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Benefice Profile

Vale of Belvoir Benefice

CONTENTS

Overview

Benefice structure
Vision and mission
Strengths
Opportunities for the future
Theological position
We are looking for a Team Rector ---

Activities

Devotional
Work with youth
Community work
Music
Church management
Communications

People

Finance and stewardship

Church facilities

The local community

Location and surroundings

What’s special about each parish

Parish statistics

Overview

Benefice structure

The benefice comprises nine rural village parishes, each with its own PCC. A team council comprising the churchwardens and treasurers meets quarterly and a benefice monthly magazine, the Belvoir Angel, keeps churchgoers informed. We strive to gain the best from working together whilst at the same time respecting the individuality and variety of strengths of each parish.

Ministry is led by a Team Rector and a Team Vicar, supported by three retired clergy, two of whom are women, and one non-stipendiary, a licensed reader and two lay ministry teams with nine members between them. Thus 16 people are available to lead services in our nine parishes.

Vision and mission

To be here for the glory of God for our whole community, not just those who come regularly to church.
To offer variety in worship, respecting people’s different preferences, catering for all ages and all backgrounds.
To attract new people into our church communities.
To contribute to the spiritual development of our schools.

Strengths

The wide variety of worship we offer.
A good balance between the unity of the benefice and the individuality of the parishes.
Our lay ministry teams – unique in the diocese.
The success of our teamwork clubs for younger children.
Congregations either stable or growing, with particular success in some of our smallest parishes.
Financially sound but aware there will be challenges to meet in the future.

Opportunities for the future

The willingness of parishes to share resources and support each other.

To develop the strong base of work with younger children, now reaching out to an older group.
To shape a new partnership with Belvoir High School, building on relationships here and with our primary schools
To build and support the lay ministry teams.
To extend our links with local churches of other denominations.

Theological position

We probably have as many nuances of theological position as the 200 or so who regularly attend our churches; and a consensus within each parish would produce nine variations on a theme. We believe in quiet prayer and cherish the wisdom contained in the Bible, and that we are called to practise among others the humanity taught us by Jesus.

We are looking for a Team Rector

The Team Rector will reside in Bottesford and be directly responsible for worship at St Mary’s, for pastoral care, and mission and outreach within the local community. As a trustee and foundation governor of Belvoir High School, the Team Rector will have the opportunity to strengthen links with the children, staff and governors here and nurture links as a foundation governor with the village C of E primary school. An aptitude for working with young people would suggest that the Rector should also lead this aspect of mission throughout the benefice.

It is expected that the Team Rector will devote up to 2 days a week to the work with the schools and young people.

We seek a conscientious priest, teacher and communicator, able to challenge and inspire people at different stages of their Christian journey with:-

The ability to build and lead teams and to work with others.
The imagination to lead us forward at the same time as being sensitive to tradition.
A talent for working with young people.
The ability to take the church beyond its walls and beyond its committed followers.

The Team Rector will work in partnership with the Team Vicar who is responsible for developing and enabling ministry and mission in the eight parishes excluding Bottesford. The two roles are clear and distinct, whilst complementary, with the taking of services shared across the whole team; lay and ordained.

Activities

Devotional

We follow a rota of formal, and less formal, services so that the larger parishes have a service every Sunday, and the smaller ones most Sundays: on average, seven parishes have a service each Sunday. Services are led by stipendiary, retired and non-stipendiary clergy, a Reader or by members of the two lay ministry teams. Almost every church follows a range of liturgy, from traditional BCP, through Common Worship to less formal formats suiting the very young or those seeking fresh expressions.

Informal groups meet in many of the parishes to discuss beliefs and study the bible. A Lent course is organised on a benefice-wide basis.

There is a Mothers’ Union or Church Fellowship group in some of the parishes.

Working with youth

There are six primary schools in our nine villages, five of them Church of England schools. Clergy or lay team members take assemblies in all six on a regular basis. The Belvoir High School, in Bottesford, which has recently extended, now takes children from across the benefice up to the age of 16. This gives the opportunity to build on relationships with the school and its children at this important stage in their lives.

In recent years, Teamwork Clubs have been established. These were started in two villages and now number four clubs with 120 Children in total across the benefice. They cater for children aged 7 to 15 and provide outdoor activities within a Christian context. Over the winter some clubs meet for indoor activities which have also involved a short biblically based talk. An added benefit of the Teamwork Clubs is that they draw in parents, providing a younger adult group of worshippers. We now wish to extend our work with young people to those in their late teens.

Community work

Some of our parishes hold monthly lunches in village halls, where for two or three pounds, soup, a cold main course, cake and tea are offered to all comers. These popular occasions attract adults who work locally or from home, mothers with small children as well as retired people, many of whom are not otherwise regularly involved with the church.

Church of England school foundation governors, most of whom are currently lay members of our congregations, maintain strong links with our primary schools. Co-operation varies from hosting school assemblies, nativities and presentation events in our churches, to church members giving their time with charity events such as the Belvoir Challenge cross-country marathon and Viking Challenge.

Music

There is a strong musical tradition in our churches. There are two enthusiastic choirs, based at opposite ends of the benefice, which accompany choral evensong in some of our churches, and often enhance special services. Sometimes they combine, for example to perform Stainer’s Crucifixion at Easter 2009.

Church management

Each parish has its PCC, which participates with clergy in setting the direction of mission and worship, and aims to avoid encumbering the clergy with the management of finances and maintenance of our church buildings. Churchwardens and treasurers of all the parishes meet quarterly as a Team Council to develop the success of the benefice as a whole from the strengths of its component parts.

Communications

The benefice magazine, the Belvoir Angel[1], is published monthly and provides practical information such as forthcoming service details as well keeping people informed about what is happening in the parishes.

As well as the Belvoir Angel, there are local village magazines which routinely report church matters.

Bottesford has its own informative web site at http://www.stmarysbottesford.co.uk/

People

In April 2009 there were 312 on our church electoral rolls and average Sunday service attendance across the benefice is approximately 200. Average attendances have shown modest annual increases in recent years.

Three retired clergy, two of whom are women, and one non-stipendiary contribute generously to church work, particularly in taking services. Three of them live in the benefice and one in nearby Bingham.

Our lay ministry teams, formed in 2008 and unique in the Diocese of Leicester, at present have ten members, who are licensed take services throughout the benefice. They operate in two groups, one covering the east Vale, the other the west. Collectively they contain a wide range of gifts in pastoral care, church liturgical experience, youth work, schools experience and formal theological qualifications. A programme of training is in place.

Our benefice administrator is also a licensed reader.

The two choirs have been mentioned above. There are also groups of bell-ringers who are happy to ring when requested.

Finance and stewardship

Each parish manages its own finances with benefice costs being allocated as used. The benefice share is allocated between the parishes on an agreed basis and was met in full for 2009 by all but one of the smallest parishes.

Whilst there is no formal financial function for the benefice as a unit, there is an informal arrangement for paying clergy expenses centrally from funds provided by the parishes.

Several of the parishes have held funding campaigns, supported by the diocese, and have found, as well as helping to put finances on a firm footing, these have been a valuable way of engaging with the wider community.

Church facilities

Our churches are nine mediaeval listed buildings which provide both timeless spiritual peace and significant maintenance challenges. About half now have toilets, some kitchen facilities and sound systems.

Bottesford church houses the benefice administrative office.

There are two modern, family-sized, parsonage houses, one at Bottesford, the other at Harby. A third house at Redmile, currently let, has housed a curate in the past.

The local community

A fair number of residents still derive their livelihoods from agriculture, food and their related industries, but perhaps the majority now work in the neighbouring towns. All the villages have pubs, the larger ones supporting shops. Bottesford, by far the largest village in the benefice, has a number of shops, restaurants, etc.

There are Methodist and Baptist churches in the benefice, and in Harby a free evangelical church, with all of which we have excellent relationships. Pastoral services are provided to Dove Hospice, set up and run by volunteers in the benefice.

There are a number of very active local organisations and events. Stathern hosts a 10-day festival each year, in which the church takes an active part. Pantomimes, etc, are staged by a local group who draw on talent across the benefice. These and similar events help to draw people from our villages together as a wider community.

On the edge of the benefice is Belvoir Castle, home to the Dukes of Rutland, whose ancestral tombs are in Bottesford church. The castle is a popular tourist attraction for much of the year.

Location and surroundings

The benefice is located in the rural setting of the Vale of Belvoir, 15 miles from Nottingham to the west and 8 miles from Grantham to the east; to the south are Melton Mowbray (8 miles) and Leicester (25 miles). Nearby shopping centres are the market towns of Melton Mowbray and Grantham, with major centres in Nottingham and Leicester.

Medical provision is from GP surgeries in Bottesford and Long Clawson, major hospitals are at Nottingham and Leicester and a Community First Responder scheme operates in conjunction with East Midlands Ambulance Service to provide fast response to emergencies.

Our neighbouring towns and cities support five universities, Leicester and de Montfort Universities in Leicester; Nottingham and Nottingham Trent in Nottingham, and Loughborough.

We are well-placed for access to the major road network, being within a few miles of the A1 to the east and in easy reach of the M1 to the west. East Midlands Airport is convenient for air travel.

What’s special about each parish

Bottesford

Bottesford is the largest village in the benefice with over 3,500 residents and two schools. Belvoir High School has a catchment area, which covers the Vale villages and there is a large C of E primary school with 215 children on roll.

In addition to established links with the schools, young people are an important part of our ministry and outreach, which includes the weekly ‘Little Angels’ pram club, the fortnightly ‘Youf’ for 11-to-14 year olds, our Sunday School, the local Teamwork club and our monthly family service.

The church maintains close links with the young peoples’ uniformed organisations in the village, with scouts, guides, cubs, brownies and rainbows invited to participate in appropriate services.

St Mary’s has a long-established RSCM-affiliated robed adult choir which supports morning worship and is always open towards more modern music, when appropriate. Choral Evensong is set once per month. Our Organist/Choirmaster is experienced in traditional and more contemporary forms of worship. A dedicated team of bell-ringers rings for Sunday services.

We have a small pastoral visiting team who visit the sick and housebound, a weekly study group, monthly prayer meetings and a Mother’s Union.

We are a Fairtrade church with a permanent shop, which is open after services.

Through CTiB (Churches Together in Bottesford), we meet with the Methodist and Baptist churches in the village for prayer and worship during the year. Our ‘prayer warriors’ maintain contact across the benefice by email for focussed and concerted prayer. Following a successful Youth Alpha in 2008, CTiB has run Alpha for adults through autumn 2009.

Barkestone

One of the Vale’s smaller villages, Barkestone used to have an elderly congregation of three and the church was kept alive by the untiring efforts of one man. New housing has come to the village in recent years - services are now well attended and have a diverse cross-section of ages.

Family services form the basis of Barkestone church and there is a full programme of successful fund raising events throughout the year including Strawberries & Champagne, Cheese & Wine and an annual Family Fun Day.

The village is also home to the East Belvoir Teamwork group and, as a reminder to us all of Barkestone’s rebirth, the church spire is illuminated and shines as a beacon across the Vale.

Harby

Harby does contrasts. At 8.30 on the first Sunday morning of each month up to 30 mostly older members of the village gather in the chancel stalls for an intimate 1662 said communion service. On the fourth Sunday, little children gather on the carpet below the chancel steps, clustered to hear a bible story explained at a family service when the congregation may be 60 or more strong, a third of them children. Throughout the summer, Harby’s teamwork club is active, celebrating its achievements at a special service in church in the autumn. Harby is home to the five members of the West Vale Ministry team.

Hose

Hose holds weekly services with a devoted band of regular worshippers. We are reminded that we are in the midst of an agricultural community by sheep cropping the grass in the churchyard. Hose runs monthly lunches, has links with the local Baptist church and hopes soon to start a teamwork club. Having installed a new heating system and last year a new lead roof, our church building is welcoming, warm and dry.

Long Clawson

Our weekly services are extended once each quarter to share with the local Methodist church. The PCC has set itself to attract new people into the church by building on already good relations with the primary school, through pastoral care and by consciously welcoming newcomers.

Muston

Another of the smaller villages in the benefice, Muston nestles against its larger neighbour, Bottesford, and attracts Bottesford people to many of its services. There is an active Women’s Fellowship and a weekly ‘drop-in’ coffee morning held in the old school.

Plungar

Plungar is a close-knit congregation which believes in the importance of a sense of humour. The most traditional of our parishes, it adheres to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and has the sacrament administered exclusively by male clergy. To appeal to the less traditional, there is a monthly lay-led service entitled “Sunday Supplement” held in the village hall.

Redmile

For many years Redmile had a very small congregation. The church, needing structural repair, was threatened with closure. In 2008 a note was distributed to the houses in the village saying “Use it or lose it”. Since then, congregations at the twice-monthly services have been over 30, with 100 at Christmas.

Redmile’s pews were removed 100 years ago, providing the most flexible space of all our churches, so the building is used as a community building as well as for benefice meetings. Mothers and Toddlers meet there weekly and there are monthly cinema screenings, concerts and other events.

Stathern

As well as the formal services, Stathern runs a Fun Workshop every month for children aged 4-11, and morning prayers on third Fridays. Ambitious Christian-related plays, performed by small children, are occasionally staged in the church (Noah, The Life of St. Guthlac). The village primary school uses the church as a venue for assemblies, services, and occasional concerts, plays and exhibitions. A new Christian headmaster is fostering very close links with the Church and has encouraged a new teamwork club.

Each year the church is closely involved with the ten-day long Stathern Festival, including a Festival Songs of Praise.

Vale of Belvoir parish details

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