Team Rector in the Blackbourne Team Ministry An opportunity to further God’s mission in a beautiful location with supportive, committed and caring people Men's breakfast The parishes of Ixworth with Ixworth Thorpe, Bardwell, Barnham, Euston, Fakenham, Honington with Sapiston, Ingham with Ampton & Great and Little Livermere, Troston Contents Pages 1. Who we are, what we offer, what we are looking for, 3 opportunities and challenges 2. Benefice overview 4 - 5 3. The Rectory 6 4. Ixworth Deanery & the Diocese 7 5. Parish profiles St Mary the Virgin, Ixworth 8 - 9 St Peter & St Paul, Bardwell 10 - 11 St Gregory, Barnham 12 - 13 St Genevieve, Euston 14 St Peter, Fakenham Magna 15 All Saints, Honington with St Andrew, Sapiston 16 - 17 Ingham with Ampton and Great and Little Livermere 18 - 20 St Mary, Troston 21 - 22 Appendix 1 Ministry team & benefice structure 23 Appendix 2 Population & attendance information 24 Appendix 3 Rota of services in a typical month 25 Appendix 4 Finance Summary (2017) 26 - 28 2 Who we are United in one Team Ministry since 1992, we are a group of eight diverse, rural parishes working collaboratively across 13 villages. These lie in beautiful countryside north-east of the attractive market town of Bury St Edmunds and within easy reach of the major shopping, cultural and leisure centres of Ipswich, Cambridge and Norwich. The villages form a reasonably compact cluster; the furthest points of the benefice are about 20 minutes apart by car. They are mostly rural, the exception being Ixworth, already a dormitory suburb of Bury St Edmunds and scheduled for enlargement, with new estates giving opportunities for evangelism. Each parish has its own tradition of worship and services and its own particular needs but we are accustomed to working together and there is much supporting of one another's activities. There are four Church primary schools with whom we have strong existing links. We are a supportive and prayerful community with many activities being run by the lay people from the congregations – these range from informal all-age services, Open the Book and Messy Church to coffee mornings, soup lunches and community cafes and include study groups and prayer groups. What we offer • A well-established team of parishes who are working happily together and growing in understanding of one another • An experienced and mutually supportive ministry team (see appendix one for details of the ministry team) • Active lay people keen to be involved in being a Christian witness in their communities • An effective structure to support and develop mission, ministry and pastoral care in the benefice and to drive the Diocesan Growing in God initiative • Paid-for administrative support of three hours per week • A supportive and prayerful community • A modern, 4 bedroom rectory in Ixworth with its good local amenities and easy access to major road and rail networks • Good strong links to local Church schools We are looking for a rector • who will put people at the centre of their ministry, and enjoy interacting with people and taking part in community activities of all kinds • who will build up a strong and visible community presence • who sees the visiting of parishioners and pastoral care as a high priority • who believes in the importance of working with and in schools as a key way of growing in influence. • who will be happy to work with, motivate and develop the existing team – an enabler who will encourage and help all to flourish and use their talents • who is secure and comfortable in their faith and in their own skin, who is approachable and non judgmental; a good and tactful listener and wise counsellor • who will be a good and confident leader, prepared to delegate, to challenge where necessary, and when appropriate to show strong and decisive leadership • who is comfortable with traditional services (BCP and Common Worship) and open to encourage and initiate new and different forms of worship. A preacher and teacher who can help us to grow in faith and increase numbers • who understands the advantages and disadvantages of rural life • who is a confident car driver Opportunities and Challenges for us to work on together in the coming years • Initiating outreach to the new estates in Ixworth • Encouraging and building up some of our communities who feel distanced, or even alienated, from the Church • Appropriately supporting those of our Church communities who are very small and struggling to provide the necessary church officers and admin as well as care for their church buildings • Building on and developing further the existing strong links with the four Church primary schools and the embryonic link with the secondary Free school in Ixworth • Developing links with the Honington RAF base 3 A benefice overview Geography The villages in the Team, which takes its name from the Blackbourne river, lie mostly between two A-class highways running more or less south to north from Bury St Edmunds. They are served by a wide variety of minor roads. Agriculture remains the predominant industry of the Team area although few residents of any of the parishes are actively employed on the land. The majority of those who are in work travel to other commercial and industrial centres such as Bury St Edmunds and Thetford, with some people also commuting to Ipswich, Cambridge, Norwich or even to London. The large RAF base at Honington, with its own housing estates, lies within the parishes of Honington, Troston and Barnham. Bury St Edmunds (population c 41,000) is an historic and beautiful market town, the largest in west Suffolk. It has an outstanding hospital, a large range of supermarkets, chain stores and individual shops. Markets are held twice weekly and its Christmas Fayre, held over four days at the end of November, has an international reputation. It is linked by major roads to Ipswich, London, Cambridge and the Midlands, with a good train service to Ipswich and London, Cambridge and Peterborough. It is a hub for local and national bus services. Bury has a famous 18th century theatre and two cinemas, and the Apex venue in the heart of the town hosts a wide range of concerts, exhibitions, workshops and other activities. There are many well-supported sporting facilities; Sporting 87 is one of the largest Christian-based football clubs in the country. There are good state and private schools and, for further education, the University of Suffolk at West Suffolk College provides a range of apprenticeships and undergraduate degree courses Bury St Edmunds cathedral dates back to the 16th century and has recently been enhanced by a Millennium tower visible from miles around. Nearby are the ruins of the 12th century Abbey, once the largest monastery in Europe. The town's centre, with its mixture of Georgian and mediaeval buildings, is exceptionally attractive. Transport Public transport is fairly limited in our area, being mostly subsidised country bus services that cater for the normal working day but tend not to operate in the evenings or at weekends. Transport to schools is by special buses or, of course, private car. There is a transport scheme to get people to the doctors, which is run by volunteers. Our villages Our largest village is Ixworth, home to about 40 per cent of our population. It has a number of retail outlets and a multi-disciplinary surgery with pharmacy, two pubs, a police station and fire station, and a well-supported branch library service in the village hall. A main road and bus services connect it to Bury St Edmunds some seven miles away. 4 Amenities vary in the smaller villages, and include village shops, post offices and pubs. Many of our communities have a number of thriving social activities such as Women's Institutes, sports clubs, mother and toddler groups and over 60s clubs; in some these can be held in the village hall, but other villages have no community gathering place. Details of the individual villages are given in the parish profiles. Housing For the most part our families own their own homes, the balance being in a mixture of private and local authority/housing association properties. The Euston Estate owns some 90 per cent of the housing in that parish as well as some properties in adjacent parishes; the Ampton Estate owns all the houses in Ampton and Little Livermere and a significant number in Great Livermere. Schools Ixworth has a secondary school and one of our four Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary Schools. The Team Rector has been a Foundation Governor at Ixworth and Bardwell schools, and has delegated responsibility at those in Honington and Barnham. All four primary schools have strong links with their parish churches, and regular Open the Book sessions. There are other excellent state and private schools within easy reach. Communications The team website is http://www.blackbourneteam.btck.co.uk and the individual churches all feature on A Church Near You. A number of the parishes also have their own Facebook page and Twitter feed (see our parish profiles). Finance Over the last three years the Team has managed to overpay its Diocesan share in order to help other benefices in the deanery. We also pay expenses for the ministry team. A 2017 financial overview is given in Appendix 4. Getting together There is a great deal of interaction between the Church communities in the benefice. There are regular Team and combined services and the wide variety of Sunday services means that people from one village will often drive over to another which has a form of service that they particularly like. We come together for monthly Men's Breakfasts and slightly less frequent Women's Breakfasts, to sing in the Christmas choirs, and to support one another's coffee mornings, soup lunches, and other fund-raising events.