Meeting of the PCCs of St Mark’s and St Peter & St Paul’s with Archdeacon Peter Hill, Revd David Fudger (Vicar St P&P) and Pam Bishop
(Deanery Lay Chair) at St Peter’s Centre, Mansfield on 25th January 2012.
This was a well attended and very positive meeting to discuss the proposals listed below. The proposals were explained in light of diocesan
and deanery plans and there was time for comments and questions.
Proposal for Mansfield St Mark and Mansfield Sts Peter & Paul
1 In light of the vacancy at St Mark’s and the recommendation from the Diocese to promote greater collaboration between churches for
sustainability, effectiveness and growth, the Deanery set up a process of consultation to consider ministry across S. Mansfield. All churches
were fully represented at two externally facilitated meetings in the autumn 2011.
2 The agreed outcome was a proposal to link St Mark with Sts Peter & Paul with a further appointment to be made to support parochial
ministry and take on a deanery role. (A similar arrangement was proposed for St Alban and St Lawrence).
3 Further discussions have taken place between the Church Wardens of St M and Sts P&P with agreements fed back to PCCs at each stage for
information and comment.
4 Both PCCs welcome, in principle, the opportunity for collaboration.
5 The Diocesan Ministry Leadership strategy for 2020 has been used to guide decisions.
6 The proposals include:
• Revd David Fudger (vicar of Mansfield St Peter and St Paul) to become the vicar of Mansfield St Mark with pastoral and spiritual oversight
of the 2 parishes.
• In the first instance, the 2 parishes to remain separate with 2 PCCs.
• Appointment of a Pioneer Associate Priest to support David with parochial work (0.5) and to take on a deanery wide brief for ‘Seeking
Justice’(0.5).
• The request for an ordained person as associate priest would be to support the anglo-catholic tradition of St Mark and to uphold this within
the deanery and wider area.
• Roles and responsibilities are yet to be defined but it is likely that the newly appointed person would form a special relationship with
St Mark’s. It is however anticipated that the deployment of clergy and other lay leaders (with the ongoing help of retired clergy) would be
across both churches.
• The deanery brief for the new appointment would be to take a lead on ‘Seeking Justice’ issues as defined in the Diocesan vision of ‘Joining
Together in the Transforming Mission of God’. These might include environmental issues, engagement with Mansfield District Council and voluntary
bodies for issues of health, housing and work, work with schools, pioneering outreach in the town centre, local retail and leisure facilities.
The detail and scope are yet to be agreed. The person would be a consultant and resource for all the churches in the deanery in terms of a
seeking justice agenda.
• The two parishes would seek to become training ‘centre’ with the possibility of a curate or other lay leadership post to be
included later.
Outcome: Both PCCs endorsed the proposals fully and were supportive of taking the plans forward further.
The following draft timetable was suggested:
• Meeting of church wardens with Revd David and Pam Bishop on 31 January to confirm next steps.
• Act of worship/meeting for both congregations together in February with an opportunity to explain the plans and answer questions.
• Meeting of two PCCs in March to make a final decision about linking the two churches.
• Drawing up the parish profiles and the role description for the new appointment, advertising, interviewing and appointing – time scale to
be agreed.
Licensing of Revd David Fudger as Vicar of St Mark’s and licensing the pioneer associate priest to the two churches – date yet to be agreed.
Pam Bishop 26/1/12
Representatives from the 5 parishes of St Mark’s, St Lawrence’s, St Peter’s, St Alban’s and Oak Tree Lane met together with members of the
Deanery Leadership team on Saturday 10th September, facilitated by John Coyne – Director of Local & Regional Delivery for the Church Pastoral
Aid Society. We had a full morning where we listened to the needs and concerns of the Parishes and the Deanery, spent some time discussing our
hopes and dreams for the future and developed some concrete proposals for ministry development which we want to consider at our next meeting on
8th October.
Parish and Deanery Needs
Initially we were asked to consider our immediate concerns and needs.
Parishes in Vacancy
Representatives from St Lawrence’s described how the last few months have been very difficult for them, having been without a priest for over
three years now, and this is starting to take its toll. However the heart of their community remains strong with significant growth points and
ongoing effective outreach work. St Mark’s is feeling positive and wanting to grow as a Church. Members want to maintain its distinctive Modern
Catholic identity whilst developing mission to the local community
Other Parish and Deanery Needs
There is a strong sense of wanting to be a Deanery that engages in mission, and significantly there is a willingness to look at what may need
to change to make that possible. There is a sense of greater collaboration between church communities and an understanding of differing needs
and situations.
Hopes and Dreams
We want to be healthy churches that are growing. We want to be churches that are engaged with the people of Mansfield, especially with groups of
people that are hard to reach. We want to be a more effective presence in the Town Centre.
We talked about the need to resource laity via training (not just for evangelism). There is a recognition that in future ordained ministers
will be fewer in number but will have oversight of teams which will lead Christian communities and this leadership will be both ordained and lay.
For this level of leadership to be embraced and sustainable for growing churches, Christians in Mansfield need support and training to boost
knowledge, competence and sustainability. A team member with training skills and gifts in growing others to do evangelism and mission is vital.
Ministry Development
John emphasised two essentials in looking to the future – engaging with the wider community and evangelism. He encouraged us to bear these in
mind as we looked to practical solutions for ministry deployment. There was a strong view that training for evangelism is needed particularly
amongst the laity if they are to play their part fully.
The meeting came forward with three possible options for the future of Ministry and Mission in the area.
1. Continue with the original plan to appoint a new Priest to St Mark’s and St Lawrence’s, leaving St Alban’s with OT
Lane and St Peter’s unaffected.
2. Go forward with different ministry groupings – linking St Peter’s with St Mark’s under one incumbent and St Lawrence’s
with St Alban’s and Oak Tree Lane under another incumbent. A third full time stipendiary person would then be appointed to work (in some way
yet to be agreed) across the five parishes – possibly including a mission brief to the Town Centre.
3. Reorganise more radically the five parishes to form the ‘South Mansfield Team’ with a Team
Rector and two Team Vicars. The roles and relationships would need to be discussed and
agreed.
We recognise that all of these options raise difficult questions as well as interesting possibilities.
Other ideas have been raised since the meeting and are listed below, but we want to know if there
are more.
Please share this information with your PCCs and congregations, take views from them and think
how the different options might work out in practice. It would be very helpful if we could have
comments on the options, any new suggestions, reasons for any preferred option and further
concerns and questions before our next meeting on 8 October. Please send any comments in writing
or by e-mail to Judith Asquith at the Deanery Office by the afternoon of Tuesday 27th September at
the latest.
Most of all, please pray for God’s wisdom as we seek the right way forward for all our churches, for
the Deanery and for the people of Mansfield.
Other Possibilities Raised Since the Meeting
A Team Ministry with St Lawrence’s, St Mark’s and St Peter’s but omit St Alban’s and Oak Tree Lane,
served by a Team Rector and one Team Vicar.
Employ two Deanery advisers, each of whom would be half time priest in charge of either St. Mark's
or St. Lawrence's.
St Lawrence’s to link with St Peter’s, St Mark’s to remain independent with a new Priest who is 0.5
Priest-in-Charge / 0.5 Town Centre Role
Representatives at the Meeting
Revd Mark Adams – Area Dean
Pam Bishop – Lay Chair of Deanery Synod
Revd David Fudger – Vicar of St Peter & St Paul
Revd Phil Stead – Vicar of St Alban’s Forest Town & Oak Tree Lane
Judith Asquith – Deanery Administrator
Revd Valerie Sharpe – Representative from St Mark’s
Michael Longdon – Church Warden: St Mark’s
John Irons – Church Warden: St Mark’s
Jackie Hopper – Church Warden: St Lawrence’s
Sue Wood – Church Warden: St Lawrence’s
Rob Wood – Reader: St Lawrence’s
Revd Angela Fletcher – Deanery Leadership Team
Hilary Cheshire – Deanery Leadership Team
Revd John Pullman – Representative from St Peter’s
Tina Baines– Assistant Warden from St Peter’s
Sonia Granger – Church Warden : St Alban
Janet Taylor – PCC member St Alban
Consultation
As we all know, the last few years have been challenging ones for St Lawrence’s and St Mark’s. St Lawrence’s have been without a priest for
over three years and St Mark's for nearly 12 months. In February and May there were two unsuccessful attempts to appoint a new priest to lead both
these churches.
Following the disappointment of these interviews, the Area Dean and Lay Chair began further consultations with the Wardens of St Lawrence’s &
St Mark’s and with the Clergy in the neighbouring churches of St Peter’s and Forest Town & Oak Tree Lane. The outcomes of these constructive
discussions were brought to a recent meeting of the Deanery Leadership Team.
At this meeting, the Team decided that we need to develop together a Deanery wide strategy for South Mansfield which addresses the ministerial
and community needs of all five churches now and over the next ten years. This strategy will include specific recommendations about how the vacant
clergy post that we will recruit can best be deployed.
To take this process forward, we have called two meetings in the autumn and invited representatives from each of the five parishes. These
meetings will take place on two Saturday mornings – the 10th September and 8th October.
Please pray for all those involved, that we will be able to find God’s call for the next generation of ministry in the South of Mansfield
and that, as a Deanery, we will ‘Join Together in the Transforming Mission of God’.
Mark Adams
Area Dean of Mansfield
August 2011