HOUSE FOR DUTY PRIEST Benefice of Newport Pagnell with Lathbury & Moulsoe The Big Thank You Service for Local Emergency Services 1 Contents 3 Introduction and Mission 4 Mission in our four churches 5 Strengths and Weaknesses 5 Ministry Team 6 Looking to the Future 7 Description of Role - outline Person specification - outline 8 Our Benefice 9 St Peter and St Paul’s St Luke’s 10 All Saints, Lathbury St Mary’s Moulsoe 11 Social Geography, Issues and Concerns, Worship, Occasional Offices 12 Finance, Church Life, Schools & Young People, Choir, Sunday Club 13 Events, Organisation 14 Housing 15 Deanery Information 17 Diocesan Information 18-24 Appendix 1 – Role Description 25-26 Appendix 2 – Person Specification 2 The Parish of Newport Pagnell is on a journey to becoming more open to mission and ministry within the community. We are seeking a House for Duty priest to join us on that journey and help us realise our vision. We are looking for a priest who is excited at bringing the Gospel to our Benefice in a way that nurtures all that is currently good but will bring new ideas to complement and extend our mission. We want a supporting and positive soul who is motivated by the love of Christ to do what they can to bring heaven to our piece of earth. We will do our best to support and encourage such a priest to reach their own full potential and look forward to growing together spiritually. The following information is an overview of who we are and where we are at presently but with the right House for Duty Priest in place, we shall have exciting times ahead! Mission The Parish of Newport Pagnell has been undergoing a process of change since 2008 from a traditionally minded church community to a church which is more open to mission and ministry within the community. The following four key priorities were set: A Praying church: in public worship and in private and corporate prayer we strive to be a church energised by God's presence and discerning His purposes for our church and community. We are currently exploring how we pray with each other during the week in addition to our prayer circle initiatives. A Welcoming church: an inclusive church where strangers are received as friends; no one is excluded, ignored or forgotten; and everyone feels cared for and at home. A Communicating church: ensuring that people within and without the present church community are aware of our life and activities; always seeking opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ. A Nurturing church: enabling people at every stage of the Christian life - children, young people and adults; seekers, beginners and the committed – to have opportunities to discover faith, to grow in faith and deepen Christian discipleship. Using our four priorities we aim to reach out to the ‘unchurched’, to put the church at the centre of the community and to introduce people appropriately to the Gospel. 3 Each church within the Benefice is different and has its own distinctive methods of achieving our mission aims: St Peter and St Paul – the introduction of ‘Community Services’ has gone some way to encourage non-regular church goers to attend. Services such as Harvest, Advent, Mothering Sunday are non eucharistic and family friendly and have seen a growth in attendance. Also, a recent ‘Thank You’ service for all local emergency services was well attended and well received by the town as was the ‘Pause for Thought’ inter-active exhibition in the period between Ascension and Pentecost. St Luke’s is already a well-used church building by the community with many groups using it for a range of activities such as Pre-School, Brownies and dance/fitness classes. Regular Healing Group Meetings attract attendees from across the area from different church denominations. All Saints Lathbury – although the village is small the villagers support the church, particularly on festival days and also use the church for special events such as flower and art exhibitions to encourage the strong sense of ownership and fellowship within the village. St Mary’s Moulsoe – the church is strongly supported by the farming community and Plough Sunday, Rogation and Harvest are all key to the congregation but they are willing and keen to diversify as illustrated by their recent Pet Service. Congregations from all our churches are encouraged to participate in parish bible study groups and prayer initiatives. 4 Strengths and Weaknesses The two more rural churches at Moulsoe and Lathbury have small but dedicated congregations but have seen some church members die or move away from the parish. This has affected the size of the congregations as we struggle to keep numbers up in two small rural villages. When encouraging the congregations to be involved with activities going on at St Luke’s and SS Peter and Paul’s in Newport town it has to be recognised that Lathbury and Moulsoe are distinct parishes and communities outside Newport Pagnell town itself. It is very positive that both of these congregations are willing to embrace imaginative forms of worship and involvement within their local community village life. The parish church of SS Peter and St Paul is well run in terms of keeping the essential bureaucratic day to day business ticking over. The Parish of Newport Pagnell has a Parish Administrator who works every weekday morning. There is a great need for more spiritual teaching and getting to know each other better and a very small minority are reluctant to fully embrace positive change. Finding ways of reaching out to this group is something of a challenge and we hope that our new House for Duty priest will help us build bridges with those who have found the changes difficult. Happily, the majority of the congregation is on board with the direction that we sense God is leading us. ’Inward focussed ‘church politics’ has been disruptive over the last few years but many people are beginning to be more open to the Holy Spirit in worship and to look outward to the community. Ministry Team The Clergy and Lay Ministry team (CaLLM) comprises the Rector, Nick Evans and two LLMs plus another LLM who occasionally helps with evening services. The Benefice is also fortunate to have the assistance of two retired priests who help to cover services. There is also a strong team of lay leaders, who fulfil many different roles across the church communities. The Benefice of Newport Pagnell also operates within the deanery of Newport, which seeks to support ministry in parishes across the deanery by working collaboratively. The Parish of Newport Pagnell works well with the other churches in the town, and is part of Churches Together in Newport Pagnell (CTNP - Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic and URC), which is also committed to working collaboratively in areas of mission. 5 Looking to the Future We are hoping to develop the faith base of the congregations so that they have the confidence to reach out more effectively to the ‘unchurched’ in the community. There is a good response from local residents we arrange special new ‘family’ services for the community. This now needs to be steadily built upon since there is much good will towards us from the community. We are also looking at ways of developing the inside of the church building to make it more ‘user friendly’ for local community groups. This will give us access to new people and encourage people to use their local church as a resource. Examples of this would be using the church for orchestral concerts, mother and toddler groups and other civic events. This is an exciting development which is in an early stage of consultation and research. This enables us to further our mission priorities of welcome, nurture, prayer and communication. 6 Description of Role (see Appendix 1 for more details) In order to realise our vision and priorities, our new House for Duty priest will work in collaboration with the Rector and ministry team in those areas which are considered priorities for the parish – namely our mission priorities mentioned earlier. We hope that the particular giftings of the HfD priest will contribute to this. The role involves standard Sunday duties and two flexible working days with appropriate holidays. The role is chiefly: • To support and build on the developments being made in the Parish in terms of encouraging outreach to the community with particular emphasis on our key priorities • To take a lead in generating ideas as to how to encourage spiritual growth at all age group levels. • To share with the Rector the conducting of weddings and baptisms, and other occasional offices, across the benefice. • To develop your own talents and gifts as appropriate. Our new House for Duty Vicar (see Appendix 2 for more details) We are hoping that our new House for Duty Vicar will be: • enthusiastic, with energy and motivation for working with people of all ages and comfortable with a range of different worship styles. • thoughtful, flexible and not afraid to give a view when things are challenging in parish life. • appropriately confidential, loyal and committed to working as a supportive colleague for the Rector, ministry team and PCCs. • someone with a good sense of humour! • someone with a pastor’s heart who is inclusive irrespective of race and gender and who recognises the validity of women’s ordination. • experienced or interested in being involved with other forms of worship and activities that have the potential to inspire children and families to want to connect with the Christian faith. 7 Our Benefice The Parish of Newport Pagnell has two churches, the historic (circa 1320) Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, located at the top of the town’s High Street and the daughter church of St Luke’s on the western side of the town.