had a dramatic effect on life across the world. When churches closed the Draycote benefice showed God’s love in to our communities in other ways. We’re sharing information in our social media groups, liaising with parish councils to co-ordinate volunteers and spending a lot more time on the phone. We have also embraced online meetings, services and prayers and are promoting live streamed services, updating our website regularly on changing circumstance. Our villages have pulled together in inspiring ways and many people have volunteered to offer both practical and emotional support. This emergency will change us all and will change the way church operates and we know we need to be ready for this. We are responding to changing circumstances and our congregations needs by holding in church and online worship according to our risk assessment of the current situation.

1. Deanery summary

The Rugby Deanery is situated to the North and East of the County of Warwickshire. It shares a border with the Diocese of Leicester to the North and the Diocese of Peterborough to the East and is one of the largest Deaneries in the Diocese. There are 29 Parishes varying from urban to rural. Most of the population resides in the town of Rugby and its suburban housing estates (around 70,000 according to 2011 census data) with another 30,000 living in the surrounding areas. This number is increasing rapidly. There is a lot of new housing planned in the Deanery, not least of all the Houlton development on the old Rugby BT mast site, Long Lawford and in the area between Bilton and – to name just a few. Much of this work has already begun.

Rugby was the first deanery in the diocese to formulate a Deanery Plan. One of the major issues this plan takes into consideration is the implementation of a new system for determining parish share in the deanery. This was finally implemented for 2020 although the effect of the current time on parish and deanery finances is yet to be fully seen. The new system is more equitable and easier to understand. Over all, the plan gives a framework for the closer working together of parishes on issues of mutual concern and enables us to look at mission and ministry in a more cohesive way in a quickly changing environment. It is a document that will change as need and situations change around the deanery.

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Due to all the new housing and infrastructure being built across the town, along with 5 clergy vacancies in the deanery, the process of drawing up a second deanery plan to shape the church for mission began in November of 2019. We felt that there was a major opportunity to make some much-needed alterations to parish and benefice structures. There is currently a major consultation going on with parishes discussing how aspects of the plan will affect them. The results of these discussions and eventual decisions is, at this point, not known, but it is the hope of the DMPC that there will be a major reordering of our rural areas into larger benefices with two clergy working in each.

In the case of the Draycote Benefice this will include the appointment of a full-time stipendiary priest. This will be the first phase in a multi-phase process of reordering which will include bringing together the benefices of Draycote and Leam Valley and that of Ryton into a larger rural group with the successful candidate for this post being the Incumbent and a full-time Associate Minister (to be appointed later) working together across a benefice of nine parishes. The clergy will work together closely bringing complementary gifts and experience to encourage the churches in this new grouping in their mission and ministry. A key element of this plan is the development of lay people, recognising, training and releasing the missionary energies of existing church members while encouraging those on the fringes to engage more with what the churches are doing.

This new plan is wide-ranging and complex and we appreciate that we may be appointing someone to an environment where the sand is shifting, but we are putting our trust in God to show us the way forward. Surprisingly this period of consultation has been something that we have been able to make good progress on during this time of the pandemic when so many other things have been laid aside.

There has in recent years been a growing desire for both Clergy and Laity to work more closely together in the deanery. There have been a number of initiatives that have helped us do this. A Church Wardens’ Forum meets quarterly to discuss areas of mutual concern and to hear talks on various subjects from diocesan staff and others. It has also proved to be a good forum for wardens to give one another support and share information and give the benefit of experience to others.

Under normal circumstances the Deanery Chapter would meet once a month for lunch, prayer and support. During lockdown we have had weekly Zoom meetings. As things have been picking up a little we have reduced these to fortnightly. We are quite a large group (18 when all posts are filled) which makes for a great atmosphere. There is always much fun and laughter at our meetings! Before lockdown, the previous two years have seen the chapter focussing more on prayer and mutual support and it tries to keep business brief and to a minimum. The result of this has been a deeper drawing together of clergy in the Deanery. In previous years we have shared together in a pastoral/team building exercise by having a day trip on a canal barge with pub lunch.

Rugby Deanery is a great place to live and to work and we hope that you seriously consider applying for this post. You can find out a little more about the deanery and all the deaneries in the diocese by viewing the deanery video here: http://dioceseofcoventry.org/index.php?page_ref=1639

Tim Cockell, Area Dean of Rugby

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2. Our vision and values

Our vision is to work with one heart to become examples that inspire our communities to come to faith and share the transformative power of God’s love.

The commitment of the churchwardens and PCCs and the involvement of many lay community members enables the four parishes to co-ordinate worship, community events and pastoral care. We work together as a team to put our vision into practice with energy and enthusiasm, showing creativity, respect and sensitivity.

We work closely with the Church of Primary school in the benefice to nurture the Christian faith in our young people. As a benefice we have developed a number of initiatives to encourage more people to become involved in the life of the church. This is an ongoing challenge which we are working on with the commitment of the PCC’s and others.

All four churches are deeply valued by our communities. In normal they are all open every day for people to worship, pray or simply sit quietly. We have a sense of togetherness within the benefice to achieve our mission and a strong desire to meet the needs of all people, wherever they are on the journey of faith. We are seeking someone who will join us for the long term, thereby avoiding the disruptive pattern of going from incumbent to vacancy to incumbent. We put our trust in God that he will lead the right person to us who will help us bring about a period of stability and growth. 3. The Role

The purpose of this post is to lead the Draycote Benefice to help us fulfil our mission. This can be achieved by the development of the eight essential qualities in the life of a healthy church;

• Empowering leadership • Holistic small groups • Gift orientated Ministry • Need orientated outreach • Passionate spirituality • Loving relationships • Inspiring worship • Functional structures

The post is full-time stipendiary.

The appointee will provide leadership and spiritual development to build a ministry-led team to deliver most of our non-Eucharist worship and prayer. Under the leadership of the incumbent our lay team will provide pastoral support across the benefice.

He/she will chair our Benefice Council which oversees missional strategy, benefice communications and finance. PCC meetings, chaired by a lay member, will report to this Council. The appointee is not expected to attend all PCC meetings. Person Specification We welcome applications from priests who meet these essential criteria:

• Has a strong Christian faith, a heart for mission and a passion for sharing their faith with people of all ages in rural communities • Has proven leadership skills, a willingness to delegate and experience of developing lay leadership • Is skilled in identifying, encouraging and training new leaders from within both church and community to engage in new and existing ministerial and missional opportunities 4

• An engaging manner with the ability to nurture relationships between parishes and with our Church of England Primary school • Can demonstrate excellent communication and time management skills and proficiency in IT 4. Praying and praising are at the core of the benefice

We aim to make all our services of worship inspirational and to meet the needs of everyone, wherever they may be on their Christian journey. Our normal service pattern within the benefice includes both Eucharistic and lay- led worship each Sunday. This has been suspended during the COVID-19 epidemic. We are holding one Eucharist and one non-Eucharist service a month at Stretton (the largest building) with occasional services in the other parishes.

Our normal Sunday service pattern

Holy Communion Family Worship Evening Worship

10.30 am 10.30 am 6.00 pm First Sunday Frankton Bourton Second Sunday Birdingbury Stretton Third Sunday Bourton (9.15 am BCP) Frankton Stretton Fourth Sunday Stretton Birdingbury Fifth Sunday Benefice Holy Communion service circulates around the parishes

Our Sunday services are supplemented by informal services in village halls, gardens and on farms as well as home communion. Celebrate@4, held on the 4th Saturday of each month, recently had its 5th birthday. This lay-led service has built a following of young families and others who prefer an informal style of worship. It is held in different venues across the benefice and features videos, drama and creative “My son looks forward to prayers. The coming each time. Celebrate is worship band an answer to prayer for me.” plays both contemporary and traditional music, and activities are laid on for children but the teaching is suitable for all ages and there is always tea and cake! Church in the Hall is held on the first Thursday of the month at Bourton, Draycote and Frankton Village Hall. The short lay-led service with a thought for the day is followed by fellowship and refreshments. Easy access provides an opportunity for those with mobility problems to be involved. 5

We want to continue these varied forms of worship so our worshipping community can choose the style of worship that suits their need. Our ongoing challenge is to encourage more people to worship across the wider benefice rather than only in their own parish church, thereby maximising the choice available. “Prayer and worship Prayer is central to our Christian life. Across the benefice we have regular home are intrinsically groups, weekly morning prayer and enjoy quiet reflection sessions during Advent linked to bring us and Lent. Our active benefice prayer chain circulates confidential prayer requests closer to God.” from anyone in need.

The challenges within Draycote benefice are not so different to many rural parishes. Currently our numbers are small but with the right incumbent we have great potential to grow this rural worshipping community.

5. Living our faith in the community “We want to create a strong Christian We follow up our warm welcome in church with opportunities to form foundation in our friendships and to be encouraged in faith through our events and community.” activities. There are a number of joint initiatives that bring our communities together in fellowship across the benefice, as well as those described in the details of individual parishes. Holiday Bible Club During the summer holidays we hold a week of play and praise for children of primary school age at Knightlow School. Daily worship, craft activities and outdoor play all follow a theme – this year it is Pirates. Over recent years between 30 and 40 children have attended. These sessions are popular with both children and parents and feedback has been extremely positive. A dedicated group of committed adults supervise, but we need to work on succession planning to make this venture sustainable. Men’s breakfast Each month on a Saturday morning, between 15 and 25 men from across the benefice meet for a cooked breakfast in the village pub in Stretton. A speaker provides food for thought and discussion. This event is an excellent opportunity to engage with irregular church goers. Global Care partnership Over recent years we have supported ‘Shack Schools’, a Global Care project. Shack Schools provide access education to some of the most damaged Syrian refugee families living in the Bekaa Valley. We committed ourselves to raising £1,500 per year for three years and comfortably exceeded this amount every year. A secondary objective was to raise awareness in our community of the plight of refugees across the world. We are taking a break from fund raising this year as the church community is very busy during a vacancy and exploring the possibility of helping a project in the developing world.

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Care for the environment We are committed to improving our care for the environment and working with our communities to encourage lifestyle changes that show reverence for God’s creation. We accept that God’s creation is in crisis. We welcome the recent decision of General Synod to compel the C of E to become a net carbon zero organisation by 2030. This will be challenging for everyone but also represents an opportunity. Some of our churches are Eco Church members and have undertaken a Green Journey audit. However, there is much to be done and we know that the time to act is now. 6. Inspiring the next generation

Everyone at Knightlow C of E Primary School feels privileged to be a part of the Draycote Benefice and to be able to work in partnership with our foundation governors, the worship team, members of the church congregations and the local communities for the benefit of our children. As a single form entry village school, many of our families live within the Draycote parishes and the school has a very positive and fruitful relationship with the church, which we would really hope to continue and build upon.

For us, the links with the church run deeper than just maintaining our Christian character and are founded on a strong relationship between us the incumbent and the worship team from the benefice. This relationship allows us to show the children what faith can mean in their lives, and incorporates acts of worship, learning about Christianity in action, delivering a rich and imaginative R.E. curriculum, seeing the church as a place for all people and engaging in creative prayer and reflection.

The children and the staff are able to get to know their vicar as someone who is interested in them and who is able to demonstrate what it means to be a practising Christian. They love to learn more about the Bible, and we try to seek different opportunities for them to build their understanding and express their own thoughts and beliefs openly and honestly. During our vacancy our enthusiastic team are maintaining and reinforcing this important link. 7. Unique qualities of each parish

While we strive to work together as far as possible, each of our parishes has unique qualities and strengths as highlighted here. The adjoining parishes of Draycote and Leam Valley and have much in common. Indeed until 2006, Birdingbury formed part of the Leam Valley group. Many of our strengths and weaknesses are comparable and we share a strong desire for a leader who will help us to create new disciples in our communities. Our churches have small but faithful congregations and pastoral care is strong. Our community activities are similar and we are optimistic that we will all benefit from sharing experience and skills. St Leonards Birdingbury St Leonards’ is a small rural church in a quiet community. The population of the village is around 350 with a church roll of 33.

When a survey was last undertaken some 110 members of the community were involved with the church in one form or another (leading lay services, leading prayers, giving readings, altar guild, cleaning the church, mowing the grass etc) but typical attendance at non festival services is around 15 people. However, church attendance

7 at the key festivals of Christmas and Easter, together with Remembrance Day, can increase to 80-100 people.

Whilst there has been a decline in numbers attending church on a regular basis, attendance at key festivals has increased. A challenge for the new incumbent will be to inspire those attending the festivals to want to attend services more frequently. Whilst regular attendance at church is small there are plenty of activities taking place to keep our church healthy and loved. We are a friendly, caring, inclusive and loving community who, through an active PCC and other volunteers, are blessed with a variety of skills and talents that people are willing to share to keep St Leonard’s alive. We enjoy varied forms of worship and are fortunate to have an organist who brings our worship alive with his music. We enjoy a good sermon that enables us to then apply God’s teachings into our everyday lives. We believe that whilst there are many positives to life at St Leonard’s we also have our challenges, especially with regards to regular attendance at services. St Peter’s, Bourton with Draycote St Peter’s dates back to the 13th century and serves the parish of Bourton on Dunsmore and Draycote. The church has an electoral role of 23. Regular attendance averages 9. Easter and Christmas services see a congregation of up to 25. The candlelit carol service has an attendance of around 100. A ‘Church in the Hall’ service is held each month in the Bourton, Draycote and Frankton Village hall. The Hall was re-built in the early years of this century and provides wonderful community facilities.

Bourton and Draycote Trust (the vicar being and ex-officio committee member) exists to provide the relief of need. In recent years this trust has supported a community lunch for residents in an effort to combat loneliness. This has been very successful.

The parish has a strong farming background. Harvest is a popular service and in the past Rogation tide and Lammastide have been important events in our calendar. A high proportion of village children attend Knightlow School, which represents a strong link between the church and the community. Many people in the village have an attachment to the church but do not attend services.

Community spirit in both villages is strong. However recent momentum in developing our mission has stalled and the progression of time is eroding our congregation faster than we have been able to strengthen it. The church building requires regular upkeep which is expensive and inevitably dominates fund raising efforts.

We believe the Church is valued by the community but this is not reflected in attendance at services. We are keen to have an incumbent who will lead worship, develop lay-led worship and inspire faith in the community. St. Nicholas, Frankton The church has an electoral roll of 20 with a village population of 350, approximately 300 adults and 50 children. We are blessed with a number of young families a lot of whom attend Celebrate@4 an initiative begun five years ago to attract younger families and welcome all ages to the benefice once a month. We pride ourselves on being a very friendly and welcoming team. Old and new attendees are greeted warmly and contact is maintained with former members of the congregation who have moved away.

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The PCC and congregation work well together offering help and expertise as necessary. At present the PCC has six members and we are currently recruiting a church warden.

During the interregnum our family services are lay-led. Services are interactive children are involved and the music is provided by our own organist. The Christingle service was a joyous celebration. The village support continues quietly in the background. People came together to make poppies and decorate the church for the centenary of the end of the first world war. One lady embroidered a stunning altar cloth which will be the centrepiece at Remembrance for many future years.

We need to develop the healing side of our ministry and on a spiritual level find ways to grow people’s faith after baptisms, weddings and funerals. Our challenge could be to find ways to attract more people to attend after their significant special occasions. All Saints, Stretton on Dunsmore with Princethorpe Stretton is a busy village with a shop and Post Office, doctor’s surgery, primary school and a pub. It is the largest and most socially diverse village in the benefice, with a range of social and private housing and a population numbering about 2,400. The parish includes the adjacent smaller village of Princethorpe which has a Roman Catholic church and primary school.

All Saints Church, built in 1837, is in a good state of repair and is well-equipped with a kitchen, toilet, children’s area and prayer corner. The removal of some pews has created flexible spaces at the front and rear for church and social activities. Our eight-member PCC (including two church wardens) works well together and we share the tasks associated with running an active parish. Our building is valued and well- used. There are 85 on our electoral roll and our regular attendance at services is between 18 and 30, but festivals attract larger numbers. We have 3 or 4 weddings and a similar number of baptisms each year.

A generous legacy enabled us to install an audio-visual system that means we can develop more creative lay-led worship. We have a small team able and willing to lead these services and we are eager to have a leader who will help us develop and improve our skills for leading worship.

Music plays an important part in our worship and we have an excellent organist and a festival choir who get together to rehearse for special services. Our new and enthusiastic team of bell ringers are ringing for services and weddings. Recognising that Sunday afternoons can be a difficult time for people living on their own, we have recently initiated a ‘Communitea’ in the hour before our monthly evening worship. Stretton is blessed with many people with craft skills and our regular ‘knit and natter’ sessions at church have been created items such as our Remembrance poppies and knitted Christmas tree and as well as providing excellent fellowship. 9

These short updates from the Leam Valley parishes supplement the information in their previous profile, the majority of which is still current. All Saints, Leamington Hastings The health and growth of our church has not been measured by a NCD survey since Jan 2018, so we have no formal measure as to progress since then. However, we do know that, together with many other rural parishes, we have suffered a gradual decline in regular church attendance over the years with few if any younger members attending regularly. This has meant there are fewer people available to take on leadership roles in the church and the burden on those that do is higher than it should be and not sustainable in the longer run. We recognise that our missionary skills must be generally poor and there is a reluctance and/or lack of confidence amongst many believers to share our faith and joy of knowing Jesus with others, but we want help and support to overcome this barrier.

In spite of the pandemic, there are bright sparks of light though to give us hope and encouragement. We formed a “Friends" group in the autumn of 2019 to help with fundraising for the fabric of the church, and have been greatly encouraged by the commitment of all those involved and enthusiasm towards the church and all it stands for. There have also been wonderful acts of kindness and support to one another in the parish throughout the last year. We have worked closer together with other parishes in the benefice and are enthusiastic to seek out from within the area the IT and social media skills needed to follow Flecknoe in developing online or recorded offerings for worship and teaching. We continue to work with our Methodist friends and coordinate activities throughout the year. We work closely with the C of E primary school in Hill and share and nurture the Christian faith in our young people. Through our Readers we have been active in lay led worship and the handling of funeral services.

Our urgent priority is to build a team with the enthusiasm, fun and faith to take us to a position where we share with others the good news of Jesus and so bring others to faith. We would welcome more biblical teaching. We would like to work with an inspired full-time minister of faith with a talent for engaging with people of all ages. We also look forward to the help and encouragement from being part of a larger benefice with a broad span of skills and experience. St Mark’s, Flecknoe Flecknoe is a Norse settlement and has been a village since about 900AD and contains several sites scheduled by English Heritage. At its peak in the 14th century the population of Flecknoe was about ten times its current size, before the ravages of the Black Death took its toll. At the eastern edge of the Coventry Diocese, it is one of the most sparsely populated rural Parishes in the Diocese and includes the hamlets of Sawbridge, Nethercote and Wolfhampcote, as well as several farms.

Our Breakfast Service was designed by us five years ago to reach out to the community and now has an average attendance of about 25, including 7 children. 4 to 7 from the older generation attend the Holy Communion service. Encouragingly, the church roll rose from 7 in 2014 to 15 in 2017, as an outcome of the popularity of the Breakfast Service but has stagnated since. This provides a good basis for the future, but there is an urgent need for external leadership to build on this base to take us forward and grow spirituality in our community. During lock-down in place of our Breakfast Service we have been running a simple 25-minute pre-recorded on- line service on our web site and on Facebook which has attracted over 100 views per service. St Peter’s, Grandborough Grandborough Church is located at the centre of the village. The present church dates from about the middle and the tower from about the end of the 14th century.

The church has a monthly service pattern comprising Holy Communion, Welcome to Worship (a service designed for children) and Evensong, with the addition of a monthly Benefice service. The church’s most popular service is Messy Church, which takes place monthly on a Thursday afternoon and is aimed at younger 10 children. There is a Methodist Chapel in the village and some services are held jointly- in particular evensong in the winter, where the Methodist Chapel is warmer and therefore more welcoming.

The electoral roll for the parish is 13 individuals. The PCC for St Peter’s comprises five individuals plus the Church Warden. The PCC meets around six times annually. The church buildings and church yard are well maintained, with separate rotas for flowers and cleaning. In addition there are annual volunteer days where more significant maintenance activities are undertaken. Currently there are two material building projects being progressed- repointing the south wall and replacing the flooring in the church tower.

Prior to the pandemic, the church hosted a monthly farmers market, which was very popular with the village and served as a useful source of income. It is to be hoped that when current conditions pass this can be revived. The key requirement for Grandborough is a priest who can help us on our spiritual and evangelical journey. There is a particular need to widen the church community. St Nicholas, Willoughby Willoughby is an ancient village and is referred to in the Domesday Book and one of the oldest buildings is the church. It is a small rural parish to the south east of Rugby located between Dunchurch and Daventry in the Leam Valley. The A45 runs through the east of the village as does the Grand Union canal. The majority of houses are situated on Main Street and Lower Street.

The average church attendance was 16 adults and 2 children, with larger numbers for festivals and special occasions. Each month the main services consist of: Family Service, and a Holy Communion Service. There are currently 30 on the Electoral Roll. We had a small choir who continued to inspire and lead our worship on Sundays. The Ladies Fellowship, previously Mothers `Union, is a small group who met each month. There are 4 members of the PCC. It is a small group who work well together for the benefit of St Nicholas. There is one Church Warden. There are about 5 meetings each year with additional adhoc meetings for special events or work.

The chancel roof was replaced recently following damage and theft. The community all helped fund raise. There are restricted funds to put a toilet/servery in church at a cost of £27,000 for which a faculty is being sought. However, £130,000 is needed to repair the failing nave roof. A grant for £20,000 is promised but fundraising has had to stop due to COVID and also grant applications are waiting on the Faculty.

COVID has had a significant influence on the fortunes of St Nicholas. The monthly soup and social loved by many had to stop and the fund raising which was so successful is unable to take place.

8. Commitment to safeguarding and pastoral care

We are committed to the Diocesan Safeguarding Policies and each parish presently has a safeguarding officer. Any communication is made by the coordinating officer, one of our churchwardens. Organisation for pastoral care varies across the benefice. Local knowledge is the key to it all.

Stretton has a ‘Good Neighbours’ scheme, dividing up the village into areas where parishioners undertake to look out for and be aware of the needs of their neighbours. We also provide lifts to hospital appointments for those unable to drive themselves.

In Birdingbury one person is dedicated to contact the bereaved and others make follow-up informal visits. Caring relationships are evident.

Frankton and Bourton are supportive communities where awareness of need is shared and phone calls and informal visits are made regularly.

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9. Our Rector’s home

Our vicarage is a 1980s constructed, 4 bedroomed, detached house on Main St. in Thurlaston, on the boundary of the benefice and close to beautiful Draycote Water. It sits on a good plot with parking at the front for several cars. There are 4 reception rooms, 4 bedrooms, one en-suite, a family bathroom, kitchen, utility, front and rear gardens. It meets the Church Commissioners Green Guide in terms of size, position and security. A separate entrance to the study (with access to a downstairs WC) enables church business to be conducted away from family areas. The Draycote benefice is well located in the centre of England with excellent road and rail links. Coventry, and Rugby are all within 15 minutes’ drive and all have good rail links. As well as being a lovely part of Warwickshire the area has excellent access to the M1 and M6 motorways which make it easy to visit other parts of the country.

Map of the Draycote and Leam Valley Parishes

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10. Keeping our churches running smoothly Administration The benefice employs an Administrative Assistant who works two mornings a week from Knightlow Primary School. Plans are in hand for the construction of a dedicated office and meeting room on the site. This will be funded by Stretton parish’s Princethorpe National School Foundation – a trust for Christian education, from the proceeds of the recent sale of a building at Princethorpe. Acknowledging that the benefice needed to develop a more supportive and co-ordinated role, we have formed a Benefice Council and exploring merging some PCC functions to share skills, create efficiencies of time and effort and improve communications. Communication Good communication is a challenge in multi-parish ministry and we recognise both its importance and our short comings, so are focusing on improvement. The benefice website www.draycotegroup.org.uk is is managed by the administrator and we also regularly post on village social media sites. Parish magazines are produced by individual churches either monthly or bi-monthly. Our monthly notice sheet, produced by the Parish Office, is distributed via email and printed copies are also available in each church. Finance The benefice meets the Parish Share commitments in full every year, including the voluntary donation to the Deanery Mission Fund, in support of parishes who cannot fund their share. We have had a self-supporting Minister for more than a decade so our costs have been low. The change in how the parish share is calculated will result in an increase for which we are preparing. We work hard to ensure that all our financial commitments, particularly Diocesan fees, are paid regularly and promptly. We are looking at different ways to encourage generosity in many forms in our communities. Each parish contributes to a benefice account which covers the running of the parish office and other benefice administrative costs on a 40% Stretton, 20% Birdingbury, Bourton and Frankton ratio. Full sets of accounts for the last three years are available on request.

To sum up

We believe that God has blessed us all with individual gifts. We are eager for our stewardship of the benefice to develop through our commitment of our time and talents as well as our financial contributions. We recognise that change has to happen in our parishes. The COVID- 19 crisis has accelerated the pace of change. We hope and pray that a better future is before us. Running a multi-parish benefice is not an easy ride, but for the right person, the success in addressing these challenges will be rewarding both for them and for our community

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