PARISH PROFILE Page 1 of 24 BISHOP’S INTRODUCTION The Arden Marches group of rural churches, located around the large ‘village’ (more like a small town with its 6,000 residents) of Studley in the west of the Diocese, have long been an example of positive creativity and spiritual life, with excellent relationships among them and with the Diocese as a whole. They are a great group of people! This post provides a large population base in Studley, with smaller but equally valued, communities around it with which to work. Like other posts emerging in the Diocese at this time, the Rector of Studley and the Arden Marches will be ministering in a wider context of the Diocesan commitment to think imaginatively and creatively about how best to support our rural parishes in mission. I hope the new priest-leader of this Group will have a key contribution to these consultations and the actions that will follow – the Arden Marches Group have much to offer from which others can learn, with their track record of working together for many years and their well developed lay ministry. The Diocese of Coventry is a forward-thinking Diocese, which encourages innovation and imagination. We welcome applicants who are ready to join us in this creative engagement in mission as we seek to grow healthy church communities that worship God more fully, make more new disciples and transform their communities by the gospel more effectively. We hope that the combination of ministering in both large and small village contexts, with good lay people, will be an attractive prospect, and I commend the post to you. With my prayers Page 2 of 24 DEANERY SUMMARY Despite being without a permanent Area Dean at the moment, a warm welcome from the Alcester Deanery awaits the person God sends to join us as Rector of Studley and the Arden Marches group. Our Deanery is situated in rural Warwickshire and has a vision for ministry built upon the diocesan priorities to worship God, make new disciples and transform community. Alcester Deanery is increasingly being focused on the importance of lay and clergy being inspired to work together, and there is a need to be at ease working with our many small but faithful church families who have varied styles of worship. Currently, the greatest challenge to the rural church is ageing church congregations, and there is a pressing need for an enthusiastic and open- minded approach to explore new and appropriate ways of ministering and doing mission in the countryside. The Deanery is committed to supporting the three-fold Diocesan Mision purpose of Worshipping God, Making New Disciples and Transforming Communites by implementing Natural Church Development principles. Although the role of Area Dean is vacant, a situation we hope to rectify shortly, the Chapter continues to meet monthly. The clergy are in good spirits and find these meetings helpful and supportive. They provide valuable opportunities for sharing faith, prayer and fellowship as well as growing a common heart for mission and learning. We very much look forward to welcoming to our mostly rural Deanery (apart from Alcester and Studley), a colleague who will face the challenges and share the joys of rural ministry alongside us. Page 3 of 24 BACKGROUND TO POST The post of Rector for the Arden Marches benefice has become available as a result of the early retirement of our previous incumbent due to ill health. Having served with us for just over 6 years, his retirement followed a prolonged period of sickness leave, which, in effect, means that the benefice has been without a rector for over a year, although the interregnum did not officially begin until the beginning of February 2017. To assist in the configuration of the new post, the Ministry Leadership Team (MLT) carried out a Natural Churches Development survey (an update to our previous two surveys carried out in September 2014 and November 2015), the results of which form the basis of this Parish Profile. We also put together our own internal questionnaire to ascertain the key personal characteristics and experience that members of our congregations would like to see in a new incumbent and we invited other (non-congregation) members of the local community to express their views on the sort of person that they would like to see as the new rector for our villages. Recognising the importance of prayer and being open to where God wants us to go in our Christian journey, we have also initiated a number of opportunities to encourage personal and congregational prayer, including prayer points on our weekly News Sheet, a prayer network committed to praying each day throughout the interregnum and a monthly prayer lunch. Results from the surveys, guided by our continuing prayer focus, have informed our Person Specification below. ROLE SPECIFICATION The role of this post is to lead the churches in fulfilling the Diocesan Mission Purpose of: Worshipping God Making New Disciples Transforming Communities. This will be achieved by developing 8 essential qualities in the life of the church: Empowering Leadership Gift-oriented Ministry Passionate Spirituality Inspiring Worship Holistic Small Groups Need-oriented Outreach Loving Relationships Functional Structures Page 4 of 24 PERSON SPECIFICATION A summary of our internal questionnaire, together with the comments that we have received from members of the community, would suggest that the person we want would have a combination of every good characteristic that has ever been thought of in an incumbent, as well as being able to balance the diversity of ‘traditional’ versus ‘modern’ styles of worship! Through a process of prayerful discussion, we have tried to distil the key essential and desirable qualities that we seek in our new incumbent. We welcome a candidate who is: approachable and with a good sense of humour experienced in practical leadership and communication skills, including the potential of social media a prayerful and spiritual person, exhibiting a personal relationship with Jesus, who will encourage us into a deeper understanding of our faith willing to delegate, and to identify and develop latent potential amongst the laity, with the confidence to listen and respond to the views and ideas of others prepared to work with a Ministry Leadership Team, supporting and encouraging lay ministry training comfortable with a broad range of worship styles, and willing to encourage us into trying new ways of worship able to help us to attract new people, especially children and younger people, including further developing our important school links sensitive to the wide range of backgrounds within our benefice, including the very rural, and able to engage with the wider community to build bridges and enhance the place of the Church in the villages. ARDEN MARCHES CHURCHES: THE DIOCESAN MISSION PURPOSE AND 8 ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF HEALTHY CHURCHES As stated above, the Mission Purpose of the Diocese of Coventry is: Worshipping God Making New Disciples Transforming Communities. Arden Marches is fully committed to fulfilling these three purposes. We believe that we will achieve this by developing 8 Essential Qualities in the life of the churches. This section gives a summary of where each of the churches is on their journey towards achieving the 8 essential qualities, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each church and emphasising the areas where all four churches work together. Page 5 of 24 ST MARY’S CHURCH, STUDLEY EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP The number of people who share in the organisation of the church, in leading services and preaching, and in driving various groups and initiatives is impressive for a church of our size. In addition to 2 PTOs and 4 Lay Readers, there is a ‘team’ of over 20 members of the congregation who regularly take an active part in our services. That this area did not score higher in the NCD survey is probably explained by the sudden loss of a Rector and two curates in a very short space of time. There is a real opportunity for a new incumbent to become a leader amongst leaders and to take us forward into the next phase of the church’s life. GIFT-ORIENTED MINISTRY This is one of our strengths, though there may be opportunities for a new incumbent to encourage yet more people to increase their involvement according to their talents. We are hoping to run a training session in the Autumn for all the churches to identify and encourage those who may wish to lead services or intercessions, or preach in our churches. PASSIONATE SPIRITUALITY The NCD survey identified this as an area in need of improvement. There are pockets of prayer and Bible-reading, but these are not an integrated part of the life of the congregation as they should be. Existing small groups are being encouraged to develop this aspect of our church life. We look to a new incumbent to inspire and encourage us in this area, not working alone but developing our spirituality as a team together through teaching and example. INSPIRING WORSHIP Our services are mostly lay-led, involving our Lay Readers and other members of the congregation. Our extended period with no full-time clergy has stretched us but we have managed to keep all but a few services going and some of our regular ones have grown. The concept of an established team being responsible for particular services has proved invaluable. Morning services all begin at 10am. Our choir has struggled for some years with diminishing numbers and nobody to take on the role of ‘choir master’. We have 2 voluntary organists, who, between them cover most of the services at the Parish Church, but we no longer have a regular choir.