Parish Profile
The Saxilby Group of Parishes, Lincolnshire
Diocese of Lincoln in Archdeaconry of Stow and Lindsey
The Old Palace • Minster Yard • Lincoln • LN2 1PU 01522 50 40 50 www.lincoln.anglican.org
October 2011
The Incumbent & Benefice The Revd Canon Rhys Prosser The Vicarage 69 Mill Lane Saxilby Lincoln LN1 2HN
Date of Ordina4on: Length of 4me in Parish: Previous Experience 1980-83 1983-88
1988-95
From 1995 From 2000
Benefice
July 20 1980 16 Years
Served Title in the Wimbledon Team Ministry Diocese of Southwark. Second Curacy as Priest-in-Charge of Bishop Andrewe’s Church in the Parish of St Peter with Bishop Andrews, St Helier Diocese of Southwark. Team Vicar, with responsibility for St Nicolas, Great Coates, in the West Grimsby Team Ministry Diocese of Lincoln. Priest-in-Charge then Incumbent of the Sexily Group of parishes Diocese of Lincoln. Rural Dean of Corringham, Canon of Lincoln
The Saxilby Group, comprising the parishes of Ke5kethorpe, Newton-on-Trent and Saxilby. Under proposed pastoral reorganisa4on to be united with the Benefice of the Stow Group, comprising the parishes of Stow with Sturton, Torksey, Willingham and Coates. Saxilby is suburban, Newton and Ke5lethorpe are rural. Training Post for a Deacon who expects to be ordained Priest or married couple in ministry.
The Purpose of a Curacy
to share in the mission and ministry of the People of God in a par4cular place and to establish pa5erns of prayer which will shape and sustain ministry, in order
to acquire the knowledge, skills and exper4se in ministerial, representa4ve and sacramental leadership in the local church and the Church of England; to reflect, in supervision, upon a wide range of experiences, in order to develop ministry in the curacy and for the future. Par4cipa4ng fully in IME will also be part of this; to encourage personal development through integra4ng past experience, spirituality, and theology with the prac4ce and understanding of ministry.
Bishop’s Notes for Training Incumbents and Curates
Parish Setting The Saxilby Group is a United Benefice comprising three different parishes, made up of eleven dis4nct communi4es of various sizes. It is proposed to unite it with the Stow Group to the north. To the west it is bounded by the River Trent, Southwell Diocese to the west and south, and Lawres Deanery in Lincoln Diocese to the east.
Founda4on Governors. The Vicar, a Reader and the Methodist Minister regularly lead assemblies. Links with the school are good, and have improved since the arrival of the present Head almost two years ago.
The eleven dis4nct communi4es are Saxilby, Ingleby, Broxholme (where there is a redundant church, with an open chuchyard), Broadholme and Hardwick in the Parish of Saxilby. Ke5lethorpe, Torksey Lock, Park Farm, Fenton and Laughterton in the Parish of Kettlethorpe and Newton which forms a dis4nct parish in its own right.
Saxilby is the largest community, with a popula4on of around 4000. The village has grown appreciably in the last 12 years, increasing by around a third.Previously the village, and the smaller communi4es around it were primarily engaged in farming, but now Saxilby and its satellites is principally a dormitory for the city of Lincoln, where most people from the village find employment. . This means there is a dis4nctly ’suburban’ rather than ’rural’ feel to the community. The proximity of the city means that people travel there for many ameni4es, such as banks and shops. It is the place where people mainly go for entertainment and to socialise.
There are, though, some ameni4es in the village. There is a small shopping centre and there are two pubs (two others have closed in the last three to four years). There are three residen4al homes, and a warden controlled block of flats for the elderly together with other, smaller housing associa4on schemes. These apart, most of the housing is owner occupied with a surprisingly high propor4on of bungalows. The village is also where a number of RAF personnel from the nearby Scampton airbase chose to live before its closure. Some of these remain in the village. Sexily has a Church of England Primary School, with around 330 children. The Vicar is an ex offcio Founda4on Governor. The church appoints a further two
There is no single secondary school for older children. Some go to Queen Elizabeth’s School in Gainsborough, if they pass the 11+ examina4on. Others go to either Christ’s Hospital or Yarborough Sc hools in the City of Lincoln, while a small number a5end William Farr School in the nearby village of Welton. This split4ng of children into so many different schools at 11 does not help the cohesiveness of the community, nor does it make the work of the church with young people in this age group straight forward.
Despite the rapid growth in popula4on, and change in the principal occupa4ons, there is s4ll a reasonably well developed community life in the village. This is demonstrated by the wide range of clubs and social organisa4ons that regularly meet in one of the village halls or pubs.
Ke5le Thorpe (popula4on 800) and Newton (popula4on 300) parishes lie about five miles to the west of Saxilby, beside the River Trent. They were both communi4es centred on agriculture. Although farming is s4ll important , only a small propor4on of people from these villages work on the land today, and the farms impinge less on people’s daily lives. There has been a li5le development in both communi4es, but
Parish Setting (cntd) not to the extent of Saxilby. As with Saxilby. Most of the people commute to one of the nearby major popula4on centres such as Newark or Re3ord for employment.
In Newton there is a Church of England Primary School, with just under 40 pupils. The Church has entered into a Licence agreement with the LEA for the school to use the church building as a hall or classrooms. This has entailed major re-ordering of the church building, work which was funded by the LEA. Older children a5end Secondary School at Gainsborough, Lincoln, or the nearby village school at Tuxford across the county boundary in No6nghamshire. The Church
All the churches are of central, liberal tradi4on. At Saxilby vestments are worn, and the Reserved Sacrament is held in church. At Ke5lethorpe cassock surplice and stole are usually worn, although vestments have been used at both. The sacrament is not reserved in either church. Services & Worship
Ke&lethorpe: 9.00am Parish Communion 1st, 2nd Sundays Book of Common Prayer, 4th Sunday Common Worship. Third and 5th Sunday 9.00am Morning Prayer Book of Common Prayer. Newton: 9.00am 1st Sunday Morning Prayer, Book of Common Prayer, 3rd Sunday parish Communion, Common Worship. 5th Sunday Communion Book of Common Prayer Saxilby: 10.15am Parish Communion, Common Worship 4th Sunday 4.00pm All Age Worship Twice a year we have United Worship with Saxilby Methodist Church.
Weekday Services: Saxilby 9.30am Communion Wednesday (Common Worship) 2nd Thursday of each month there is service of Communion in the Saxilby Community Centre.
Occasional Offices: On average there are 25 Bap4sms, 12 Weddings and 30 funerals across the Group each year. Daily Offices: Morning and Evening Prayer are said daily, moving around the churches of the Group. Staff & Lay Ministry
The Ministry Team comprises the incumbent, two non-s4pendiary curates (with another to be ordained Deacon this year.) two readers, ten parish ministers and four parish ministers in training.
Lay people are involved in leading worship in all the churches. The Readers lead services of the Word. Lay people assist with the administra4on of Communion, leading intercessions and reading. The Parish Ministry Team is involved with pastoral visiting, ministry to the residen4al homes and bap4sm prepara4on and follow up.
House Groups, Study Groups and Prayer Groups: We have groups following the parish Ministry Founda4on Course, the Bishop’s Cer4ficate course, and a regular fellowship group. In addi4on we have run regular Lent and Advent courses, and Confirma4on prepara4on for young people and adults.
Congregations & The Future We have a regular ministry to the local church primary schools at Saxilby and Newton. This involves the regular leading of assemblies (shared with the Methodist church) visi4ng the school to talk to classes and welcoming groups from the schools to visit the church. At Newton we have entered in to a ground breaking arrangement with the LEA for the school to use the church building as a hall.
Regular monthly worship is held in the local residen4al homes, shared with the Methodist Church. Two parish ministers are developing ministry at a local home for people with severe learning difficul4es with regular visits to sing hymns and pray.
We are seeking to develop ways of outreach to families and young people. The monthly All Age service is developing under lay leadership. There is also a growing Family service shared with the Methodist church at the nearby village of Sturton, part of the larger group. One of the Ordained Local Ministers is seeking to develop Café Church, aimed at young families at the edge of church and beyond at Sturton Community Centre once a month. This project has received a £500 grant from the Diocesan Mission Ini4a4ves Fund.
Regular visits are made to parishioners in hospital, usually Lincoln County Hospital or John Coupland Hospital, Gainsborough.
The Congrega%ons
The congrega4ons of each of the churches are mainly from the villages and communi4es of the parishes the church is set to serve.
The three parishes of the Group work well together. We have regular group services, and the Group Council, made up of key people from each church has met quarterly. We have also held annual meals for members of all three PCCs and their partners. The churches have taken it in turns to host this. All this will probably change in the future, as the Stow Group (five churches, four parishes) is combined with the Saxilby Group under the Deanery plan. One challenge for the future is how we develop the excellent working arrangement we have had in the Saxilby Group in the larger, more dispersed and diffuse group of parishes. To this end we have already ins4gated mee4ngs of churchwardens from the seven parishes to begin to explore ways of working in and with this enlarged group of churches.
We have excellent rela4ons with the local Methodist Church. There are regular ecumenical staff mee4ngs for the clergy, and an ecumenical steering group has been set up with representa4ves of both church councils as well as clergy. This aims to plan and develop ways of working together effec4vely, so that we might have a louder Chris4an voice within the community. Also we share ministry to the schools and residen4al homes, and have held ecumenical study groups. Some 4me ago we ran a monthly toddlers/ac4vity service in the community centre. This is something we might profitably try once again.
There is an ac4ve social life in each of the churches, par4cularly at Saxilby and Ke5lethorpe. For all of the churches this helps to build up fellowship in each church community, and is a valuable form of outreach.
The Curate’s Role Vision for the future
ually seeking to develop this further, looking to the Team’s next phase of growth, to ensure that the minWith the amalgama4on of the two groups we face an istry resources essen4al for the life and work of the exci4ng and challenging future. Developing effec4ve church will be available well into the future. strategies of working together is one par4cularly urgent task. Maintaining a reasonable level and pa5ern As the new arrangements are unfolding across our of Sunday worship across this newly enlarged area Deanery, with fewer s4pendiary clergy we are inwill be challenging but not impossible. We are fortu- creasingly being made aware of the need to share nate in that we have very commi5ed and able people resources, exper4se and knowledge across a wider in each of our churches across all these communi4es, area, and not to be restricted by parish boundaries. It who are able to be the eyes and ears of the commu- is important to use all the tools we have at our disnity, to report issues and needs to the Incumbent, posal to build the Kingdom in communi4es across our and to react appropriately as the church leadership area by sharing good prac4ce and ideas that work for in their village to requests for church involvement, the good of all. whether that be booking a church hall, through to arranging occasional offices. A further area of challenge These are visions and priori4es discussed at PCCs and for the future is to develop this important lay and or- Group Council, and are share by the people of each of dained local leadership further, so that it is the parishes. empowered and skilled to undertake the vital pastoral work of the church across each of our The Curate’s role in these plans communi4es. There would be opportunity for the Curate to be involved in these plans as far as their talents and areas of interest would allow. There would be the chance to be involved fully with the local schools, and, if our hopes to promote out of school opportuni4es for Chris4an nurture bear fruit, to be involved in a major piece of work. There would also be the opportunity to play a major role in the further development of Parish Ministry across the Group, as we move to the next phase of its growth.
We would also hope to further develop our churches so that they provide an accessible and responsive spiritual resource for people from across our communi4es, through their worship, outreach events and open access to the Occasional offices.
The Ministry Team is now well established, and a great asset to the life of the churches. We are con4n-
There would be opportunity to be involved in Deanery discussions and developments as we seek to implement new styles of s4pendiary and Parish Ministry across the area.
Incumbent’s understanding of the role of a trainer: The role of the trainer is to work with the person in training to maxim the development of their gi$s build on strengths and work together to overcome weaknesses. In this sense the curate will have a significant and meaningful ministry among us, and make a real
contribu4on through their gi$s and talents to the life of the church here. It is through the sharing of such gi$s together that I believe training is most effec4ve.
Areas of likely responsibility for ministry in training: There are meaningful and significant areas of ministry where the Curate could take responsibility across the Group. These could involve developing further the links of schools. It could mean reaching out to the Council run Youth club, and through a quiet ministry of presence. The curate could work with families within the church to develop involvement and the nurture of faith and there would be the opportunity to lead study groups for young people or adults. There would be the opportunity to take responsibility for developing new worship styles with the worship group. There is also the possibility of developing ministry with older people through the residen4al homes. With the Ministry Team and developments in Deanery there will be opportunity to experience collabora4ve ministry with lay and ordained colleagues. Accommoda%on
A four bedroom, modern house with gas central heating and a double garage is available for the curate. It is within walking distance of the school and shops, and buses to Lincoln Addi%onal Informa%on
The Saxilby Group of Parishes is comprised of three dis4nct churches that work well together. The challenge will be to maintain this, and develop it across the larger Group of eight churches now that the Stow and Saxilby are to be joined together. Across this larger group we will con4nue to explore ways of being an effec4ve church in the rapidly changing and largely secular communi4es of the twenty first century. At present each church in the Saxilby Group is viable in its own right, but they are stronger working in coopera4on wwith each other, sharing skills and insights. Each has had a successful Funding Campaign in recent years. These revealed the depth of the affec-
4on and warmth towards the church in the wider communi4es they serve. Any person coming to train with us would be invited to join us in unfolding this exci4ng and challenging project. Further informa%on
The Revd Canon Dr Jeffrey Heskins Diocesan Director of Ordinands and Voca4ons Direct: 01522 504029 Switchboard: 01522 504050 Mobile: 07590 950040 Email: jeffrey.heskins@lincoln.anglican.org