This is my first ever Vicar’s report so here goes.
I have now been at St Mary’s for 8 months and the very first thing I would like to do us to pay tribute to all those who shouldered the burden and workload during the Interregnum. The Wardens, Pastoral Minister and PCC should be congratulated on their hard work and excellent efforts and this was clearly evident both at my interview and at my Induction Service in June last year where I was warmly welcomed along with my family and members of my previous congregation. The Spirit of Hospitality was clearly evident and thanks to all of you who made it possible.
Personally I would like to thank everybody here for the warm welcome that has been given to me and for the support you have given whilst settling into a new Parish especially as I am hindered by being a Lancashire lass.
Upon the arrival of a new Vicar, there are always challenges, both for the Vicar and the Congregation, there is always a period of settling in, and I did in fact have a whole five days before the Garden Party was upon us. So in a blind whirlwind the gardens were taken over, the kitchen was taken over and I was busy saying hello and thank you to people who were strangers and who have been contributing to this event for years! It all felt quite bizarre. However, it was a success and we raised much needed funds. So again I say thank you to all concerned.
Strangers have now turned into friends and I believe we have built relationships together that are based on mutual trust and respect. As you know my leadership style is one of openness and consensus where possible and this can only be achieved if those relationships are based on trust. We have a faithful congregation and a hardworking PCC and it is up to all of us to work together, to seek God’s will and to draw people to God. Each and every one of you has a role to play and you will note I am deliberately not singling any one person or group out. We are first and foremost all Christians, called by our Baptisms to action, with the authority of Jesus given to each of us. We are all important to God, we are all unique, and we all have our differing gifts and talents, but the call remains the same, to serve our community and each other, to go and tell the good news, and to have an active faith.
I place great value on everyone who volunteers for a role and it is my place to encourage and equip, to support and to nourish, to protect and to love each of you in this place.
So where are we up too?
In PCC we have reviewed existing policies, procedures and practices of the Parish eg safeguarding, health and safety, and a more stringent financial policy to protect those who handle the cash. Financially, St Mary’s is struggling although we have paid our Parish Share for the last two years but our accounts hold now a minimum amount of cash in the sum of £20,000. Bishop Paul has been informed that we will not be able to pay our parish share this year, as we need time, time to sow seeds and to grow. Our Treasurer has produced a budget for this year, the first time ever, and whilst there is still insufficient money coming in on a weekly basis – it is more now than it was last year – so
we estimate that we will in fact be able to pay one third of our Parish Share instead of nothing. My thanks goes to the Treasurer for all her hard work.
Numbers at church on Sunday mornings have increased slightly and the re-imagining of All Age Worship has helped to encourage families in particular to feel more at ease as the service is both shorter and meets the needs of both children and adults. In the future the aim will be to have more family events as numbers of families increase.
There have been a number of special services that have taken place which have been well supported and received. Some have been challenging for many people. Services over Christmas were well attended and appreciated by many.
We have established a Christian presence in both Hill Top Primary Academy and Westerton Primary Academy and I am hopeful after visiting Year 6’s in Blackgates Primary that next year we will have a monthly or twice monthly worship there too. There is still work to be done to reach Woodkirk Academy.
We have a new Reader, who has been put to good use developing her skills in leading, preaching and teaching.
Our Pastoral Minister, offers Holy Communion to those who are no longer able to attend church and has helped me with end of life care and support, and also offers a funeral ministry to those who have lost loved ones.
Our Baptism Team, visit families to book their Baptism and to explain its significance, support them on their journey and follow up by participating in the Baptism Service itself. Baptisms are now done individually with a more modern style liturgy with the focus being on making this Service more welcoming to those who have no experience of church therefore it is family and child friendly and participative. This has resulted in more baptisms and a greater amount of donations being given. Baptism families are invited back to the next all age worship service to receive their Baptism Certificate and Bibles. Greater work needs to be put into how we can maintain contact with these families – apart from the six monthly invite to a party to celebrate their baptism.
We give thanks to our Organist and her Deputy when he is needed for all their hard work and creativity in choosing hymns, serving our wedding couples and funeral families and not forgetting their entertainment on Christmas Day.
We also offer thanks to our Flower Lady who each week expertly puts together beautiful arrangements of flowers which she does prayerfully and which beautify our church for worship.
The development and restoration of the graveyard has probably been the single most talked about and mission based opportunity in the past six months. Our gardening team may be small but they have worked tirelessly along with the Community Payback Team to whom I offer our grateful thanks for all that they have done and are continuing to do.
There are many unsung heroes who tirelessly give of their time – St Mary’s Guild who are responsible for cleaning the brasses and altar linen, the Cleaning Team who keep our church so clean and
presentable, the Sidespeople who offer welcome and the Tea Persons who offer hospitality, to the readers and intercessors on our rotas – thank you for serving God and this church.
We have an active Mothers’ Union where I recently spoke at one of their meetings, and have had the pleasure of leading two or three of their services this past year. Thank you all for your concern for families in this church and in our community.
Links have been made with Uniformed Organisations, and relationships have begun to grow and because of this one of the achievements of the Christmas period was the Nativity Service where for the first time in many years, the Nativity was spoken by the children themselves.
Throughout all of this the PCC have been working in the background to ensure the smooth running of the church. Our church wardens are fully invested in what they do and work hard in their respective areas of expertise, for those who hold the extra burdens of PCC Secretary and Deanery Synod Reps thank you to all of you.
As we look to the future we will experience very shortly our first Easter together. It has been very pleasing to see many of you be involved in the Lent Groups and to “do theology” together. It’s a risky business sharing our feelings but if we are to grow in faith then we have to have a safe space to talk and I think we have achieved that. If we can’t speak to each other then how are we to share our faith with others?
Four groups have now been set up to look at various aspects of church life.
The IT group are busy developing a new web site for St Mary’s, and responsibility for the web site, St Mary’s Face book page, Twitter account and the new Friends of Woodkirk Cemetery Face book page have been shared among the group – this has worked well as we now have much more interaction with those who make comments or ask questions. This work will be ongoing.
The Mission Group is busy taking an overview of the possibilities for mission in this Parish, and challenging our understanding of mission. This will be an ongoing long term project seeking God’s will and praying. The delivery of prayer cards to the streets in our Parish has begun and many of you have helped by delivering those cards so thank you.
The Social Group is being challenged to understand social as not just social events but as social action and are looking to create events that are more community minded and our focus will be initially on this year’s Garden Party which is being reimagined – so watch this space.
The Gardening Group oversees the work in the churchyard and in future will think about developing a long term strategic plan to manage the churchyard and to develop it further.
All these groups are in their infancy and as yet I would say to some extent experiential as they seek to wrestle with the challenges that our faith demands of us.
What the future holds for us as a church is unknown but as I am a cup half full sort of person and believe passionately in God’s providence I believe we are held safe in God’s hands whilst we seek a future that honours him and seeks to do his will. The one thing I would ask is that we all take time to pray each day for this church, for our community and for each other.
While I said I am not going to name or single anyone in this Report – be assured I do know you by name and I am honoured and privileged to be your Vicar.