Pool Mission Area News 8th Issue - December 2016 People news We are delighted to welcome Alexis Smith to the Mission Area. Alexis is serving as a Pioneer Minister working primarily in Llandyssil and Castle Caereinion but hopefully developing a model for rejuvenating small rural churches which can be developed for use elsewhere. This is a 3-year post funded by the Diocese. Sadly there were no applicants for the post of a ‘House for Duty’ priest based in the Border Bridges Group when it was advertised in the autumn. It will be re-advertised at some point in the New Year after we have become a Mission Area as that might allow us more flexibility in the way the job is configured. In the meantime the four full-time clergy in the MA will each provide pastoral care to one of the churches. Rev’d David Francis, is making steady progress recovering from the stroke he suffered earlier in the year whilst Rev’d Imogen Marsden, another of our retired clergy, is on the mend after knee surgery. Rev’d Bethan Scotford’s husband Ron, and Rev’d Hazel Stibbe’s husband Paul are both not at all well – please keep them in your prayers over Christmas. Mission Area Progress The date has been set for the Commissioning Service when we will formally become a MA. This will be on Sunday 12th March. The time & venue will be confirmed early in the New Year. If you would like to be involved in preparing the service and any other events for this day, please let me know. Volunteers are also needed for a small working group finalising the rules & regulations which will govern the Mission Area Conference and the Church Committees that will replace PCCs. Please contact me as soon as possible if you’d like to be involved. The three open meetings we held during the autumn to discuss the changes involved in becoming a Mission Area were well attended, thank you. They generated a lot of questions that we are working on the answers for. The first set of these answers to your questions follow below - more will come with the next issue of MA News. There is also a section on the Diocesan website entitled MA FAQs answering some of the frequently asked questions about MAs. Underlying a lot of these questions was a sense that people were worried that the Mission Area would be something that ‘does things to us’ or ‘controls us’. However, the Mission Area is not a separate body making decisions about our churches, it is a body made up of those churches – in other words all of us together are the Mission Area. Just as the PCC is not separate to the church it governs, but is made up of members of that church, so the Mission Area Conference is made up of members of the churches in the Mission Area. MISSION AREA COMPOSITION Which churches are in our Mission Area altogether? We have 16 churches in our Mission Area. They are Montgomery, Llandyssil, Forden, Pool Quay, Guilsfield, Buttington, Welshpool, Belan, Castle Caereinion, Berriew, Fron, Pantyffridd, Penrhos, Criggion, Llandysilio and Llandrinio. As we will no longer be individual parishes, do we need a term for the parts of the MA – e.g. ‘Montgomery District’? Probably not. We can refer to the individual churches but Mission Area working should mean our boundaries are less fixed and we don’t need this terminology. We can see the benefit in sharing of resources – persons, places but how can we ensure that we still maintain our own identities? Becoming a Mission Area is absolutely, definitely not about all becoming the same. In fact, it will probably work better if we recognise and celebrate our differences. We will each have different strengths and be able to support each other in different ways. We also all need to respond to the needs of our communities, which we will usually know best as local people. A Mission Area should be better placed to offer the people in our communities a choice of different ways of doing things and so maintaining our identities while working together. ROLE OF CLERGY AND SHARED MINISTRY TEAM Who are the current clergy in our emerging Mission Area? Rev Steve Willson is the Mission Area Leader and is rooted in the churches and communities of Welshpool, Belan and Castle Caereinion. Rev Toni Bennett is rooted in Montgomery, Llandyssil and Forden. Rev Peter Pike is Archdeacon of Montgomery and along with Rev Esther Yates (NSM Curate), is rooted in Berriew, Pantyffridd and Fron. Rev Caroline Rhodes is rooted in Pool Quay, Guilsfield and Buttington. There is a current vacancy which will be rooted in Penrhos, Criggion, Llandrinio and Llandysilio. There is also a number of retired clergy with permission to officiate across the Mission Area. What exactly will be the changes in the role of the clergy when we become a Mission Area? This is something that will develop as we go along. Clergy will still be the only ones who can preside over the Eucharist, take weddings and usually baptisms. They will still be based in the communities they are ‘rooted’ in and take the majority of the pastoral responsibility for those areas. However, they will begin to work more collaboratively with other lay people such as Pastoral Assistants, Worship Leaders, Children’s Workers, Readers, Evangelists, etc. The clergy will also work together more closely to support each other and share responsibilities – being able to recognise their own and each other’s particular gifts and use them in the best way across the Mission Area. You should begin to get to know the other clergy in the Mission Area as they will occasionally come to take a service in your church or support you in some other way. This doesn’t mean they will be moving around all the time – you are very likely to continue having the same person the majority of the time (unless you are in interregnum). We feel that we still need to have our ‘own vicar’, particularly as we feel they are an important focal point and single point of contact for people in our communities. It is important that they are a part of our community and get to know people in that community. Will that change in the Mission Area? You will still have your ‘own vicar’ as explained above. However, you will also get to know both the rest of the clergy, as you should get more opportunity to meet them, and lay people, such as pastoral assistants, will be an additional point of contact for the communities – working together with the clergy to provide the best service possible. We do need to do some work around contacts and how we ensure that when a cleric is off for any reason, people can get hold of someone else easily. It is essential to have continuity in pastoral care – how can we ensure this continues? This is part of the aim of Mission Areas. As it is, the clergy often struggle to keep up with the pastoral care necessary and so we need to further develop pastoral care teams of lay people in our communities who can help with this. This should actually improve continuity and enable the priests to be much more effective, while recognising that there are many people in our churches who have a ministry in pastoral care and will often be the ideal people to take on this role. What will be the impact on services in our church? As mentioned above, you are not likely to have a huge amount of change. It makes sense that the clergy and lay ministers in your area will take most of your services. The clergy will work as a team to put the rotas together. It is hoped that in some churches lay people will take more of a role in leading and putting together services. Service patterns may change from time to time, as always. We will endeavour to provide a Eucharist Service in all churches on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and at Easter. As we become more focused on Mission, that may mean we choose to change some of our services as we recognise the differing needs and worship styles of those we serve. Is this happening because the number of priests is going to go down? No. The current level of clerics is set to remain. We believe that everyone has a ministry and this way of working is designed to enable us to carry out those ministries together in a more effective way. The continuing development of lay ministry should mean that clergy, as well as other lay ministers, can use their gifts and talents in a much more effective way. What is a Shared Ministry Team and how will it work? The Shared Ministry Team consists of the clergy and all lay ministers licensed by the Bishop (i.e. Readers, Evangelists, etc) and will be responsible for coordinating the ministry provided by all lay and ordained ministers (including Worship Leaders, Pastoral Assistants, etc) across the Mission Area. A Shared Ministry Team should enable clergy and lay people to work more closely together and more collaboratively. There is a lot of work to be done around this, some of which is beginning to happen as groups of lay ministers have met together. We need to ensure that lay ministers are fully utilized across the area. More answers to follow in the next MA News… Christmas Services Is the service you want not on in your local church when you want it? Well it’s probably on somewhere in the Mission Area.