Diocese of Bath & Wells
Mission and evangelism at the heart of everything we do
Archdeaconry of Taunton - Ven. Simon Hill, Archdeacon.
Quantock Deanery - Rev. Jon Rose, Rural Dean.
Associate Vicar
Benefice of Watchet & Williton
CONTENTS
Cover: Concert at St Decuman’s Church.
3 An Invitation
4 Overview: Watchet and Williton
5 Responding to the needs of the Community
5 Our Vision
6 Our Priorities
7 Role Description for our new Associate Vicar
9 Benefice Team
10 Benefice of Watchet and Williton
15 The Vicarage
16 Our Communities
18 The Quantock Deanery
19 Challenges and Opportunities
AN INVITATION
Welcome to our Benefice.
We are looking for an inspiring and collaborative Associate Vicar to work in partnership with me, to share in our ministry to Watchet and Williton. This is a .5 stipendiary post.
We are a church with a desire to help those in need in our communities.
We are seeking to find the person that God wishes to join our team.
I look forward to sharing the joys and challenges of ministry with someone who has a desire to work with all people of faith and those with none.
We hope that this profile helps you decide whether or not you would like to know more about us.
Do please contact me if you would like to know more or to visit the benefice.
Whatever you decide, please pray for us as we continue our search, and may God bless you in your quest for the next step in your ministry.
Clive Gilbert, Vicar.
OVERVIEW: WATCHET AND WILLITON
Watchet and Williton are at the foot of the Quantock Hills in West Somerset, eight miles east of Minehead, eighteen miles west of Bridgwater. The Quantock Hills lie to the east, the Brendons to the south and Exmoor further west. Williton is on the main road between Taunton and Minehead and is busy with through traffic. However, it is much more than a place to pass through. Its 3,000 residents appreciate that it is a self-contained village with good facilities.
Watchet has a population of about 4,000 and is situated two miles north of Williton, on the coast. It is an ancient harbour town and is a popular tourist attraction.
In Williton, St. Peter's First School takes children from five to eight and Danesfield Middle School those from nine to fourteen (both are church schools). Most children then transfer to West Somerset College in Minehead.
Watchet has one first school, Knights Templar, which is a joint Anglican and Methodist (Aided) School. From Knights Templar, children move on to Danesfield.
Our relationships with our schools are extremely important to us and play a vital part in connecting us to our communities.
From an ecumenical point of view, in addition to St. Peter’s and St. Decuman’s churches, Williton has a Methodist Church, while Watchet has a Methodist Church, a Baptist Church worshipping in the school, a Salvation Army Citadel and a Catholic Church working out of the Methodist Church. Christians Together in Watchet and Williton is very active.
We are two centres of population surrounded by dispersed rural communities which are at the same time both very beautiful and a little isolated. Despite appearances, both communities hide considerable deprivation.
Watchetandwillitonbenefice.com, our recently established Benefice website, with the Williton Window magazine and the St. Decuman's magazine, play an important role in keeping us in touch with our communities.
RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY
Whilst Watchet and Williton are set in beautiful natural surroundings, considerable deprivation is hidden among their green hills. Statistics show that in the benefice there are a high percentage of lone parent households, a high percentage of working-aged persons with no qualifications (33% Williton 31% Watchet), that 21% of children under the age of 16 in Williton and 24% in Watchet live in poverty. 29.7% of the population of Williton and 30.1 % in Watchet register on the index of multiple deprivation.
We held a Community Forum in response to this in August where 26 local voluntary organisations and service providers attended. It was agreed that the church would begin to create a directory of organisations and services. Those present were asked to identify those areas of need in the community for which there is no provision. They then made suggestions as to how the church might help respond to this need. Those present identified a number of needs that are not being met. There is a need for pastoral care through children's clubs. There is a lack of mental health support, and some felt that there is a shortage of music tuition. It was felt that volunteers were needed to help support people in the community in ways that statutory agencies were unable to.
We are confident that we can help to meet some of these needs and are looking for an Associate Vicar who feels called to and is able to help to do this. We also realise that the right person will bring their own ideas, skills and enthusiasm to enrich our vision.
Following on from the Community Forum we held a vision day in July which helped us to see how we could incorporate the unmet needs of the community into our Development Plan.
OUR VISION
Our Benefice Development Plan (copy enclosed) states that our Aspirations are:
To broaden our understanding of welcoming.
To recognise the need for extra times, places and styles of worship.
To identify groups of people in the community to whom to take church.
The plan states that our ministry to the benefice is in three parts: Worship, Nurture and Outreach.
We seek to develop our Worship by: starting a cafe church and quarterly Celtic, Taize and Creative Worship. We want to empower our lay worship leaders and develop inclusive and welcoming worship which is accessible to all. We will renew our printed worship booklets and take worship out into the community.
We aim to Nurture ourselves and others by: running a "Pilgrim" or "Alpha" course and establishing a pastoral team. We need to develop a policy for following up Baptisms. We would like to increase the number of house groups. We wish to encourage new vocations both lay and ordained and encourage others to attend Christian Foundation courses.
We will provide Outreach to the community through: developing our children’s work by providing holiday clubs and pram services. We will build upon the success of the community forum and respond to social priority statistics by developing appropriate outreach projects. We will set up and staff a benefice office and we would like to increase the number of ecumenical events in Williton
Our priorities include
providing worship and activities which are attractive and accessible for children and young families
providing activities for single parent families
encouraging church members to volunteer to help the mentally ill
ensuring that our premises are accessible to all
developing our pastoral support for our congregations
We are aware that ministry is demanding and costly.
We want to enable the priest who joins us to carry out their role and to have a fulfilling personal prayer life:
and we want to support him or her by
· ensuring that they find personal and family space for well-being, relaxation and happiness
· offering the full support of an enthusiastic team of ordained and lay colleagues through an openness to new ideas and ways of doing things
· providing a full allocation of annual leave
· providing time for an annual retreat (expenses paid),
· paying working expenses in full,
· providing administrative help through the benefice office
· by being parishes who continue to develop an acceptance of change in order to grow
· giving our personal support and prayer and a very warm welcome.
· meeting and praying regularly with the vicar and staff team
· support and respect for the privacy and personal space of our clergy
We are looking for an Associate Vicar who will help us to fulfill this vision and add to it! If you were to join us we would see these as some of your key tasks. You might wish to suggest others:
· helping to develop a pastoral care team
· becoming a School governor
· helping us to develop our outreach to those in need in Watchet & Williton
· working with preschool children and families.
· sharing the leadership of worship in both parishes
We would welcome a priest who is energised by the opportunities of working in a benefice which hopes to reach out and grow, and whose prayer is to bring the Gospel to our communities for the 21st century.
We believe the role of an Associate Vicar in our benefice is to:
· work in partnership with the Vicar meeting needs across both communities.
· work collaboratively as part of our team and identify, nurture and encourage the gifts of lay people.
· be a person of God, and also of and for the people, in their various needs, empathising with and ministering to them.
· listen and act with compassion
· recognise the equal worth of young people and adults taking a genuine and active interest in young people, respecting them for the people they are.
· recognise and respond to the call of Christ - whose saving love is freely available to all.
· help those who are reluctant to change to see the need for try new ways of building and feeding our congregations
· be community-minded and passionate about mission and outreach
· be enthusiastic in helping people to broaden and develop their faith
· value both tradition and innovation
The Associate Vicar will share with the incumbent the responsibility for oversight of the worship, ministry and mission within the parishes, using their own gifts enthusiasm and ideas in their ministry. The table gives an indication of how the leadership of worship might be shared.
Day / Holy Cross Chapel, Watchet / St.Decuman's Church, Watchet / St. Peter's Church, Williton / Other4th Sunday / Vicar
8.00 am. Holy Communion CW / Vicar
10.00 am. Parish Communion. CW / Associate Vicar
8.00 am. Holy Communion BCP
9.30 am. Parish Communion CW
2nd Monday of Month / Vicar 10.00 am.
Danesborough View, Communion
Weekly on Tuesdays / Associate Vicar
10.00 Coffee/Chat 11.00am. Reflective Communion
Weekly on Wednesdays / Vicar
9.45 am. Holy Communion - Coffee afterwards
Last Thursday of month / Associate Vicar
11.00 Croft House, Communion
1st Sunday / Associate Vicar
8.00 am. Holy Communion CW / Associate Vicar
10.00 am. Parish Communion. CW / Vicar
8.00 am. Holy Communion BCP
10.00 am. All Age Worship.
The chart shows just two Sundays and other weekly and monthly services across the Benefice.
THE BENEFICE TEAM
The Vicar, Clive Gilbert, leads the team and is Vicar of the Benefice of Watchet and Williton. The Associate Vicar will, likewise, be appointed to the benefice team. The benefice is blessed with two Readers, all of whom divide their time between the two parishes, while our four church wardens are committed to working together.
CLERGY
Rev Clive Gilbert Yourself?
READERS
Bev MachinCHURCH WARDENS / Donna Marsden
Tracey Copp / Michael Davenport
Keran Speers Tom Mitchell
BENEFICE OF WATCHET AND WILLITON
Our Benefice was formed in 2008 when the parishes of St. Decuman's, Watchet and St. Peter's, Williton came under the leadership of a Vicar and
Associate Vicar. Some residents still find it difficult to understand the changes.
We have two separate PCCs which now meet jointly when appropriate. Despite the difficulty some have in understanding the changes, there is an increasing understanding of the need to work together. In the summer of 2017 we will be opening a Benefice Office and Meeting Room next to the new vicarage in Williton and resourcing this jointly.
We have bi-monthly Benefice Services which are reasonably well attended. The two parishes work together to produce an annual pantomime. Last year we held two Mad Hatter’s Tea Parties- one in each community- and in November 2016 we performed "Becket: A reading from contemporary sources."
The recent Community Forum was a great success, bringing together those who are concerned for the community. We look forward to an exciting future as we seek to work closer together for the benefit of our communities.
Pastoral Care As individuals many members of our congregations are actively involved in the community. A scheme of pastoral care is to be developed through training organised by both the deanery and the diocese. In addition to this, our PCCs will approve Communion Assistants who will take communion to people in their homes. Both parishes are working towards becoming dementia-friendly.
Work in Schools The Vicar is involved as a governor or trustee of all three schools, and visits them regularly with the Open the Book team and to lead Collective Worship. The schools also come to the two parish churches for festival services. The Deanery Youth Advisor, Patrick Weld, also goes into each school throughout the year.
Ecumenical St Decuman's and St. Peter's are actively involved with Christians Together in Watchet and Williton which organises a Good Friday Walk of Witness, a Volunteers' Service, Songs of Praise and a service at the Watchet Music Festival. Christians Together also organises a series of Lent Lunches in Watchet and Williton to support the work of Christian Aid. The Baptist Church is very active in the community in Watchet. A very positive benefit to the church in West Somerset each year is Spring Harvest, which takes place at Butlin's in Minehead.
Music Each church has an organist from within the congregation. There is a music group at St. Decuman's and other musicians and a choir at St. Peter's. For Benefice Services, all our musicians work together.
Diocese The Benefice is in Taunton Archdeaconry in the Diocese of Bath and Wells. The parishes come under the supervision of the Archdeacon of Taunton, The Ven. Simon Hill. Patrick Weld is our Deanery Youth Adviser and the Rev. Jon Rose our Rural Dean.