Seeking a new incumbent – your chance to contribute to the Parish Profile
Dear members of the All Saints Family,
We pray that God is holding us all close to Him in this time of lockdown.
We wanted to let you know what is happening in the interregnum, and in particular what
we are doing to seek a new incumbent – a new vicar. The Church of England has a
well-defined route for doing this, and we are underway in the preparation needed to get
it going.
The first step is to prepare documents describing the parish. The first of these is the
Parish Fact-Sheet which gives details of the church, the number on the electoral role,
the staff, the buildings etc, and details of the parish – eg the population, the nature of the
parish – eg urban or rural.
The second of these is the Parish Profile which is our opportunity to paint a picture of
our parish so that interested applicants gain a realistic understanding of what we are like
and the sort of incumbent that we need. It is a more descriptive document than the
parish fact sheet. It allows us to analyse what is happening in our church and what
developments we would like to see. We also characterise the sort of person we feel
God is leading us towards to be our next incumbent.
These documents are then sent to the diocese and also to our Patron. Three parties
seek together, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to appoint the new incumbent: the
Bishop, the Patron and the parish representatives. Our Patron is the Simeon Trust
(www.simeons.org.uk) and they effectively act as a recruitment agency to find suitable
candidates. With the agreement of the Bishop, the candidate(/s) is interviewed by the
Parish representatives and if successful the appointment proceeds. The Parish
Representatives are chosen by the PCC to represent them for this process.
The PCC is responsible for putting the fact sheet and profile together. So, Alex Lewis,
our PCC secretary, received notice that we needed to complete them and has taken on
the mammoth task of coordinating getting them done. We are very grateful to her for
her hard work and dedication.
The Parish Profile is an important document which the PCC has responsibility to
assemble. The PCC, of course, are representatives of the wider congregation, so we
would like to hear what members of the congregation think about the development
of the church and the sort of person we seek, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We
would like to hear from as wide a range of people within the congregation as possible.
Clearly there will be different views, so please don’t be disappointed if your view is not
represented in the final document – all views will be read and thought through as the
PCC prayerfully carries out its responsibility to complete the document.
To do this, we have assembled a questionnaire which we have adapted from one
Bishop Mark is using to seek input for the selection of the new suffragan Bishops. The
document is attached. If you would like to complete this, please add your comments on
the questionnaire and return it to the church office – office@allsaints.church by email if
possible or by mail. The views will be forwarded to members of the PCC. There is a
short timescale to complete the Profile, so we ask that you return completed
documents to the office by January 20th.
Finally, can we ask for your prayers for the PCC meeting this Monday 18th January,
which is a formal one where we consider a number of issues around the selection of the
incumbent including choosing the parish representatives.
With best wishes and prayers for God’s blessing,
Andy Creeth and John Chester, Churchwardens