Benefice Profile 2018 draft 6

The Tenpenny Villages
Benefice Profile 2018

St Andrew’s St Anne & St St Mary
Alresford Laurence Magdalen
Elmstead Thorrington

tenpennyvillages.uk

Members of the Priory Parishes Mission & Ministry Partnership
of the Diocese of Chelmsford

Contents

1. Introduction and Vision Page 1

2. Setting the scene Page 3

• Colchester and the surrounding area

• Information about the villages
• Introduction to the three churches

• Church services in the benefice

• The Diocese of Chelmsford and the St Osyth Deanery.
• Deanery Mission and Ministry Partnership

• Benefice Statistics

3. What goes on now Page

• Children’s and youth work
• Senior citizens
• Overseas mission
• Prayer and discipleship
• Worship
• Fresh expressions
• Mission and ministry

4. Finance and buildings Page

5. Going deeper Page
Page
• Our strengths
• Our weaknesses
• Our challenges

6. Our new Rector and what we can offer

• What are we looking for?
• What we can offer
• The Rectory

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1. Introduction and Vision

We are three churches joined by a brook and a common faith. Each church
has a long history, standing for the faith we all share in our communities. St
Andrews was born again from fire; St Anne & St Laurence and St Mary
Magdalene have stood witness for centuries.

We are passionate that we will continue to bring Christ to our communities
for centuries to come. We do not want to see the worshipping communities
die on our watch. We see our churches as central to our villages and we
want to serve our communities with love, reaching those of faith or none
and to serve all. We want to see lives changed and the broken restored. We
want to serve the young, the old, families and those on their own. We
welcome everyone, however they come, whatever their needs. We know
we don’t have it all sorted yet we want to be family together with all of the
joys and challenges that brings.

We are on a journey of faith, like the brook constantly moving, and we want
to journey with our saviour wherever that may take us. We believe that
Jesus changes lives and we accept that change is part of our journey
together. Although at times we may find it difficult, we accept that change is
a necessary part of a life of faith.

We celebrate our differences and embrace a variety of worship styles. We
recognise that there is no right way to do it and that we can find God in
many ways, both in formal worship and also in service. We know that God
is with us at the communion table and at the washing up bowl.

We understand that if we are going to thrive and grow we need to work
with the young and reach out to families. We are committed to supporting
our local primary schools and our secondary school. We recognise that life
is often complicated and confusing for our young people. We want to stand
beside them as they mature and navigate the challenges thrown at them by
this world.

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Introduction and Vision continued

We know that our churches’ primary purpose is not to serve the needs of
the congregations but to reach out to those outside of our worshipping
communities. We recognise that we have multiple congregations, not just
on Sundays but wherever we gather. God is present in all our activities. We
want to be seen as a force for good in our communities and that they see
the churches as theirs. We want to be seen as welcoming and a place of
love and acceptance. We know we don’t always get this right but we are
committed to learning how we can do this better.
We are all disciples and know that there is always more to learn; teaching
and discipleship is how we grow in faith and love. We believe in the power
of prayer and we have seen prayer answered - God is working in our
churches and communities. We believe in the word of God and this forms
the basis of our teaching. We have a common understanding of our faith
and whilst we may have minor differences, what joins us is far greater.
We have been blessed with talent and resources and we celebrate every
member’s ministry. We have seen our congregations grow in faith and
many have gone on to serve other communities. We are keen we continue
to be a resource for the wider church.
We are looking for a leader who will keep us moving forward; challenge us
to reach out to our communities and help us grow in faith. We are
committed to supporting our future leader and do not expect them to do it
all for us. We know we are Jesus’ hands and feet and it is our responsibility
to serve and bring Jesus to our communities. We are positive about the
future. We believe God has so much more for us and our communities. We
look forward to working out together how we can know Him more, and
serve them better!

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2. Setting the Scene

Colchester

Colchester in north Essex is
Britain's oldest recorded
town and was the first city
and capital in Roman
Britain. Its rich history
dates back over 2000
years.
But it's not just the history. 21st Century Colchester is a thriving,
modern town with first class visitor attractions, including the
family favourites Colchester Zoo and Colchester Castle, as well as
fantastic places to eat, drink and shop. It is also the home of the
University of Essex
Poised at the gateway to East Anglia with picturesque villages and
only minutes from the coast, the Colchester area is a perfect place
to live and is also within easy commuting distance of London and
many other towns and cities in East Anglia.

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Alresford

The parish of St Andrew’s, Alresford is located approximately 6 miles to the
east of Colchester in North East Essex. It has a population of around 2500
people and 850 homes. This is going to increase substantially as over 300
new homes are being built in the village with a strong likelihood of further
homes in the near future.
Most people work outside the village and it has good road and rail links to
Colchester, Clacton, Chelmsford and London.
Alresford has a primary school and pre-school, with the local secondary
school located in the nearby town of Brightlingsea. We also have a Village
Hall hosting many local groups and events and a popular pub. The village
has a small number of shops.
Large areas of farmland surround the village and it is a lovely area for
walking.

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Elmstead

Elmstead is a friendly and supportive community which has a variety of
organisations, developed over time. Church members are active in many of
these, our focus having been involvement in the community at large ,
rather than the development of our own organisations .An example of this
is the “Upmarket” community magazine which the Church developed from
its own Parish Magazine more than 30 years ago, distributed monthly ,free
to every home in the ecclesiastical and local government parish by an army
of volunteers . The church is actively involved and priority is given to the
Christian message at Christmas and Easter. Even in this digital age, the
magazine, supported by advertising, is regarded as an effective means of
communication. In the village, there is a residue of good will towards the
Church, even if few are part of the worshipping congregation

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Thorrington and Frating

The villages of Thorrington and Frating lie south-east of Colchester in what
the tourist authorities call the Tendring Peninsula of North Essex.
They are attractive, if less than picturesque, settlements on the road to the
seaside resorts of Clacton, Walton and Frinton. The original parishes were
joined in 1763 and St John’s College, Cambridge became patrons of the
united living.
The medieval church of St Mary Magdalen is the only church in the two
parishes. It stands beside the listed Thorrington Hall, about a mile to the
east of Thorrington, amid fields and woodland hence our reference, “God’s
house in the country”.

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St Andrew’s Church

St Andrew’s Church is a modern building opened on Palm Sunday 1976
following a major fire which destroyed the previous 14th century parish
church of St Peter’s. A large Annexe, the Hub, was opened in 2013,
primarily funded through giving by the congregation.
The church is an A frame style building, resembling an Essex barn from the
outside. Inside it has a spacious worship area with a polished wooden floor
and high ceiling. The seating arrangements are flexible with chairs for up to
200 people.
The Hub has a large meeting room and prayer room providing much needed
additional space for the many groups that meet at the church during the
week. It also has additional toilet facilities, including a wheelchair accessible
toilet
The church is in a good state of repair and is low maintenance. It stands on
a site with a substantial grassed area to the rear, enclosed by fences and
hedges. This area is frequently used by the children’s groups and youth
groups and for social functions. There is car park at the front of the church
with additional parking facilities at the nearby Village Hall. The old church
ruin of St Peters is situated half a mile outside the village and is now under
the care of Essex County Council. The graveyard is still open and includes a
garden of remembrance. Occasional open air services are held at St Peter’s.

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St Anne & St Laurence

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St Mary Magdalen

The Church Building
Although of medieval construction over the past 10 years the congregation
has worked to reduce the burden of repairs. The top third of the tower has
been refurbished, all the plaster ceilings have been replaced and a toilet has
been fitted. Along with a coffee area and child corner for use during
services. Our present project is to replace the ancient heaters. This will be
done November 2018.

The church yard is kept
pristine by a very devoted
member of the congregation.
He also is bell captain and
maintains the bells.

Music is played on a
traditional organ which is
played and maintained by a
member of the congregation.

The Church Family
The church congregation is mainly elderly and includes people who have
served the church for many years. At the present time we attract between
20 and 25 to our 9.30am service.
Our outreach is to the two care homes in Thorrington, and to the whole
community, by our programme of events. A more personal prayer meeting
on a Wednesday morning and a bible study period is available.
Our church life is fairly relaxed but we do like a more formal type of service
and individuals are prepared to take part in the service, either reading,
leading intercessions, cup for communion. We have a robed choir. We are
quite at ease with the system of worship leaders being part of the overall
benefice team and can see the merit of allowing the overall leader time to
be in the community on our behalf.

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The Diocese of Chelmsford

The Tenpenny Villages Benefice is situated in the North East corner of the
Anglican Diocese of Chelmsford. This is one of the largest dioceses in
England and covers East London and the administrative County of Essex. It is
extremely diverse with parishes in the inner city, suburbs, market towns and
remote rural villages.

A message from Bishop Stephen:

In the Chelmsford Diocese we
believe that God is calling his
church to be a transforming
presence. Our vision is that
the church - that is the
people of God here in Essex
and East London - should be
a transforming presence in
every one of our parishes.

These are our priorities –
• To inhabit the world distinctively
• To evangelise effectively
• To hold ourselves accountable to one another and to God for the

stewardship of the gospel
• To re imagine the way we minister so that each ordained minister and

each individual Christian discovers their part in God's ministry and so
that each church flourishes.

To this end we are looking for priests who are excited by this vision of
becoming a church which is itself transformed, and which is becoming a
more visible and effective presence in the huge diversity of communities
that make up this most exciting and energetic part of England. There are
many challenges ahead of us. We are a diocese generously subsidised by
the national church. We need to become financially self-sufficient.

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The Diocese of Chelmsford

Leadership often seems distant. We are creating patterns of leadership that
are closer to the parishes. And we are looking to develop missionary
leadership at all levels of church life. Nearly half our clergy will retire in the
next ten years. We need to find out how to minister with fewer stipendiary
clergy and with a re-imagining of how stipendiary ministry works. We need
to re-organise the way parishes relate to each other and we are calling
mission and ministry units.
Some of our congregations still think ministry is what Vicars do. We have a
vision of ministry where the whole people of God are involved in the whole
of God's ministry. We are also experimenting with new forms of authorised
lay ministry.
Levels of church going are below the national average. We need to get
evangelism into the agenda and into the lifeblood of every church. Each
year we are inviting every benefice to put on a weekend of mission and
outreach, and we are training people in every church for this ministry. One
of our aspirations is that every benefice should have a trained lay
evangelism enabler.

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The St Osyth Deanery

St Osyth Deanery covers the southern part of the Tendring Peninsula,
running from Alresford and Elmstead in the West to Walton and Frinton in
the East. Chapter meets bi-monthly and is usually well attended – we meet
for prayers and lunch, sharing news of our parishes and discussing different
topics and, although we are from different churchmanships and traditions,
we get on well and are supportive of one another.

Synod usually features a speaker addressing current issues. There is also a
Deanery Prayer Diary so that we can support one another in prayer.

In April 2018 we launched a new Christians Against Poverty Clacton Debt
Centre financed by the churches of the deanery and helped, for the first
three years, by the Diocesan Unit Development Fund. This project is being
spear-headed by three of the Deanery churches – Great Clacton, Frinton
and Alresford.

We have recently formed into Mission and Ministry Units (MMUs) and the
Tenpenny Villages are in the Priory Parishes Mission and Ministry
Partnership that was commissioned in September 2018.

The Priory Parishes Mission and Ministry Partnership comprises the
churches of Alresford, Elmstead , Frating with Thorrington, Brightlingsea, St
Osyth & Great Bentley, Thorpe-le-Soken, Weeley & Little Clacton.

The development of the Priory Parishes Mission and Ministry Partnership
has been very much lay led and links between the churches are growing.
The other parishes of the Deanery form the Coastal Mission and Ministry
Unit which goes to the Area Mission & Pastoral Committee this November
for formal agreement.

In conclusion, St Osyth is a very positive deanery, with supportive clergy and
we look forward to welcoming a new colleague.

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Benefice Statistics

Alresford Frating & Elmstead Total
Thorrington
5650
Demographics 2010 1830 1810 66
Population 64 67 67
% Christian

Age 100 (5%) 50 (3%) 100 (5%) 250 (4%)
0-4 250 (12%) 200 (11%) 250 (13%) 700 (12%)
Age 5-16 1200 (59%) 1100 (61%) 1100 (58%) 3400 (60%)
16-64 500 (24%) 450 (25%) 450 (24%) 1400 (24%)
64+

Ethnicity 96% 95% 97% 96%
White British

Tenure

Owner occupier 700 650 600 1950

Private rented sector 100 50 100 250

Social housing < 50 < 50 50 <150

Social/Economic Issues

Lone parent 16 8 14 38

One person households 23 22 27 72

2018 Electoral Roll Alresford Frating & Elmstead Total
136 Thorrington
88 16 (11%)
Sunday Church Attendance 36 9 (6%)
0 (0%)
0-14 15 (16%) 1 (4%) 0 (0%) 19 (13%)
0 (0%) 6 (18%) 27 (18%)
15-29 9 (10%) 1 (4%) 6 (18%) 53 (35%)
4 (16%) 14 (42%) 28 (18%)
30-44 12 (13%) 13 (52%) 7 (21%)
6 (24%)
45-59 17 (18%) 33
25
60-74 26 (28%)

75+ 15 (16%)

94

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3. What goes on now

Children’s and youth work

St Andrew’s

We are very blessed to have so many links with families, children and young
people at St Andrew’s. Whilst in a village setting, we have a large number of
children and youth at our outreach groups, as well as some youth who have
grown up in the church family, and identified real potential for spiritual
growth and wider engagement. In July 2016, after a lot of hard-work and
planning, we were able to employ a youth-worker, who is still with us now.
We had some of our activities already in place, which Charley was able to
continue growing and adapting, and some areas which we are still planning
and developing. Some of our activities with children and youth are outlined
below.

Razmatazz

This is our after-school club for children at primary
school, which has seen significant growth
throughout the years. We have a brilliant team of
volunteers who help to run the weekly session and
engage really well with the children. As with all of
our activities, our team are safeguarding trained and
work really well together. The sessions involve lots
of games, toys, sport, creativity and stories. We’ve
looked at all different themes using a whole range of
resources – recently we used Scripture Union’s
‘Diary of a Disciple’ (which looks at Luke’s account of
the Gospel), ‘Beastly Bible Stories’ by Claire Benton-
Evans, and currently we’re using ‘Story Stack’ (a new
resource which involves character cups and making
the story sets!) Our children engage really well at
Razmatazz, building on great links with the local
primary schools and assemblies, ‘Open the Book’,
etc. There is a large cross-over with our annual
Summer Holiday Clubs too, for which we use mostly
Scripture Union resources.

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Children’s and youth work continued

St Andrew’s

Hangout@TheHub

Hangout is our weekly youth-group for Year 6+,
aiming to provide a space for young people to be
themselves, catch up with friends and try new
activities. This group has grown hugely in the
past few years, resulting in our volunteer team
needing to grow quite quickly! We sometimes
have people either from within one of the
churches in the Benefice, or from the local area,
come in to talk on a theme and run an activity –
the idea being that young people see how the
church is a community of people who express
their faith through their passions and life choices.

We also have excellent links with our local PCSO, who drops in from time to
time to chat to the young people and make positive connections. The young
people can get involved in a huge range of activities, and meet new people.
We see a lot of our young people come through Razmatazz and then to
Hangout, and there have also been some excellent links made from our
work at the local secondary school. We have had a huge answer to prayer
recently, with some of our young people turning up to Messy Church and
joining the team, and also wanting to re-start the puppet ministry team.
This is very exciting and something which we are in the process of
developing with them. We have also identified through Hangout@TheHub
that our Year 9+ want somewhere different to ask their questions and
explore faith, which has led to us starting a Youth Alpha. There are lots of
exciting things happening with this group, and links across the whole church
ministry! When asking the youth what their favourite thing about Hangout
is, they said ‘the team’, ‘eating’ and ‘all the activities’, which is good to
know!

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Children’s and youth work continued

Powerpack/Distinctive

These are our Sunday morning programmes
for ages 3+. They have recently changed and
so are in a new stage of planning and trying
new things, but Powerpack is aimed at ages
3 – 8, and Distinctive is aimed at School
Years 5 – 9. We usually join together to set
the scene of the morning, with joint
activities and worship, before we head off
into our separate groups to explore the
themes further.

At the moment, we are using Scripture Union’s resources (a mixture of
‘Bubbles’, ‘Splash’, ‘Xstream’ and ‘theGrid’) which provide great engagement
with Scripture and are age-relevant. Recently we’ve been looking at Creation
and in particular, Space! We have a group of around 6-10 children and up to 6
or 7 young people. Some of our older youth have recently gone off to
universities, which is another area in which we support our young people!
Even when they fly the nest, we still keep connected!

Chaplaincy at The Colne

There are a lot of exciting
connections made with our local
secondary school and sixth-form. It
is a large school and students from
all over the area attend it. Since July
2016, as part of her contract,
Charley has been the School
Chaplain, building links, getting to
know staff and students, running
projects and developing a mentoring
programme.

P.T.O.

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Children’s and youth work continued

The need for mentoring is so great that we have been blessed with another
volunteer from St Andrew’s, who goes to the school a morning each week
with Charley, to assist with mentoring. This work is made possible through
our links with Christian Youth Outreach (CYO), who support Charley and the
church in their work by providing help for projects, resources and
interaction with the school.

Charley has run a Remembrance Project in the
school alongside CYO, ‘Beloved’ (a Year 9 self-
esteem and confidence course for girls), and
also helped to lead some work in the RE
department. There are many more projects we
are looking to run, and the school are excited
about, such as ‘Sanctum’ (a reflective, prayerful
space), which we are hoping to run this
academic year.

Charley is also involved in different activities across the school, and there
are many more exciting opportunities coming up. We are also looking to
expand our mentoring team, with volunteers from churches in the area.

St Anne and St Laurence

For the past four years, an ecumenical team, Methodists, Anglicans, URC
has gone into the local Primary School, under the leadership of Steve
Higgins, a former teacher at the school, usually fortnightly, as part of the
National “Open the Book“ scheme, now under the auspices of the Bible
Society , to familiarise the children with Bible Stories. The children greatly
enjoy these sessions, not only for the stories but for the entertainment
factor of mature adults dressing up and making fools of themselves. For our
part, we enjoy the delighted response of recognition when we are out and
about in the village. Elmstead was the first parish in the Benefice to
implement this scheme in which Trinity Methodist was the lead.

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Overseas Mission

Overseas Missionary Fellowship
Alex and Marguerite McCann with their children Elizabeth and Ben serve in
Phnom Phen, Cambodia. Marguerite has been a member of St Andrews
since her early teens and the church as well as individuals contributes to
them financially. Marguerites father lives in the village and they return to St
Andrews when on home assignment.
Alex teaches at a Bible school and is on the board of SONOKO, a Cambodian,
Christian student organisation. Marguerite is a qualified occupational
therapist who initially worked from Siem Reap with disabled children. She
now coordinates all the short term volunteers and assesses the suitability
for long term OMFers in Cambodia.
A monthly prayer meeting for them is held in the church, attended by a
small core of supporters, some of whom are from other churches.

Wycliffe Bible Translators
Tim and Maggie Gaved initially served in Senegal, translating the Bible into
Mankana but are now UK based travelling regularly to French speaking
West Africa. Tim was a member of St Andrews when a student at Essex
University, they both now live in Ipswich but come to speak at a service at
least once a year. The church gives them some financial support and we are
in receipt of their updates about their ministry.

Romania
We maintains a link with a pastor and his wife who serve in a very rural area
of Romania. There is no longer a direct link with the church but they have
been supported financially in the past.

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Prayer and Discipleship

Discipleship in the Tenpenny Villages

In our life together we seek to grow as disciples of Jesus so that we can be
Christ in our communities. Foundational to this are our small groups. We
have 7 groups with a total membership of xx. They meet on a weekly or
fortnightly basis at different times and days either in homes or in the
Sanctuary/Hub. Some of the groups have members from across the three
churches.

Some groups have grown from Alpha groups and others are more
longstanding. Each group’s meeting will include times of worship and
prayer and study. The groups also provide a space for mutual support and
friendship and are an ideal setting for people to develop their gifting and
ministries. During the vacancy the groups are being encouraged to take on
wider responsibilities – one group is taking the lead in organising the
Advent Carol service at St Andrew’s.

The groups study a range of material, some thematic and some based on
biblical books.

The groups each have a co-ordinator/s whose role is to facilitate rather than
lead all of the sessions. (This role shared by the Quiet Hour Group that
meets in Elmstead). They also seek to encourage new leaders to emerge so
that new groups can be set up as existing ones grow or new groups come
from Alpha courses.

The groups are supported by our Associate Priest and the group facilitators
have had an Away day together and more are planned.

During Lent we break from the normal pattern, sometimes holding a central
Lent course in the Hub and sometimes small groups which are deliberately
opened up for the season. There is a joint lent course with the Methodist
Church in Elmstead.

Alpha Courses are offered at least once a year.

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Prayer and Discipleship continued

Prayer in the Tenpenny Villages

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Worship

As a benefice we celebrate the diversity of worship styles across our
churches. From BCP Communion to Taizé; service sheets to PowerPoint;
formal Communions to Cafe Style; worship band to organs. We enjoy
silence and drums! While we don’t all enjoy all of it we seek God in every
style and hope that everyone can meet God in a way that helps them and
glorifies Him.

Worship is co-ordinated by the Preaching Team lead by the Incumbent. The
team consists of the ordained and licensed ministers (A reader and xx
Licensed Lay Preachers), plus others who preach and lead worship on
occasions.

We have a mix of sermon series to address the discipleship needs of our
congregations and the Lectionary. In the last few years we have looked at
Culture, Whole Life Worship, The Exile (as a lens to look at the sweep of the
Old Testament narrative), Tom Wright’s book ‘xxxx’, Philippians. In our
teaching we seek to encourage people to think through their faith for
themselves and consider the implications for the whole of their life.

We appreciate having the variety of worship styles and people do attend
services at other churches when the timing or style that day suits them
better.

Sunday Worship

St Andrew’s – The main Sunday morning worship is held at 11.00 am. It is
liturgical but relaxed and has been described by our Area Bishop as ‘joyful
chaos’. Normal attendance is between 60-80 adults plus 4-12 children. We
generally have Holy Communion twice a month and All Age Worship and
Morning worship once a month. We do have worship in the evenings
ranging from Breathing Space (a time of quiet to catch up with ourselves),
Food For thought (an opportunity to discuss difficult issue facing our world),
Taizé and others. Music is generally provided by one of our worship bands.

We have a Declaration of Ecumenical Welcome in place and occasionally
hold Methodist Communions lead by a retired Methodist Minister.

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Worship

Sunday Worship continued

St Anne and St Laurence – The Eucharist is the focus of our worship and we
celebrate Holy Communion every Sunday except for the 2nd Sunday of the
month where we have a more informal Morning Worship/All Age service.
We have an organ but no full time organist so do have to use an iPad.
Normal attendance is 25-35 adults

St Mary Magdalen – We enjoy our traditional worship services with the
singing lead by our small but enthusiastic robed choir. We have a full time
organist. Normal attendance is 20-25 adults.

BCP Said Communion – is held on the first Sunday of the month at 8.00 am
at St Andrew’s attended by a small but faithful congregation. Normal
attendance is 8-12 adults

Fifth Sunday Joint Worship – We do seek to hold joint services around the
three services with mixed results.

Youth worship – We have held regular Sunday evening worship at St
Andrew’s aimed at young people. We are hoping to re-launch this in the
New Year.

The timings of our Sunday services mean that the Incumbent and the
Associate Priest, with the support of the rest of the team can comfortably
cover the services. However if, as we hope our congregations grow we
know we may need to have more services and timings would then need to
change.

Midweek Worship
A variety of Morning prayer services occur throughout the week at the
three churches, with a short communion at St Andrew’s on a Thursday.

Messy Church – is held at 5.00 pm on Friday once a month at St Andrew’s.
Normal attendance is xxxxxx from a total membership of xxxxx

Care Homes – Services are held regularly at our two main care homes in
Thorrington.

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5. Going deeper

Our strengths Our weaknesses

• Diversity of churches in benefice • Geographical spread
(with unity of purpose) • Complacency / inertia
• Too much haste to solve
• Outreach with elderly and non-
church problems quickly
• Good with young & Elderly but
• Community ownership of church
• Location of facilities what about those in the
• Ecumenical links middle?
• School links - primary and • Elmstead and Thorrington can
be thought of as satellites of
secondary Alresford
• Outreach to children and families • Church thought to be irrelevant
• Community goodwill by some in community
• Diversity of talents within the • Difficulty identifying what
church is for people today
church ministry team/preaching
team/prayer/healing/pastoral

Our challenges

• Encouraging wider church – not just congregation’s on Sunday
• New housing in all three villages / increased population
• Young people leaving the community
• Appropriate children’s work and mentoring of young people through

local schools
• Some aging church buildings
• Aging population
• Lack of faith and Christian upbringing in communities
• Clergy can be seen as “distant” to the community
• Increased need for mental health support locally

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