The Parish of Little Ilford – Manor Park St Michael and All Angels St Mary the Virgin Deanery of Newham Diocese of Chelmsford PARISH PROFILE 1 Contents 1 Executive Summary 2 Who Are We? a. The Parish of Little Ilford b. The Froud Centre - Our Partnership with Aston-Mansfield 3 What Do we Need in our New Rector? a. Gifts and Skills, you can bring b. Our Strengths c. Where we need development d. Future Opportunities 4 About Our Church a. Worship b. Parish Team c. Music d. Community – Reaching out - School visits, Lunch club, Foodbank e. Church Attendance f. Finance g. Environmental Impact Our Buildings h. St Michael and All Angels i. St Mary the Virgin j. The Rectory k. Parish Flat 5 Wider Context a. Newham Deanery b. Chelmsford Diocese c. Living in Newham d. Local Schools e. Transport Links 2 1. Executive Summary We are looking for a full-time parish priest to be rector in our ethnically and culturally diverse inner-city parish. This is an exciting opportunity for someone to shape a role in our community, bringing your specialist skills to complement your duties as our Parish Priest. We have a strong central to modern catholic style of worship and would want our new priest to be in this tradition. We are looking for someone who will work to develop our worship and encourage us in faith and look at ways to grow our congregation. We additionally need someone who can develop links with the wider community, with other churches and faith groups and encourage our social participation. We would like someone who will bring initiative and their own ideas, find creative ways to work with our partners, in particular Aston-Mansfield and the Froud Centre. Who will look at our strengths and assets and find the best ways for us to use our gifts. We work in a community that has many social challenges and we want someone who is able to work with vulnerable members of society. Someone who recognises the issues and looks for innovative ways to help. We want someone who is able to build on the work we have done in the local community, especially the links with local schools and our support of the Foodbank. We are rightly proud of St Mary’s, a Grade 1 listed chapel in the heart of the East End. We want someone who recognises and promotes it both as a place of worship and as an historic building. 3 2 Who are We? a. Parish of Little Ilford The Parish of Little Ilford, Manor Park, is situated at the north east end of the London Borough of Newham. To the east and north of the parish is the London Borough of Redbridge, our easterly parish boundary is the A406 (North Circular Road); to the south is East Ham and towards the west is Forest Gate. In the late 19th century, the Victorian Charles Booth mapped poverty across London, circling Newham, in the east, as one of the city’s worst neighbourhoods. “Lowest class; vicious, semi-criminal,” he said. Throughout the past century, Newham’s poverty has persisted, but something has changed in the past few years. In the latest English indices of deprivation, published in 2015, the borough went from being the second most deprived local authority in England to the 25th. Despite this improvement, the borough had the third-highest proportion of older people living in income-deprived households with 41%. Overall, the proportion of people living in income-deprived households in the borough was 21%. It is against this background that the parish works. This is indeed a parish where you will be with people suffering homelessness, food poverty, drug addiction, associated crime and more. You will also find a congregation and others of good will and deep knowledge, sympathy and insight into the issues, and a willingness to love the place and its people as they are. We are in good heart. We are also a place of culinary and cultural riches, and of good day-to-day interactions across a huge range of religious and ethnic communities. 4 At the last census there were 16,633 residents within the parish boundaries, it is classified as a multicultural area which is clearly illustrated by the two key statistics from the last census. All categories: Ethnic group 16633 All categories: Religion 16633 White: English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern 1722 Christian 31.3774% Irish/British Buddhist 0.4569% White: Irish 95 Hindu 7.7797% White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller 16 Jewish 0.1323% White: Other White 1157 Muslim 44.8446% Mixed/multiple ethnic group: White and 205 Black Caribbean Sikh 3.8598% Mixed/multiple ethnic group: White and 183 Other religion 0.2766% Black African No religion 4.9781% Mixed/multiple ethnic group: White and 128 Religion not stated 6.2947% Asian Mixed/multiple ethnic group: Other 218 Mixed Asian/Asian British: Indian 2276 Asian/Asian British: Pakistani 2145 Asian/Asian British: Bangladeshi 3244 Asian/Asian British: Chinese 30 Asian/Asian British: Other Asian 1191 Black/African/Caribbean/Black British: 2060 African Black/African/Caribbean/Black British: 937 Caribbean Black/African/Caribbean/Black British: 439 Other Black Other ethnic group: Arab 190 Other ethnic group: Any other ethnic 397 group It should also be noted that The London Borough of Newham has one of the highest population turnover rates in London with large numbers of people moving into the borough for very short periods. This has been evident in the parish with people worshipping at the church and then moving on. Anecdotal evidence suggests that people who leave are more highly skilled and generally better off than those who stay. The proportion of Newham residents who own or are buying their home is lower than the London average, and significantly lower than that for the UK. Far greater proportions rent than in the rest of the country, both social and privately rented homes. In fact, in 2014, Newham had the highest percentage of privately renting households in London. 5 Diversity is very evident in the parish. Near to our churches, there is a large Roman Catholic Church, a Methodist Church and a Baptist chapel. Prominent also is the African Pentecostal Church of the Celestial Church of Christ, whose building is close to the Froud Centre. The Froud Centre itself offers space for numerous Pentecostal groups on Sundays (only one of which uses St Michael’s). Alongside the Christian presence there are a large number of mosques. The Shah Jalal mosque (named after a Bangladeshi Sufi) is prominent on Romford Road. There is a large and striking Hindu Mandir (Temple), Shri Murugan (http://www.londonsrimurugan.org/). There is another Temple which is often thought to be a Sikh gurdwara. In fact, it is a Ravadassian place of worship (http://www.ravidassia.org.uk/). Ravadassians are a group with origins in the Sikh family, but with their own Guru (Ravidass) and Scriptures. There are large Sikh Gurdwaras in Forest Gate to the west and Ilford to the east. The nearest viable Jewish communities are in Ilford and Woodford. The Borough of Newham has its own interfaith gatherings, which have in recent years been successful in bringing together Christians, Muslims and other religious activists. Thus, we can say we offer an “embarrassment of riches” for a Christian minister keen to be immersed in the diversity of the modern world city of London. Festivals such as both Eids and Diwali are well marked. St Michael’s is situated on Romford Road, a busy main road with plenty of shops and amenities, including a 24-hour supermarket and it is well serviced by bus routes and within easy walking distance of both Manor Park and Ilford stations. St Mary’s is situated on Church Road, quieter than St Michael’s, but still near shops. It is situated on a regular bus route between Ilford and East Ham and gives easy access to East Ham tube station. However, we can not ignore that the parish is an inner-city one with the problems that this inevitably brings. Homelessness, drugs and gang activity are issues in the area. We have witnessed this first hand, with drug taking and rough sleeping in the churchyard and around the Froud Centre. We are aware, particularly at the Froud Centre, that sex work has been prevalent over the last few years. This does impact on both the rector and the person living in the parish flat within the Froud Centre. It is very important to stress that this is not a frightening place to be; and we do not put ourselves under curfew. We have built good relations with local neighbourhood policing team and other social enterprise i.e. the local foodbank and are keen that this involvement continues. 6 Within the parish boundary is The City of London Cemetery and Crematorium, a Grade I listed landscape in the heart of East London that has been open since 1856. The 200 acre site provides a safe picturesque, parkland for thousands of visitors 365 days of the year, and offers beautiful formal gardens, well maintained roadways, tree lined avenues and local heritage. It is one of the largest municipal cemeteries in Europe and anyone may be buried here irrespective of City connections or religious beliefs. The site is rich in architecture, ecology, geology, horticulture and history and was the first cemetery to be awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award, the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales. Since the 1870’s our Patron has been Hertford College, Oxford. b. The Froud Centre - Our Partnership with Aston-Mansfield at the Froud Centre The previous Church of St Michael’s and All Angels was erected in the early 1900’s.