Parish Church of St Peter, South Weald PARISH PROFILE

Parish Church of St Peter, South Weald

PARISH PROFILE SEPTEMBER 2015

Our Church

St Peter’s Church is in the village of South Weald on the outskirts of Brentwood, to the east of the M25 and the London Borough of Havering. It is a lively and flourishing church with a congregation encompassing all ages. Our services are middle of the road but there is a wide range of churchmanship within the congregation and our doors are open to all. More than half of the Electoral Roll live outside the parish. Our Voluntary Aided Primary School in the village has been rated as outstanding in all respects.

We are fortunate to have a vibrant and diverse congregation, including a large number of young families. While many start to attend church in order to meet attendance criteria for admission to local church schools, our welcoming and accepting attitude means that a number become committed members of the congregation. Our challenge is to respect the needs of our long-standing members whilst engaging with newcomers.

St Peter’s Rule of Life

As followers of Christ, we aim:  to attend worship regularly, including Holy Communion;  to maintain a pattern of daily prayer and develop our spiritual lives;  to read and study the Bible;  to help grow the church community through our time, talents and money;  to assist others and to serve the needs of the local community;  to have a concern for the whole world and to work for the coming of God’s kingdom; 1  to share our faith through action and word.

Who We Are Looking For

We would welcome a parish priest who is someone of central churchmanship, who will respect our worship style and who is:

 a “people person” – a good communicator, able to engage with all ages;  a strong and flexible leader who is willing to maintain what is good but able to think strategically and manage change;  a person with strong faith and deep spirituality who has a desire to share these and enable others to do likewise;  able to draw families into the life of the church, whatever their initial reasons for attending (e.g. meeting the church attendance criteria for school entry), and able to engage with and enthuse their children when they reach secondary school age;  willing to devote time and energy to foster the strong links between the church and school.

What We Can Offer

In preparation for the production of this Parish Profile we consulted with congregation, school, visitors to our annual Festival and recipients of the Parish Magazine. 148 responses were received and analysed. The results showed the following strengths and weaknesses which will enable us to identify future opportunities.

Our strengths are:  We are a welcoming church, open to everyone.  We embrace a variety of styles of worship and music.  We offer good provision for children up to the age of 11 and have excellent links with our church school.  The annual Patronal Festival brings the community together.  We offer many opportunities for individuals to deepen their spiritual lives.  “Maintain the good work” was a recurring comment in our survey and most of our congregation believe that we have a strong foundation on which to build.

Weaknesses that have been identified are:  Engagement with secondary-school children.  Finance – our giving needs to increase to enable us to work effectively.  Outreach – we need to engage with our diverse congregation, especially those on the edge of church, and find ways to meet the needs of non-churchgoing parishioners.

The Wider Context

In 2011 the Diocese of Chelmsford produced a vision paper called “Transforming Presence”, which has been adopted by the Diocesan Synod. http://www.transformingpresence.org.uk/pdf/TransformingPresence.pdf This has led to a strategy paper called ‘Reimagining Ministry’ which encourages parishes to cluster to enable them to flourish in the decades to come, with fewer full time paid clergy and more self-supporting lay and ordained ministry. http://www.transformingpresence.org.uk/resources/mmu.pdf A conference was held in the spring of 2015 called Time to Talk, including the opportunity for Deanery groups to discuss ideas for the future. Following this, in September 2015, the Brentwood Deanery will be undertaking a training evening, following the same format, for members of each of the 22 PCCs in the Deanery. By 2025 it is likely that there will only be 7 stipendiary vicars in the Brentwood Deanery and collaborative working will be essential. Deanery meetings have been held in the past regarding this issue and some churches in the Deanery are now working collaboratively. These are very successful bearing in mind the varied style of churchmanship in each parish. There is still a long way to go but the atmosphere is very positive. In the autumn, 2015 there is to be a 2-year Course in Christian Studies (our Diocesan foundation course) held in Brentwood. It is hoped people from South Weald may attend to find out more about the Christian faith and inform them of ways they can support our church in a lay capacity. At South Weald we have 4 representatives on the Brentwood Deanery Synod and 2 representatives on the Diocesan Synod.

A message from the Area Dean, Canon Paul Hamilton The Anglican Deanery of Brentwood is rich in diversity and reflects every tradition and churchmanship. Relationships between churches are excellent and form a genuine supportive network. Ecumenical relationships are good and the Churches Together network plans and executes key events throughout the year such as the Good Friday Walk of Witness and in recent years, prayer seminars from a variety of traditions. The Deanery would welcome an incumbent who is keen to take their place within the family of Anglican churches contributing to Deanery Synod, Chapter and developing Mission and Ministry Units in line with our diocesan aims presented in Transforming Presence. The challenge of reducing clergy numbers requires us to look for a person who is a team player and flexible to enable us to keep a worshipping community in each part of the Deanery. We offer you a genuine welcome into the Deanery family, supportive professional relationships free from competitiveness, practical assistance to cover services in time of need, a breadth of traditions that enables corporate theological reflection4 upon the issues of the day and a genuine desire to see you and your church flourish.

Our Church Life

Worship

Our main Sunday service at 9.45am is a family communion service using Common Worship. Attendance averages 140 adults and 40 children. We sing a mixture of traditional and modern hymns accompanied by the organ and our robed choir. We were delighted to receive a donation last year to enable us to buy new hymn books – Ancient & Modern Hymns and Songs for Refreshing Worship.

Three children’s groups meet for part of the service: Sunday group (3-7 yrs), Junior Quiz Group (7-9 yrs) and Senior Quiz Group (9-11 yrs). Average attendance is in the region of 30 a week.

Lay people administer the sacrament, act as servers, read the lessons, lead the intercessions, act as vergers and sidespeople, and make and serve refreshments after the service.

Baptisms take place during the main service approximately once a month. Last year, 37 children were baptised.

Seven times a year we have an all-age worship service with communion, accompanied by an instrumental group. Uniformed organisations from the Scouting and Guiding movements attend six of these. The seventh is Education Sunday which is attended and partially led by the school.

Twice a year we shorten the family communion service considerably and encourage people to stay after the service to informally investigate a chosen topic such as prayer, church organisations, or the St Peter’s Rule of Life.

Our bells are rung before the 9.45 service and occasionally at other services.

Other Sunday services

Communion Service (8am). This said service alternates between BCP and Common Worship and has an average congregation of 25. It is becoming more attractive to families who lead busy lives but still want to come to church.

Evensong (6.30 summer, 4.30 winter) uses BCP and has an average attendance of 12. Once a month the service is followed by Evenchat, a discussion group led by the Vicar, which brings a Christian perspective to topical issues.

Weekday services

Every two months we hold a weekday evening Eucharist with prayers for healing; there are also monthly celebrations of Holy Communion in the Almshouse chapel on a Wednesday morning and in church at 6pm on a Saturday. Major saints’ days are celebrated at 9am.

We celebrate other dates in the church’s year with additional services including Music for Passiontide and Night Prayer during Holy Week.

In the run up to Christmas, we have a Christingle service and a service of Nine Lessons and Carols. Our Christmas Eve crib service proved so popular that we now have two, with total attendance of around 700. The junior choir enjoy pizza and games between the two services.

In 2014 we had 7 weddings and 11 funerals in the church, and our vicar led 3 funerals at the local crematorium.

Spiritual and Pastoral Life

A variety of groups and initiatives aid our spiritual growth, and we are keen to increase take- up of these activities.

 Home groups – 35 people currently meet fortnightly in three groups to discuss a book of the Bible or other Christian book, to enjoy fellowship and to pray.  Several SHAPE courses have been organized and have proved successful. Materials for the course were created by the Diocese of Carlisle and adopted by Chelmsford in 2010. The aim is to enable Christians to find their uniqueness, or “shape”, to help them to recognize their gifts, and to use them in God’s service. 25 people have undertaken this course with many being inspired to actions including: o Forming our Meditation Group which meets weekly. The group has 12 regular members including some from other churches. o Becoming a licensed Pastoral Assistant, overseeing our pastoral visiting team. At present, the team of six concentrates on visiting the recently bereaved but intends to widen its scope.  Each year about ten adults and six children attend confirmation classes and are confirmed.  We hold a Lent course each week during Lent. This year we had speakers from four of the world’s main faiths, attended by around 30 people.  Our Annual Quiet Day takes place at the Diocesan House of Retreat in Pleshey.  Each of the 44 members of our Prayer Chain is allocated another member to pray for daily; the chain is revised twice a year.  An annual Memorial Service is held on the Sunday nearest to All Souls’ Day. Relatives of those whose funerals have taken place in the church during the previous twelve months are invited personally by letter to attend. Other members of the congregation are asked to submit the names of any they would like remembered.  Regular Welcome Teas have been held at the Vicarage for new members and their families to get to know each other.  We are looking to re-start our Mothers’ Union group with 14 people expressing an interest initially.  We tried to start an Alpha course but didn’t have the necessary take-up.  We ran a version of Messy Church sporadically for a couple of years but were unable to find a suitable time for it to be held.

Social Groups

We have a number of groups whose purpose is largely social.

 Sunbeams is a parent and toddler group which meets weekly on a Friday morning.  Thursday at Two offers cards and board games and a lending library, with tea and cakes, once a month.  Lika Latte is a fortnightly coffee morning on Thursdays. It is aimed mainly at people who have dropped off children at school, but others also attend.  The Book Group meets monthly to discuss a book chosen by the members.

Social Events

We arrange a number of community-based social and/or fund-raising events:

Our Patronal Festival is marked by over a week of activities organised jointly by the church and school. Originally, more than fifty years ago, this was a flower festival in the church, an aspect which is still a central feature. The celebration now includes a school fete, open gardens, a fun run, an art exhibition, music, bell ringing, ploughman’s lunches and teas. The weekend culminates in Praise in the Park, held in South Weald Country Park, when members of the congregation introduce their favourite hymns. Last year, the festival raised in the region of £20,000 – half going to the church and half to the school.

We have been experimenting with our Harvest social event, and this year we will be having a treasure hunt in Weald Park. Other regular fixtures include Annual Fireworks at the Vicarage, the Autumn Country Fayre, held in September at a local cricket club (which raised £3,190 in 2014), Quiz Night, Easter Meal and Parish Picnic. In addition, many groups organise their own social events, for example the choir and bell ringers.

Service in the Community

Each year, we donate 5% of our unrestricted income to a selection of charities. Food collected by the church and school at harvest is shared between Brentwood Food Bank, CHESS (Chelmsford charity for the homeless) and the Almshouses. We also have an annual collection of cleaning goods for CHESS and in July collect produce for the Brentwood Food Bank. A collection is held within the parish for Christian Aid Week in May. Many members of the congregation have boxes to collect for the Children’s Society and the Christingle service also supports this. The choir’s carol singing in the parish raises money for LEPRA.

Despite being geographically distant from many of its parishioners, the church strives to keep in touch. Our Easter parish magazine is distributed free to every house in the parish and at Christmas we deliver a Christmas card with times of Christmas services and dates of other events during the year. There is a two-yearly cycle of Prayers for the Parish. An invitation is distributed to each house to submit prayer concerns and to attend the family Eucharist at which they will be incorporated in the intercessions. Members of the congregation are encouraged to invite neighbours to Back to Church Sunday as part of our Harvest Thanksgiving.

St Peter’s Church of England (Voluntary Aided) Primary School

The church enjoys excellent links with our church primary school. The school has 315 pupils aged 4-11 and is rated as Outstanding by Ofsted and SIAMS. The previous incumbent led an assembly in school every week, which was highly valued by the Headteacher, the staff and the pupils. The school holds ten services in the church throughout the year: beginning and end of term services, Harvest and Eucharists for All Saints’ Day, Ash Wednesday and St Peter’s Day – these are attended by all pupils except for the first one in September when the new intake remains in school. Parents and friends are very welcome.

On 31st October, we run Light up the Night, an alternative Halloween celebration for junior pupils, with activities, refreshments and a Christian content.

All of the governors’ families are members of the congregation; we hope that a new incumbent would want to join the governing body too. We also have a Church/School Liaison Group, meeting termly, to ensure links remain strong.

The school’s website can be found at www.stpeterssouthweald.org

The Parish and Surrounding Area

St Peter’s Church is situated at the top of a hill in the village of South Weald, some two miles from the centre of Brentwood. It nestles in the corner of South Weald Country Park which is owned and maintained by Essex County Council; with its narrow lanes the village feels very rural. The view from the tower overlooks Brentwood and further to the west the city of London is clearly visible; to the south, the Queen Elizabeth Bridge at the Dartford crossing can be seen.

The church is flanked by a cluster of houses, with the primary school and the vicarage a little further down the hill. Opposite the school stands a row of 12 red brick Almshouses. Although these are administered by a separate board of trustees, they have traditionally maintained close links with the church, including a monthly communion service led by the Vicar in the Almshouse Chapel. The vicar is co-opted as a Trustee of the Almshouse Charity.

At the bottom of the hill is the main residential area of the parish which consists of mainly post-war, private urban development to the east of the green belt which forms our boundary with Greater London. Whilst there is considerable movement in home ownership, there are many who have lived in the parish for a long time and are now retired.

Our road links have changed radically over the years with first the A12 bypassing Brentwood and this in turn meeting the M25 at junction 28. We have a general store and post office on the main road at the bottom of the hill and a bus service into the town itself. Most local children of primary age attend our school and there is a strong community feeling between the families whilst the children are there as the children cannot easily walk to school and most are taken and met by friends and family. Fortunately the church has a large car park!

Brentwood has recently come within the Transport for London area and from 2018 Crossrail will terminate close by at Shenfield. There is a frequent rail service to Liverpool Street so access to London is easy and many in the parish work there.

Our parish of about 3,000 is quite small and, unusually, has no other church of any denomination. There is a Parish Hall which is owned and run by the local community, as well as a scout hut: both are used by the uniformed groups, which are flourishing. The Parish Hall is well used by other local groups. We boast three pubs and two hotels, all with restaurants, as well as a variety of retail outlets.

In the centre of Brentwood, the High Street has a mix of chain stores including Waterstones, Boots, Marks and Spencer, Next, Monsoon, Robert Dyas and a large Sainsbury as well as eating places and charity shops. The town has gained some notoriety (as well as several niche clothes boutiques) as it is here that The Only Way Is Essex is filmed. The Sugar Hut, a night club in an old coaching inn, has become a popular meeting place at weekends for its devotees from far and wide. The local churches have set up a group of Street Pastors to help them on Friday and Saturday nights until the early hours, and one member of our congregation has joined them.

Close to the town centre is Becket Keys School, the only Church of England Comprehensive Free School in Essex, which opened 3 years ago with 150 children in year 7. It was set up with support from our own school, the neighbouring parish's junior school of St Thomas of Canterbury, and the Diocese of Chelmsford. Our former Vicar was Chair of Governors, and currently the Area Bishop, the Area Dean, the Headteacher of St Peter's School and a member of our PCC are all on the governing body. The school is extremely popular and over-subscribed. It has been highly praised in inspection for all aspects of its work and for its wide-ranging extra-curricular activities.

There are four other mixed comprehensive schools in the borough, as well as a Roman Catholic girls' comprehensive; the mixed independent Brentwood School is a Church of England foundation dating from the sixteenth century. We are well served by all our schools.

Church Buildings

The present church dates from about 1150, although the south doorway is the sole remaining Norman feature. The north aisle was added in the 13th century, and the tower, with its ring of 8 bells, early in the 16th century. Substantial renovation work took place in 1868,

directed and largely funded by the Rev’d. Charles Belli, who was Vicar from 1823 to 1877 and after whom we named our new church centre. The building has remained substantially unchanged since then, and still retains many of its earlier features, including brasses dating back to 1450, a 15th century stained glass window, and memorials to local families.

The church is open daily throughout the year, and is regularly used for prayer and reflection. A candle stand and prayer table are available for private prayer concerns. A Spiritual Trail leaflet, designed in the past year, guides visitors around the most significant historical and religious features of the building.

The church is generously supported by the work of the Friends of St Peter’s, a fundraising group under the umbrella of the PCC, which has contributed substantially to the upkeep of the church building. Most recently, their efforts (together with a substantial donation in memory of a parishioner) have paid for a new lighting system, which it is hoped will be installed early next year.

Beginning in 2002, a major fund-raising venture undertaken by the church, with some local community funding, enabled the construction of a new hall to replace the existing Vestry Room, which had become inadequate for the church’s needs. The Belli Centre was opened in November 2010, and has become a focus of church and community activities. It is attached to the church and includes a large hall that can be subdivided, a kitchen and toilets. It is used regularly by the school breakfast club and is available for hire to other local groups and individuals, as well as providing a venue for meetings and functions for the church.

The departure of the resident Verger in 2014 has left the church with an untenanted cottage opposite the church building. This 2-bedroom Victorian brick bungalow is currently being renovated.

Parish Finances

The Parish Share for the Church of St Peter, South Weald is the third largest in the Brentwood Deanery. Over the last few years we have struggled to pay our family purse. However, in 2011 and 2014 we managed to pay it in full.

The Parish Share for 2015 has risen to approximately £97,000, and this is proving difficult for us to achieve at the present time. There may be a shortfall by the end of the financial year. The Parish Share is due to increase by a further 1.5% in 2016.

In view of this, we intend to hold a campaign in the near future based on the Planned Giving Scheme adopted by our PCC, as soon as a new Parish Giving Officer can be appointed. Successful Stewardship Campaigns were held in autumn 2010 and 2013. The new campaign will give people the opportunity to look again at their giving.

A brief overview of finances in 2014 Income £ Expenditure £ Giving 123,783 Parish Share 93,681 Fund-raising (net) 15,765 Buildings 21,799 Church Activities 14,250 Charitable Giving 5,520 Other 25,088 Total 153,798 146,088

The churchwardens can provide a copy of the full accounts on request.

Ministerial expenses - telephone, mileage, stationery and hospitality - are paid in full by the PCC. The church employs a Director of Music and a part-time cleaner.

The Vicarage

The vicarage is a spacious, detached house about 200 metres from the church, near the school and Almshouses. It was built in the 1920s to replace the previous vicarage opposite (now a private residence) and it provides generous family accommodation, with extensive grounds. Downstairs are the vicar’s office (which is regularly used for meetings), a lounge, a dining room, a breakfast room leading to the kitchen, and a cloakroom. The first floor has five bedrooms and a bathroom; there is a further bedroom/study on the top floor. Secondary glazing and central heating have been installed throughout. With its views of the surrounding farms and woodland, the vicarage retains a character of peaceful seclusion.

There is a double garage and ample parking space. The grounds of about two acres, which consist mostly of grass and shrubs, are a favourite haunt of the local deer population, and have also been occasionally made available for parish events. It is hoped the new incumbent will agree to continue this tradition.