The Quantock Deanery Mission Action Plan 2017-2020

The Quantock Deanery Mission Action Plan 2017-2020

The Diocese has set the task for each of its nineteen deaneries to produce a Deanery Plan for submission to the Bishop’s Council by September/October 2017 for an autumn review. By the end of January 2018, the Bishop’s Council will have reviewed each of the nineteen deanery plans to identify implications at a Diocesan level. Deanery plans are being asked to state their priorities, actions and timescales in response to each of the three Diocesan strategic priorities:

• To place mission and evangelism at the heart of everything we do;
• To realign our ministry resources towards mission; and
• To identify, develop and use the gifts of all our people.

With grateful thanks to the Christchurch Deanery in the Diocese of Winchester we will use the following prayer for our journey:

Glorious God, you have taken hold of us and made us your own. In the power of your Spirit, give us grace to press on in your purposes, loving one another, learning together, and living the mission of him who calls us onwards, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

1. Introduction

The Quantock Deanery falls geographically for the most part within the West Somerset Council (WSC) geographical area – and includes the four benefices situated in the WSC sub-areas of Mid-West Somerset, the Quantock Hills and Watchet and Williton. The WSC sub-areas of Exmoor and Minehead form the Exmoor Deanery. The Benefice of Cannington, Stockland with Steart, Combwich and Otterhampton is also included in the Quantock Deanery. However, for local government administrative purposes the Benefice comes under the jurisdiction of the Sedgemoor District Council.

Taking the WSC areas as a whole (2010/2011):

West Somerset Council covers 280 square miles of coast and countryside.

The population of the district is approximately 35,300 and it is estimated that 32.1 per cent of this population are at retirement age. The figure is above the national and regional average.

It is predicted that the population in West Somerset will increase by 15.86 per cent over the next twenty five years (2006 – 2031) with the largest increase expected in the 85+ age group which will increase by approximately 140 per cent.

In contrast, it is predicted that there will be decreases in the working age population within the area.

Around 4.25 per cent of the population is from a BME background compared to 4.92 per cent in Somerset, 6.86 per cent regionally and 15.3 per cent nationally.

Additionally: in 2011 census the population of Cannington and Wembdon was 4,507 and was made up of approximately 49% females and 51% males.

The average age of people in Cannington and Wembdon is 44, while the median age is higher at 46. Note: Watchet and Williton may bear some resemblance to this – but further research is needed.

In establishing a demographic profile for the Deanery, sites of residential development for Church ministry within the Deanery should also be considered for the next 10-15 years – for example new housing projects of say up to 500 homes or more and the implications this may have also for the schooling of the young. It is uncertain presently how much the Hinkley Point project will impact residentially on the Deanery but chaplaincy considerations there may need to be incorporated into plan during 2018/19.

1. Church Membership

An approximate total population for the Quantock and Exmoor Deaneries is around 38,000. This contrasts with the 2015 adult total membership of our churches in both deaneries of around 1500. Church of England membership in this regard is at roughly 4%.

Hence the urgency of embracing the Diocesan strategy of ‘Living and telling the Story of Jesus’……

The Quantock Deanery Mission Action Plan under the three headings of the Diocesan Strategic priorities:

3.1

• In early 2018 the Quantock Deanery Mission Group will revisit the Deanery Parish Spotlights and other available public data to become clearer about those people or groups within our parishes and communities with specific needs, mostly at this time away from our churches, for whom we might be able to offer friendship and support. Peoples with whom we would seek also to develop the skills and insights required to share confidently with them the Gospel of Christ.
• As an outcome of the research, each of the five Quantock Deanery Benefices in each year 2018, 2019 and 2020 will identify and commit to such people or groups, pray for them, conduct research into their needs and discover whether or not they would wish to worship with us. As churches we would recognise and accept the adjustments that may have to be made to accommodate their particular needs. Examples of such people or groups might be those with the challenge of poor mental health, incurable illness, homelessness, dementia, deafness, partial-sight, struggling families and their young, single-parent families, isolated elderly, etc.

Specifically, however, for 2017-2020 the Quantock Deanery will:

• encourage all of our parish churches to become Dementia–friendly churches;
• enable our church buildings to be open for prayer and a haven for all, and especially welcoming for rural and urban community use outside the times of regular worship;
• review and continue to build solidly on the work undertaken with the young and their families through the Messy Church, holiday clubs, pram services and school linked activity including ‘Open the Book’; and
• seek to ensure that the significant number of couples married in our Deanery churches are encouraged to worship with us, contact be maintained and their offspring brought for baptism and confirmation.

3.2

• Each year in 2018, 2019 and 2020 we will identify as a Deaneryand/or Benefice a specific lay training need and course provision to enable our laity become more confident in particular expressions of ministry. The training to be either specific to a Benefice or a grouping of Benefices or as a Deanery programme.
• Examples are leading home groups, pastoral visiting, children and youth work training, new expressions of worship or gatherings, ministry to older people, visiting/or task leadership in relation to the occasional pastoral offices (baptism, weddings and funerals).

Specifically for 2017-2020 the Quantock Deanery will:

• provide in 2018 a Deanery led course for the training of lay pastoral assistants (to note that in 2019 and 2020 further Deanery/Benefice led courses will be provided specifically for lay training identified in areas of ministry and outreach, for example: bereavement, worship, stewardship, work with the young, etc)

• increase the present number of home groups meeting beyond the seasons of Lent and/or Advent;

• undertake an audit of prayer groups meeting currently across the Deanery with a view to their increase for the enhancement of both personal discipleship and confident lay ministry;

• endeavour to involve Church members in the wider non Church-led communal activities of our parishes, linking especially with Parish Councils and Somerset Village Agents, as an expression of outreach, Christian giving and active discipleship; and

• aim to recruit a Deanery publicity officer to edit a quarterly Deanery newsletter liaising with the local printed and radio media, and encourage the regular updating of benefice and/or parish websites.

3.3

• As a Deanery we will undertake to continue with our successful annual commitment to a Deanery Mission project supporting Christian social and charitable programmes worldwide through generous giving via group activity and/or individual donations.
• By 2018/19, each DeaneryParish will aim to have reviewed its current stewardship programme encouraging generous parish giving for the work of mission locally as well as the Diocese more generally. A subsidiary aim being for all Deanery parishes to meet their common fund/parish share requirements in full. (NB. The Quantock Deanery has been largely effective in this regard in recent years despite rising financial demands generally).
• As Deanery Benefices, we will identify each year over the next three years 2018, 2019, 2020 a specific focus where we can make a significant difference as churches to the communities and peoples where we serve: to achieve this each Deanery Benefice would be encouraged to establish an advisory community/voluntary/professional agency forum in order to identify local needs and possibilities where we might contribute or lead.
• As a Deanery we will endeavour vocationally to discern and encourage those in our churches for whom reader ministry training may provide a suitable way forward.
• All our Deanery Churches would be encouraged to review their own social and environmental circumstances and settings giving attention to, for example:churchyard conservation plans, Fairtrade dealing, committing to buying and using locally produced products, supporting Christian-Aid week, greener heating, etc.

Revd Ben Flenley (Rural Dean)

Mrs Sally Bult (Lay Chair of the Quantock Deanery Synod)

September 2017

The following pages set out the individual Quantock Deanery Benefice and Parish Plans (where available presently):

The Quantock Coast Benefice, Watchet and Williton Benefice, Quantock Towers Benefice

Quantock Villages Benefice and Cannington, Combwich and Stockland Benefice.

Mission Action Plan 2017

Our Mission Action Plan is rooted in Jesus’s ‘Great Commission’ to the disciples at the end of St Matthew’s Gospel

(Matthew 28: 16 – 20)

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to meet him. When they saw him they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.

And remember, I will be with you always, to the end of time.’

This scripture acknowledges the important points that:

1.The disciples were a flawed group (11 not12)

2.The disciples were a mixed group and different degrees of faith.

(Continued on page 9)

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3.They responded to Jesus’ command to meet him in Galilee, but when he appeared, although some worshipped, somealso doubted.

4.They were given what seemed to them an impossible commission: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.’

5.They were assured of the presence of the risen Christ to empower them in all that they were called todo.

The Mission Action Plan acknowledges and works with the strategic aims of the Diocese of Bath and Wells to:

1.To place mission and evangelism at the heart of everything we dobyrealigningourregularactivitiestobefocusedonsharing the Gospel, better engaging with our local communities and serving their needs, and increasing the church’s profile in our villages.

2.To identify, develop and use the gifts of the people by supporting and equipping members to deepen their prayer lives, feel confident talking about their faith, and be able to offer an authentic welcome to the localcommunity.

3.Torealignourministryresourcestowardsmissionbyrepairing, Refurbishing and reimagining our church buildings to better serve the wider community, ensuring that we encourage regular and efficientgiving.

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The Mission Action Plan also defines five key areas where it understands engagement with thosebeyondthe bounds of the Sunday congregation to beimportant:

1.Ministry to Weddingcouples

2.Ministry to those at the end of their life
and tofamiliesin their loss

3.Ministry to children and youngpeople

4.Engagement in our localcommunities.

5.Special occasions and the ritual year as
opportunities formission.

This is a living document and we will return to it annually as a means of reflecting on our practice and engagement with our local communities, adding to it and amending it, as appropriate, in the light of our experience, as we live and serve in the villages of which we are a part.

We will also work closely with the Quantock Deanery, and with Diocesan support, learning and growingtogether with otherparishes.

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Benefice Objectives:

1.Ministry to WeddingCouples

To continue to support all churches in their wedding ministry and especially St Etheldreda’s, WQH, in the important ministry that they exercise as a church with couples who come to St Audries’s Park as the venue for their wedding receptions.

To continue to offer a warm welcome to those who attend services in order to qualify for marriage in the Benefice; to those who return on their wedding anniversaries, and to those who bring their children for baptism

To continue to send a card on the first anniversary of a couple’s wedding.

To consider sending cards at Christmas for those married in the year.

To consider developing a cross benefice wedding team to offer support at weddings in the way that bell ringers and organists already do work across the benefice for weddings.

To consider organising a special marriage celebration service at specified intervals to which couples who have been married in the benefice can be invited back.

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2.Ministrytothoseattheendoftheirlifeandtofamiliesintheir loss.

Tocontinuetorespondpromptlytoneedsastheyariseandtooffer caring and compassionate support asappropriate.

To continue to hold an annual service in late autumn to which all thosewhohavebeenbereavedinthepastyearareinvitedbyletter.

To continue to send a card on the first anniversary of death.

To consider developing a small team of pastoral visitors to assist with post-bereavement contact where appropriate.

3.Ministry to children and youngpeople

To continue the excellent work of the ‘Open the Book’ Team in StogurseyCof E Primary School and to develop the group and its resources.

To continue a weekly whole school assembly in Stogursey School and a story and singing session with the pre-school.

TocontinuetoencourageandsupportStogurseySchoolvisitstoSt Andrew’s Church for important festivals and end of termservices.

Tocontinuetorunanannualfourdaysummerholidayclubforfive to eleven yearolds.

To consider developing a ‘once a term’ Eucharist Service for the school alternating between school and church as a venue.

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To consider restarting some kind of activity for junior school age children, whether that be Junior Youth Club for children alone, or Messy Church for families.

4.Engagement in our localcommunities.

To acknowledge that many of the social activities within oursmall village communities are either run by members of our church congregations or heavily supported by them in terms of organisation. Therefore to acknowledge and support this work as part of our important outreach and engagement and to hold it in prayer.

To consider producing a local calendar of prayer as existed once before.

5.Special Occasions and the Ritual Year as Opportunities for Mission.

To continue to support each parish in having, as far as possible, services at the time they feel appropriate for their at key festivals in the year (Christmas, Easter, Harvest, Remembrance)

To continue the alternative, informal Easter Sunrise service on a local beach on Easter morning.

To continue to celebrate a traditional carol service together as a benefice at Christmas, thus providing a substantial service into which villagers and visitors can come.

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To continue to celebrate 4thand 5thSundays together as a benefice, likewise providing a larger, more vibrant service into which visitors can slot.

Tocontinuetouseopportunitiestoengagethecommunityasthey arise – ie preparation for Armistice Day2018.

Prayer and Worship Together as a Benefice.

Our life and worship together and as churches of the benefice should be rooted and grounded in prayer. To this end we worship together as a benefice on the 4th and 5th Sundays of each month.

Morning Prayer is said at 8.30am in every church in the beneficeon a seven week cycle, to which all are welcome. Lent Groups take place each year. House Groups organised by two churches meetin two villages, a contemplative prayer group is offered in another village and the monthly mid-week Eucharist at St Andrew’s is dedicated to prayer for healing. In addition we will continue to develop our life together through sharing and working together wheneverpossible:ietheJoiningtogetherforourAnnualParochial Church Meetings. Possibilities to consider furtherare:

A local prayer calendar (as already mentioned)

AmonthlygrouptomeetandpraytheBibletogetherinthestyleof LectioDivina.

To develop the links that we have establishes as a benefice with sisters of the Order of the Holy Paraclete in Whitby

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St Mary’s, East Quantoxhead

Toplacemissionattheheartofeverythingwedobyrealigningour regular activities to be focused on sharing the gospel, better engaging with our local communities and serving their needs. Increasing the Church’s profile in ourvillages.

Action points:

Continue with the HarvestSupper.

Continue with the nativity and Christian outreach at theEQH light switch on.

Make sure we are listed in ‘A Church near You’website.

Devise a reflective information booklet to be available in the church(basedonthebookletfromKirkdalechurch).Alsoget morecopiesofthechurchhistoryinformationbookletprinted and a general information booklet which would be suitable for younger age groups. All of these could also bedistributed door to door in thevillage.

Provideself-servicerefreshmentsinthechurchforvisitorsat anytime.

Ensure the Parish magazine is offered to all newresidents.

Have a church presence at the village market e.g. by havinga stall selling Christian literature, book marksetc.

Invites to be sent out from Nicky for all residents to ‘special event’ Sunday @ 3 services (eg. pet service, Christingleetc).

Include service programme for Christmas with Mary and Joseph as they go on their advent journey around thevillage.

Plan a village service or event for Easter in an attempt to include those who already come to theChristingle.

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Introduceprayercards,tobeputdoortodoorandthencanbe placed on the cross in the church at any time, for pray during the Sunday @3service.

Sendflowerstothoseinandconnectedtothevillageintimes ofneed.

Ask others who may not be connected to the church if they would be willing to go on the flowerrota.

To identify, develop and use the gifts of people by supporting and equipping members to deepen their prayer lives, feel confident talkingabouttheirfaith,andbeabletoofferanauthenticwelcome to the localcommunity.

Action Points:

Continue to adapt our home group to changingneeds.

Support benefice initiatives and encourage attendance at services