Parish Profile St Peter & St. Paul, Great Bowden Part of Market Harborough Resourcing Church Team Contents About the Diocese 1 The Vision 2 About the Parish 3 About the Church 4 About the Team 6 About You 8 About the Buildings 11 A welcome to the Diocese Thank you for your interest in this role. Please be assured that there are many people praying for this process of discernment, and we trust that you will know God’s guidance as you explore this role. The Diocese of Leicester, like every diocese in the Church of England, is in transition. Our vision is the kingdom of God and we seek to enable growth in the depth of discipleship, growth in numbers of disciples, and growth in loving service of our communities. However, the way in which we do this work is rapidly changing as we prioritise: • New communities (fresh expressions of church and church planting) • Intercultural communities (greater representation of BAME people) • Intergenerational communities (schools, churches and households) • Eco-communities (eco-diocese status and net zero emissions by 2030) • Reconciling communities (‘living well together’ in church and society across our many divides) These changes require not only considerable flexibility and adaptability from clergy and lay ministers but also great resilience. This is why we also place a strong emphasis on wellbeing – seeing this as a partnership where you take responsibility for your own wellbeing, while knowing that there is always support available from bishops and diocesan staff. Additional support is also offered by our partner organisations such as Launde Abbey (retreat centre), St Philip’s (interfaith centre), Community of the Tree of Life (residential and dispersed community for young adults) and of course the Cathedral. We believe that the city of Leicester and the county of Leicestershire are full of vibrant communities where the contribution of the church is widely valued. This is Bishop Martyn leads a service of baptism in Harborough a great place to live and work and worship. If you believe that God may be calling Anglican Team in January 2020 you to join us, we look forward to exploring this with you in conversation and prayer. I hope that I may have the opportunity of meeting you in the near future, but the meantime be assured of my prayers. Yours in Christ, The Rt Revd Martyn Snow Bishop of Leicester 1 The Vision new congregations within existing parish churches to add diversity, but all are focused on those who were not previously part of a Christian The parish church of St worshipping community. Some are led by those already part of our Peter & St Paul is a churches, some also require a church planting curate to help. Across healthy, welcoming, the Team some new worshipping communities have already started, and growing church some discerned but not yet developed and some not yet discerned. family in the Some new worshipping communities, such as a plans for a youth Leicestershire village of focused worshipping community or church plant in significant area of Great Bowden on the new housing are being undertaken as a whole Team, others will relate edge of the market to specific parishes. town of Market Harborough. As Team Vicar you will be a key leader in this calling both across the Team and within Great St Peter & St Paul is Bowden, although the part of the five-church majority of your ministry will Harborough Anglican be the day to day leadership Team and this is an exciting time to be joining the Team. As a major of St Peter & St Paul. This is part of the diocesan strategy, Shaped by God, the Harborough a part-time role (4 days Anglican Team was designated in 2017 as one of six Resourcing equivalent per week). After a Church Teams in Leicester Diocese. This offers a wide range of period of prayerful additional support to help our existing worshipping communities reach discernment and exploration, out in new ways to our wider community, most especially through as a PCC we describe our seeking to plant and cultivate around six new worshipping church and needs thus: Café Church in Great Bowden communities. Locally we have expressed this calling, and how it relates to • St Peter & St Paul is warm existing and welcoming, worships in a diversity of worshipping styles appropriate for all ages, and feels like the best of extended communities, family; thus (left). • It is blessed with a significant number of capable and experienced disciples, who have a deep reliance on God and strong links with the Some of these local community, especially with the village school new • The church has seen significant numerical growth in recent years worshipping under very capable ordained leadership and has birthed three communities emerging potential fresh expressions of Church might look like • We seek a leader who will encourage us and help us to grow in faith fresh as a church family and to grow in confidence as individuals, as we expressions of seek to serve and witness in the wider and growing community in Church, some new ways. We hope God will call someone who can build on the more like strong foundations so that, recognising that God has blessed us with church plants much, we will be more effective so as to see, in God’s grace, a or significant growth in the depth of our discipleship, the number of new disciples and sharing of Jesus’ love with the wider community. 2 About the Parish “ Great Bowden is a vibrant, friendly, pretty place full of history with lovely coffee shops, welcoming pubs and a lively church.” will travel outside the village and in many cases commute substantial distances. Conversely, many children attending the school live outside the village boundary as do just over half the Church’s worshipping community. As well as the church and adjacent Church Hall, the village has a recreation ground with a Community Pavilion, cricket club and tennis club, a café, a Post Office/shop, a Village Hall and two Public Houses The conservation village of Great Bowden lies midway between serving food. Many sporting, Leicester and Northampton just on the Leicestershire side of the educational, and leisure county boundary, on the edge of the Welland Valley and has a activities are supported by history dating back to Anglo Saxon times. Although it is situated the local community. The very close to Market Harborough (pop. 22,000 - 2011 census Grand Union canal forms figure), Great Bowden retains some individuality and village part of the western parish character. The two settlements were formally separated in 1995 boundary and in one when Great Bowden was granted parish status. The village http://www.greatbowden.leics.sch.uk/ direction leads to the Market and http://www.learn-at.org.uk/ comprises just under 700 houses and has a population of just over Harborough Canal Basin, 1,500 people, with approx. 125 new houses having been built and in the other to the well- within the last few years. known Foxton Locks. The village has good accessibility due to the proximity of the A6 (1 A key part of the village is Great Bowden Church of England mile), A14 (4 miles) and mainline station to London (1 mile). A fast Academy (ages 4-11). A community with a strong Christian ethos, rail line to London has resulted in the area becoming a major of around a hundred and forty children and staff, the school has centre for those wishing to commute to the capital. Market three foundation Governors from Church including the incumbent, Harborough is within easy reach of Leicester, Coventry, ex officio. Birmingham, Nottingham and Peterborough. There is very little direct employment in Great Bowden and most residents who work 3 About the Church As detailed further in the Appendix, we have been engaged in The parish church of St Peter & St Paul is a healthy and growing substantial church building reordering work over the past decade. This church family: an able and spiritually mature worshipping community, has made the building more accessible, flexible, and environmentally which has a mix of long standing and newer members. friendly, and added improved facilities such as a prayer chapel, kitchen, toilets, and an audio-visual system. We have been developing Geographically and culturally at the heart of village life, the church is plans, supported by some generous legacies, to further increase often the focal point for community gathering. For example, in 2018 flexibility to make space for additional worshipping communities the church organised the community knitting of 10,000 poppies to mark through changes to seating and layout, but we are conscious these the centenary of the end of the WW1; these were cascaded down the changes need to be led church tower, linking with an exhibition and range of services and by the renewed vision events. for worship. By the time a new Team Vicar A church known for its arrives, we aim for all warm welcome, most the preparatory work to worshippers are part of the have been undertaken 10:30am Sunday but are hoping to delay congregation (there is decision-making so the normally one service on a new Vicar can help lead Sunday with an additional us through the various quieter, contemplative worship options evening service once a towards the one(s) to month). Prior to Covid, which God is calling us. this service was Alongside the Sunday Eucharistic three times a morning congregation, month, with a Cafe Church three emerging or potential fresh expressions of Church are in varying on the first Sunday of each stages of development and maturity.