Harborough Magna with Easenhall

Harborough Magna with Easenhall

REVEL BENEFICE Passionate about sharing God’s love with the whole community Page 1 of 32 BISHOP’S INTRODUCTION There has been a willingness and commitment of the parishes within the Revel Benefice to re- think how mission and ministry might look in their rural context. A few years ago, I challenged them to do some work on what the future shape of their ministry might look like. To their great credit they have taken up the challenge and responded very well. The Parish Profile reflects how far their thinking has come, along with changes in structure they have already made. They have engaged healthily with the 8 Essential Qualities, which they have undertaken as a whole benefice. This has enabled their journey of growing as a mission shaped church to continue. A growth in shared ministry, lay leadership and working together has continued to bear fruit through Messy church, and a growing relationship with schools, has enabled the mission and ministry to continue even with the challenges posed by illness and early retirement of the previous incumbent. The Revel journey draws on a spiritual heritage I found very inspiring when arriving in Coventry Diocese. It can be read in a little but influential book by Stephen Verney called, ‘Fire in Coventry’, and describes how the Spirit moved in the hearts of people in Monks Kirby and the spiritual awakening across the Diocese that happened as a result. My hope and prayer is that this benefice may once again be a place of influential spiritual momentum. This heritage in the spiritual dynamic of laity, has given energy to new forms of mission and ministry in a rural context. There is the potential addition of Newbold on Avon and the parish of Clifton and Newton, covered by an Incumbent (the new appointee to the existing Revel Benefice) and an Associate Minister – more information about this can be found in the Deanery Summary below. The vision is that they will work together closely building on and developing opportunities, not only to harness the missional energy of a rural benefice, but to have a significant long-term influence in wider Deanery and Diocesan developing its fresh approach to rural ministry. I warmly commend this post to you. With my prayers Bishop Christopher Page 2 of 32 DEANERY SUMMARY The Rugby Deanery is situated to the North and East of the County of Warwickshire. It shares a border with the Diocese of Leicester to the North and the Diocese of Peterborough to East and is one of the largest Deaneries in the Diocese. There are 29 Parishes varying from urban to rural. Most of the population resides in the town of Rugby and its suburban housing estates (around 70,000 according to 2011 census data) with another 30,000 living in the surrounding areas. This number is increasing all the time. There is a lot of new housing planned in the Deanery, not least of all the Houlton development on the old Rugby BT mast site, Long Lawford and in the area between Bilton and Dunchurch – to name just a few. Much of this work has already begun. Rugby was the first deanery in the diocese to formulate a Deanery Plan. One of the major issues this plan takes into consideration is the implementation of a new system for determining parish share in the deanery. This was finally implemented for 2020 although the effect of the current time on parish and deanery finances is yet to be fully seen. The new system is more equitable and easier to understand. Over all, the plan gives a framework for the closer working together of parishes on issues of mutual concern and enables us to look at mission and ministry in a more cohesive way in a quickly changing environment. It is a document that will change as need and situation change around the deanery. Due to all the new housing and infrastructure being built across the town, along with 5 clergy vacancies in the deanery, the process of drawing up a second deanery plan to shape the church for mission began in November of 2019. We felt that there was a major opportunity to make some much needed alterations to parish and benefice structures. There is currently a major consultation going on with parishes discussing how aspects of the plan will affect them. The results of these discussions and eventual decisions are, at this point, not known, but it is the hope of the DMPC that there will be a major reordering of our rural areas in larger benefices with two clergy working in each. In the case of the Revel Benefice the current proposals are to add two parishes, Newbold on Avon and Clifton and Newton. If that proposal is accepted and then formalised by a pastoral scheme then the Revel Benefice would have 7 parishes and 9 worship centres, covered by an Incumbent (the new appointee to the existing Revel Benefice) and an Associate Minister, who would work together closely with each other in bringing complementary gifts and experience to encourage the churches in this new grouping in their own mission and ministry. The new plan is wide-ranging and complex and we appreciate that we may be appointing someone into an environment where the sand is shifting, but we are putting our trust in God to show us the way forward. Surprisingly this period of consultation has been something that we have been able to make good progress on during this time of the pandemic when so many other things have been laid aside. (Cont.) Page 3 of 32 DEANERY SUMMARY (Cont.) There has in recent years been a growing desire for both Clergy and Laity to work more closely together in the deanery. There have been a number of initiatives that have helped us do this. A Church Wardens’ Forum meets quarterly to discuss areas of mutual concern and to hear talks on various subjects from diocesan staff and others. It has also proved to be a good forum for wardens to give one another support and share information and give the benefit of experience to others. The Deanery Chapter normally meets once a month for lunch, prayer and support. We are quite a large group (18 when all posts are filled) which makes for a great atmosphere. There is always much fun and laughter at our meetings! Before lockdown, the previous two years have seen the chapter focussing more on prayer and mutual support and it tries to keep business brief and to a minimum. The result of this has been a deeper drawing together of clergy in the Deanery. In previous years we have shared together in a pastoral/team building exercise by having a day trip on a canal barge with pub lunch. Rugby Deanery is a great place to live and to work and we hope that you seriously consider applying for this post. You can find out a little more about the deanery and all the deaneries in the diocese by viewing the deanery video here: http://dioceseofcoventry.org/index.php?page_ref=1639 Tim Cockell Area Dean of Rugby Page 4 of 32 VISION STATEMENT Our new Priest-in-Charge will share our wish to connect all parts of our community with God’s love. He or she will be passionate about attracting and integrating children, youth and young families into our church life and mission, and also reaching out to the elderly, and growing our ministry in the local residential care homes. The new Priest-in-Charge will help us draw in those who feel left out of society, and of the church. We believe everyone needs the hope that Jesus offers, so our vision is to become churches communities that: help people find that hope and grow in their relationship with Him. know Jesus and make Jesus known. make a lasting and on-going difference in the life of our community, by being an integral part of it. make the following of Jesus’ path integral in our daily lives. Page 5 of 32 BACKGROUND TO POST The Revel Area, and therefore the Revel Benefice, takes its name from the local ancient estate and manor of “Newbold Revel”, which in turn got its name from the Revel family who were Lords of the Manor in the 13th Century. The Revel Benefice has existed in its current form of 6 churches and 8 villages since 2004. Our last rector retired from that post in December 2019 after a long period of illness. Our long-serving and much loved Reader also retired recently, and sadly died shortly afterwards. However, we have been fortunate to have a new Reader (who is a former churchwarden at Churchover) to serve our church family. Particularly over the last 6 years, we have worked hard to address the challenges of running a rural benefice of this size, and are developing to become a more mission shaped church. The 6 churches, church councils and churchwardens have worked closer together and become really mutually supporting. This close working relationship and the structures that we developed helped us greatly during the long illness and subsequent retirement of last rector, and whilst we recognise that there is still work to be done, with our new incumbent we are ready to grow in our shared mission. 1. In 2014 we were only paying 55% of the Parish Share being asked of us by the Diocese. We subsequently agreed that we would increase the sum that we actually paid by 10% year-on-year until we were paying our full share.

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