1
REVIEW OF THE PARISH IN 2013
By The Reverend Clive Fairclough, Parish Priest
Last year the Parish agreed on the following four prioritiesTo develop this vision we identified these four priorities:
A.Renew and project our identity in the community
B.Retain focus on young families
C.Finance – Activate strategic fundraising committee
D.Nurturing the spiritual life of the congregation
A.Renew and project our identity in the community
Looking at ourselves
This has been achieved by a process of discernment of what the church’s identity is through our eyes. The Rector led an Advent series of three interactive sessions at which we explored Christ through our own eyes and the eyes of artists of many cultures using over 500 images of Christ throughout the world. The series helped us to reflect on who we were as individuals, as community and what we might be in the future. In Lent the theme of discernment continued and wristbands with the strapline ‘Your Church - Sharing God’s love in the community’ were issued during Lent to encourage the congregation think about who we were.
Market research in each village to find out what the villagers thought about the church
The parish worked really hard to design, deliver and collate some excellent market research (in the form of questionnaires delivered to every house in the parish) on how the villages perceive the church and what they want to do with the church buildings. The results of the survey were conclusive and confirmed that the villages wish to keep their churches open for a variety of uses but did not realise that the upkeep was not funded by the CofE.The results were shared at a series of meetings in each village to which villagers were invited. In September a meeting was held to which representatives from all the villages were invited. The concept of the ‘Friends of’ each village church was muted and broadly accepted as a concept with more work to be done on the detail for each village. The representatives were invited to take the idea back to the villages. A meeting with the same forum was arranged for 28 Novemberat Wyre Piddle hotel where two villages were keen to take this forward and set up their own friends groups.
The Communications team, reflecting on what had been achieved through the parish’s discernment and the village meetings, developed a refreshed identity which took into account all that had been developed over the year. It recognised that any refreshed identity must reflect a continuing journey rather than something new. The refreshed logo was evolved and the continuing development of the strapline which the parish accepted at Advent 2012. It became Five Alive, a new logo, sharing God’s love and agreed by the PCC for introduction in Advent 2013.
B.Retain focus on young families
The parish continues to attract considerable numbers of children for baptism. This has resulted in families coming to organised events such as Mad March Hares Tea Party but not led to families coming to church. Cushion Church has worked well in Wyre Piddle and so has Open the Book in both Fladbury and Cropthorne Schools. New ways of reaching out to families in ways that are interesting and attractive to them needs to be further explored. The Church’s future depends on engaging with the younger generation. The Mad March Hares Tea Party in March was a success. In addition, five candidates were confirmed of which three were young people.
C.Finance
The parish finances have been very well managed this year but we are still not meeting our parish share in full. To address this, the major strategic initiative has been market research leading onto encouraging villages to form ‘Friends of ‘, as outlined above. If this is achieved the income raised will help address this issue covering the cost of the upkeep of the buildings. This will enable the congregations to focus on raising the parish share and parish expenses.
D.Nurturing the spiritual life of the congregation
This continues to be an on-going priority and an Advent course in 2012 proved quite popular.
Conclusion
This last year has been a very busy one for the parish and I would like to thank everyone for all their support during the year. I have really enjoyed working with the PCC and all the committees to take forward the vision of the parish this year. It has been a great privilege serving you and hope that we can continue to build on the foundations made over the last year.
PARISH STRUCTURE 2013
Church Wardens, Parish Priest & Parochial Church Council
Sub-Committees / LayLeaders
[Readers &
ALMs] / Churches
Church
Stewards / Administration / Parish
Wide
Groups
Atlas [Mission] / St John the / Fees / Bell Ringing
Baptist
Communications / Fladbury
Legal / Five Alive
Fabric / Magazine
St Thomas’s
Finance / Lower Moor / Parish Office
Flaeda
Fundraising / Singers
St Anne’s / PCC Secretary
Green Charter / Wyre Piddle
Parish Choir
Healing / Service Rota
St John the
Pastoral Care / Evangelist / Parish
Charlton / Weddings / Plodders
Prayer &
Spirituality
St Michael’s / Welcome / Parish
Young People / Cropthorne / Leaflets / Reading
- Baptism Preparation
- Young Families
- Schools
- Open The Book
OUR CHURCHES
St John the Baptist, Fladbury
The main Sunday service has remained at 9.30, which does not suit everyone of course, but it fits in naturally to the pattern of services across the two benefices and we have learned to live with it and it is working well.
Attendance at services has been maintained very much at the levels of 2012, however the Worship for All and Family Holy Communion services have not attracted as many young families as we would like and this is something that is being urgently addressed. Progress is being made, with some successful special events attended by children and parents which are fun for everyone and we are noting the valuable feedback from parents. This is very much “work in progress” across the Parish.
There have been some memorable services this year, in particular the Easter Celebration on Low Sunday, the Advent Service of Light and the Carol Service, all of which attracted large congregations. Our church is fortunate that it lends itself to these sort of occasions and we seem to do them well! Harvest, which should be a big celebration, failed once again to get off the ground and we are re-thinking this. On the other hand, we had a successful Maundy Thursday Supper in the church prior to the Communion Service. Despite all efforts and the brilliant food, it was only marred by an uncontrollable factor - the freezing weather!!
During the year the Coffee & Chat mornings were held in Fladbury Church on the second Saturday of the month. The bring-and-buy stalls raised significant money for several charities and the profit on the coffee and biscuits or cakes also raised useful funds for the Parish. This is a real community event and our thanks to all those who help arrange, publicise and run them.
The Wednesday morning Holy Communion service continued to meet an important need. Frank Bentley’s warm and encouraging celebration of communion is much appreciated by those who regularly attend.
The active and close relationship with FladburyFirstSchool has continued,notwithstanding the problems that the school has suffered. The weekly service in church which was discontinued, has remained so and the “Open the Book” is well and truly established as a weekly part of the school curriculum, with members of the church community attending school and working with the children. It is proving very successful and our thanks to all those involved. It is good that the school uses the church for its end of term services, where they have proper services with parental attendance.
During the year there were four Weddings,oneWedding Blessing, two Baptisms and eleven Funerals/Memorial/Thanksgiving Services.
Shortly before Christmas 2012 the long awaited Kitchen and Toilet facility was completed and came into use. This proved an immediate success, making it so much easier to provide refreshments and provide a comfort stop! Phase two of the project – installing Disabled Access – was timed to be completed during early 2013 and was, as predicted and also was ahead of schedule. Looking at the whole project now, it seems as if it has been there for ever and it is a testament to the vision of the architect, the skill of the builders and the tenacity of the Flushing Group who saw it through to its end! It was good to be able to hold a major celebration in the church and to invite the architect, the builders, the donors and the general public to an evening of fun and to thank them all. We had, music, readings and excerpts from the Fladbury Pantomime and were able to demonstrate once again, the flexibility of the church as a venue!!
There are manypeople to whom enormous thanks are due for their work in maintaining the high standard ofthe services, cleaning the church, providing wonderful floral displays and those who ring the bells in such an accomplished manner! Dave our Gardener, continues to do a brilliant job in keeping the churchyard looking as neat and tidy as it has for a good long time and Peter Bugg closely monitors the wild flowers, butterflies and “green aspects” that are so important to encourage. We rely upon our volunteers and thank them all.
The Church Committee has lost some stalwart members and has not been successful in recruiting replacements as yet! We thank all members of the Church Committee for their thoughtful ruminations at meetings, their loyalty and their hard work. Of course, we would welcome volunteers to join the Committee, as fresh faces and new ideas bring us all up to speed.
Philip Hildesley and Martin Ounsted [Stewards]
Fladbury Flower Festival and Walkabout
The theme for the Flower Festival this year was Food and Drink and the church was decorated to capacity with the most amazing floral creations on this theme, which with imagination, can lead to all sorts of wonderful mini cameos! And they were there!!
This was the first year with the Walkabout under new management and so Martin Ounsted and I were somewhat anxious that all our planning would result in a successful weekend. We need not have worried, as the well tried and tested machinery had been sufficiently oiled, had ground into action and functioned efficiently without the need for either of us to leap into action!! We pay tribute to a large team of helpers, without whom the Walkabout simply would not happen. I refer to: the flower arrangers, the open gardens, the car parkers, ticket sellers, raffle organiser, stall holders, caterers, bus drivers, people who organise the various attractions and so on...... On top of all this there is the publicity organisers, the Vice Chairman and the Treasurer and those who play vital roles in the background! This is an event that has run with varying degrees of success for over 30 years and visitors come year after year from all over the midlands. We were blessed with fine weather this year and this made a huge difference to the overall takings, but Sunday is still better than Saturday.
New innovations were: all market stalls on Old Rectory Green, an extended bus route, larger and more detailed programme, sporting activities for youngsters, food demo. There were, of course, things that did not work according to plan and we discovered that other things needed to be sorted out for the following year, but in all, we were pleased with the net result.
The Saturday evening Concert was its usual success, thanks to Andy Parsloe's charismatic touch and the Monday evening event was also most successful, although it was not exactly a money-spinner, but hugely interesting to flower arrangers!!
We made a profit of £7,506.94 and distributed £750.69 to local organisations. Together with monies that had not been distributed in total from the years 2011 and 2012, we were able to allocate £2,139.07 to organisations that had applied for funding. These were, Friends of Fladbury, Millennium Garden, Scouts and the Village Hall and all were very happy as a result. We will be insisting on proper applications for funds from next year.
We would like to pay tribute to Andy Parsloe and Bill North for running the Walkabout so successfully for a number of years and we are delighted that they are still able to keep a fatherly eye on the new team and ensure that things are not forgotten!! We look forward to Walkabout 2014, after which we will look with interest into chapter two!!
Philip Hildesley and Martin Ounsted
Joint Chairmen Fladbury Walkabout
Fladbury Church Amenity Appeal
The project has now been completed with a considerable saving on the original budget. So, we now have an entrance ramp and toilet, both with easy access for wheelchairs and pushchairs, and a kitchen for the preparation and serving of refreshments.
The workmanship of Pyments, our contractors, is of a very high quality and the general view seems to be that the design has resulted in a facility which is attractive and relatively unobtrusive.
None of this would have been possible without the generous support of many people, the PCC, Fladbury Walkabout and numerous other organisations. We hope the Church willnow be used for more community events such as concerts, talks, exhibitions and social gatherings.
Plans for some new events are under way. Anyone or any organisation wishing to use the Church for any purpose is asked to contact one of the Church Stewards.
Bill North
St Thomas’s Lower Moor
St. Thomas Church has seen a year which has included three baptism services, one each in April, May and August. Through the year we have enjoyed services for Mothering Sunday in March and our Patronal service in July.
June saw the celebratory bring and share lunch in Cropthorne. Also in June, we welcomed Eve Ravenscroft, a life-long member of St. Thomas’ Church but now living away, for her 80th birthday, with a well attended get-together in the Village Hall.
In September the Church held a flower festival to coincide with the Festival of Churches and welcomed the visitors from the cycle ride.
Harvest Festival, held in October this year, was supported by local growers and packers and, with the contributions from our Church family all produce, dry goods and tins were gratefully received by MAGGS the Worcester based charity providing meals for homeless men.
The Service of Remembrance, important to many of our Parishioners, was, as ever, well attended.
For Christingle, we again enjoyed a coffee morning in the Village Hall with the making of the Christingles; always a happy event. Christingle service was led by Graham Pharo, setting our thoughts on the forthcoming festival of Christmas.For the first time this year we welcomed a Salvation Army Band to lead us in carol singing on Lower Moor Village green; the weather was kind, the music grand and the singing hearty.
It was with great sadness that we said our final farewell to our good friend Derek Floyd who passed away in December after a long illness.
Thanks are due to all those who support St. Thomas Church; those who work in the background, quietly giving their time.
The church is open from early morning to early evening every day for those who wish to visit or rest in the quite for a moments reflection.
Carol and Michael Martin
St Anne’s Wyre Piddle
In 2013 the pattern of services has been much the same as in 2012 with Holy Communion on the second Sunday in the month and Cushion Church on the third Sunday. There have also been four United Services during the year when we welcome the whole parish. It is lovely to see the church full on those occasions. Cushion Church continues to be well attended by young families and we are very grateful to Revd Ian Spencer who leads the service and to Kate Burston and Eve Muesz who contribute a great deal to its success. We have appreciated the fact that Rev Clive often presides at the Holy Communion service and we also thank Revd Stephen Malkinson who also takes Holy Communion for us. It is also a great pleasure that we continue to have an organist for most of these services. Our thanks go to Philip Hildesley and Eiluned Morgan-Nash who have played for us. This year we celebrated Easter Day with a service in St Anne’s, which was much appreciated. There have also been four services of ‘Towards Wholenesss’ on Sunday evenings during the year and a small group meets on Mondays at 8.30am for Morning Prayer, rotating round the five churches.