Battersea Parish Church
Appointment of Families’ & Children’s Minister
Purpose of the Post
The Parish of St Mary’s Battersea wishes to employ a full-time Family and Children’s Minister from Autumn 2013 to take the lead role in our ministry and mission to families and children in both church and community.
Key Responsibilities
The Families’ & Children’s Minister (‘the Minister’) will be responsible to the Vicar and PCC for developing, coordinating and extending St Mary’s ministry and mission to families and children. The Minister will work as a member of St Mary’s Ministry Team with particular responsibility for:
- Building relationships with children and parents in church and community;
- Faith development in children and their parents, through leadership of Junior Church, the Monday Parent & Toddlers’ Group, the Thursday Toddlers’ service, baptismal preparation and follow-up, and the growth of a wider programme for children’s and family activities;
- Recruitment, training and support of Junior Church and other leaders involved in ministry and mission to children and families’;
- Working with existing community partners, especially the Katherine Low Settlement and Surrey Lane People’s Organisation, to offer practical support to families in need and to develop the church’s ministry and mission alongside these agencies; developing new links through effective networking;
- Sharing in the leadership of all-age worship and encouraging child participation in the church’s worship, ministry and mission;
- Where appropriate, the pastoral care of children and families.
The Minister will act as Safeguarding Officer for children, will play a full role in St Mary’s Ministry Team, will undertake appropriate training and supervision and will be expected to attend such church meetings as are relevant to the above responsibilities.
Conditions of Employment
The appointment is for three years for 37.5hours per week at a salary of £25,000.
It is anticipated that the Minister will have two days off per week (likely to be Friday & Saturday) with time off in lieu when Saturday working is required. Five weeks holiday per year is the staff allowance, with the majority being expected to be taken during school holidays by negotiation.
Person Specification
Applicants will need to demonstrate that they possess knowledge, skills and competencies in the following areas:
Skill/Qualification / Essential / DesirableA personal commitment to the Christian faith and to growth in discipleship (Genuine Occupational Requirement) / x
A clear ability to model and articulate the Christian faith to children and families / x
A demonstrable commitment to inclusion / x
A track record in work with children and families which demonstrates faithfulness and achievement / x
A recognised qualification in family and children’s ministry or equivalent preferably to degree level / x
Ability to relate well to children and parents from varied backgrounds / x
Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues, volunteers and secular agencies / x
Ability to exercise leadership in ways that inspire and empower people of different ages, cultures and backgrounds / x
Strong communication skills in a variety of styles and formats, to a broad range of people with varied outlooks, ages and understandings / x
Experience in leading worship for children and all ages / x
A confidence in day to day administrative tasks / x
Competency in the use of relevant IT & multi-media equipment / x
Knowledge of current safeguarding policies and procedures / x
A willingness to engage in further training / x
A clean driving licence to drive a minibus / x
Applications and Interviews
Canon Simon Butler, the Vicar of St Mary’s, is very happy to discuss matters informally with interested enquirers. His telephone number is 020 7228 8141.
Applications should be made by means of the application form on the parish website to: Canon Simon Butler, 32 Vicarage Crescent, London SW11 3LD or at . The closing date is Friday 12th July 2013. Shortlisted candidates will be called for interview on Saturday 20th July 2013 (overnight accommodation will be provided if needed as will reasonable expenses).
Annex: Background Information
Overview of Church & Parish (see also stmarysbattersea.org.uk)
St Mary’s Battersea is an Anglican Church in on the edge of Central London and is part of the Diocese of Southwark. It is made up of about 240 adult members and about 50 children. It occupies an amazing setting on the bank of the Thames.
The tradition of St Mary’s ‘middle of the road’ in theological and worship style but consciously appropriates excellence from any theological and liturgical tradition, e.g. Alpha Courses, contemplative worship services, Film Nights. Sunday worship is centred on the 11am Parish Eucharist. It has a theologically-informed inclusive approach to mission and ministry and welcomes people regardless of age, relationship status, colour, disability or sexual orientation, and regardless of how much or how little faith people have when they join. It rejoices in individuality and diversity. Staff members must be comfortable with this ethos.
People living in the area include some of the richest to some of the poorest. Housing costs make it prohibitively expensive for many but the area is very popular with young, well-off professionals including many first-time parents. A typical young family will move into the parish as a young couple, have their first child and, in time, move to an area where family housing is more affordable. Large numbers of regular worshippers still return from across South London.
The parish also contains one of Wandsworth Borough’s remaining areas of social housing: the Surrey Lane Estate. While a popular place to live, especially for minority ethnic families, the Estate suffers from housing neglect from the local authority. The church has been active in establishing the new Surrey Lane People’s Organisation. This is drawing people together to organise on the Estate. One result has been the recent increased visibility of St Mary’s on the Estate and there are likely to be greater opportunities to build links, to serve the neighbourhood and to proclaim the gospel in word and deed.
There remains in the community a strong commitment to serving the poor and marginalised. A key local institution in this work is the Katherine Low Settlement (klsettlement.org.uk), which hosts a wide range of projects and community work. The Families’ & Children’s Minister will be warmly welcomed here and opportunities for service in this organisation as well as within the Church will form part of the brief (see below). A further opportunity in the parish will be the reopening of Caius House Youth Centre in the next year, a purpose-built Youth Centre. They are keen to re-engage with us.
There are two schools in the parish which reflect North Battersea’s diversity. Thomas’s School is a private Preparatory School. It attracts a wealthy and privileged cohort of families. Its Kindergarten has rented the Crypt of the Church in term time for the past twenty years, making for a lively weekday atmosphere. Thomas’s works very hard to maintain excellent links with St Mary’s and the wider neighbourhood, ensuring that its children encounter life beyond what the head teacher describes as “the bubble of privilege”. By contrast, Westbridge School is a struggling local authority community school in the parish, which is currently experiencing considerable support to raise it from recent difficulties in leadership and standards. Its children are mainly from minority ethnic backgrounds, tend to live on the Surrey Lane Estate, and are often recent immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers. The links with St Mary’s are growing and they will value our involvement in the years ahead.
How does this Appointment fit with St Mary’s Wider Vision?
This appointment at St Mary’s builds on the priorities set by the parish in its search for the current Vicar, Canon Simon Butler, in 2011. These are:
- To nurture the prayer life and spirituality of every member of the church, through encouragement to faithful commitment to personal discipleship, prayer and sacrament.
- To reach the poor and the isolated through pastoral care, community building and outreach.
- To help parents with the Christian upbringing of children in families of every kind.
The Parochial Church Council (PCC) has engaged in a process of consultation and prayerful discernment, the result of which has been a decision to create this post for a three-year period.
St Mary’s has had a Children’s Worker in the past, but for some years, until September 2011, its children’s work was supported by one-year Parish Assistants. This kept things ticking over, but there was not the time to build long-term relationships, clearly essential to ministry to children and families. The PCC know there are many opportunities to develop the faith of children which are being missed, and within the current Ministry Team the two clergy do not feel particularly gifted or experienced in children’s or families’ ministry. The two Southwark Pastoral Auxiliaries, both with previous careers working with children, are focusing on other aspects of pastoral ministry.
St Mary’s Junior Church is supported by a loyal, lively but hard-pressed team of leaders, who are enthusiastic but need further encouragement, support, training and guidance, as well as the usual need for recruiting a wider base of leaders.
Junior Church is offered to children up to about the age of 11/12 and takes place every Sunday except the first Sunday of the month when adults and children worship together, a service which could be developed through the expertise brought by the Minister. Like many urban churches, attendance at worship varies greatly in pattern. Some children are present every week, but most attend once or twice a month. Numbers in Junior Church vary therefore from about 10 to up to 30 on any given Sunday.
St Mary’s runs a weekly, term-time Parent & Toddler Group at nearby Dimson Lodge. Established to serve families living on the local estates, it now attracts a wide range of parents and children, from all social, racial and religious background. It has a small team of leaders who faithfully support it and has plenty of potential for service and Christian witness.
Every Thursday morning, St Mary’s holds a Toddler Service in the Vestry. A very informal occasion for singing, story-telling and simple prayer, the numbers of children attending range from 1 to 12. It is popular with a small group of mums (and the occasional dad) but regularly changes its membership as parents return to work after maternity leave. This work could be developed significantly through gifted and experienced leadership.
In seeking to appoint a Families’ & Children’s Ministry, St Mary’s wants to consciously widen the focus of the work involved to embrace work with parents as well as children. This more holistic approach recognises that faith development in children needs to be undergirded by the practice of Christian faith in the home. We want to find ways of equipping parents to nurture their children in faith and Christian discipleship. Furthermore, the possibility exists to nurture and encourage parenting and to assist in support of specific families through the Katherine Low Settlement (see below).
In conclusion therefore, St Mary’s recognises that it has a large number of opportunities to develop our ministry to children and families, both in church and parish. We encounter many families but are perhaps only scratching the surface of what could be achieved. We want to better serve our community and proclaim the Gospel and we see this three-year appointment as an opportunity to work towards a ‘breakthrough’ in establishing a secure foundation on which to build in future years.
Community Work with the Katherine Low Settlement
Katherine Low Settlement is a multi-purpose charity and social action centre – serving the communities of Wandsworth since 1924. We are dedicated to fighting poverty and isolation. We strive to provide an opportunity for people to realise their own potential and to understand the contribution they can make to their community. Visit: and @klsettlement (twitter).
We are looking for a candidate who will work with local people and organisations to identify, build long-term relationships and offer ‘deep value’ support to families and their children. This exciting new role is much needed, but it is developmental. So the candidate will be able to take their initiative and build a strong programme of work in partnerships with the families themselves, whilst being fully supported by Katherine Low Settlement and St. Mary’s Church.
Ministry Team & Management
Canon Simon Butler has been Vicar of St Mary’s for eighteen months. He has served two other parishes in the Diocese of Southwark in both urban and suburban contexts. He has an Evangelical background, which gives him a love of Scripture, but these roots have been deepened with a wider appreciation of sacramental worship and a commitment to inclusive ministry. He is a strong leader, who gives clear direction to the Team and parish, but seeks to release his colleagues to develop their own ministry and mission priorities. He and the parish would welcome to this post someone from almost anywhere on the spectrum of theological and churchmanship backgrounds (save the most conservative: we are pro-gay and pro-women bishops), including from beyond the Church of England. In future years, we envisage the growth of the Ministry Team beyond the existing two clergy and two Southwark Pastoral Auxiliaries to include an additional SPA, a possible Reader and an ordained training Curate.
The Vicar would act as line manager. Having managed Youth Workers in previous parishes, he is acutely aware that the role of the Minister could well be significantly different from that of other members of the Ministry Team and that considerable care and attention needs to be given to supervision, inclusion in decision-making and wider issues of pastoral and ministry support. These would be discussed in the light of the experience and needs of the candidate appointed.
The Minister would be a full member of the Ministry Team, which meets twice a month on a Wednesday morning (one meeting for business and the other for wider reflection and team development). The Minister would be ‘in attendance’ at PCC meetings where s/he felt there were items relating to their work under consideration.
There is also the possibility of forming an Advisory Group to support the Community Work dimension of the post, involving representatives from some of the agencies and institutions in the neighbourhood.
Future Opportunities to Consider
The Minister may be asked to consider developing new work, possibly including some of these, but will also be encouraged to develop their own ideas and priorities:
- A group for older children, possibly on a Sunday afternoon/evening;
- Resourcing of parents and their own and their children’s faith;
- Parenting classes;
- Holiday clubs for children;
Initial Thoughts on the Breakdown of the Post
The following timetable is not set in stone and there is likely to be plenty of scope and freedom to adjust the weekly programme once the Minister has settled into the post. However, this table may be useful in seeing how time might be used in the first instance.
Fixed Times / Weekly HoursSunday
Preparation and delivery of Junior Church programme and First Sunday Eucharist activities / 6 hours
Monday
Dimson Lodge including set up / 3 hours
Wednesday
Morning Prayer & Ministry Team / 2 hours (twice a month)
Thursday
Toddlers / 2 hours
Other Work
Community Opportunities (KLS etc) / 8 hours
Training Others, Networking, Pastoral Care, Spending Time with Families & Children, Hanging Out with People / Initially longer as relationships are built, but roughly 7 hours after first six months
Personal Training, Development, Study / 3 hours
“Spare” Hours / 6.5 hours
Total Hours / 37.5 hours per week
Canon Simon Butler
20th June 2013
ST MARY’S CHURCH BATTERSEA CONFIDENTIAL
APPLICATION FOR THE POST OF:Families’ & Children’s Worker
Surname/Family Name:
First names: National Insurance No.
Address:
Postcode:
Email:Telephone (inc. daytime):
1: EDUCATION AND TRAINING
EDUCATIONSchool/College/University attended / Qualifications obtained, exams passed or studies currently being undertaken / Date Passed / Grade / scale (if applicable)
VOCATIONAL, PROFESSIONAL OR OTHER RELEVANT TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS
Please give details of qualifications obtained by examination, membership of professional bodies, and vocational or other relevant training.
Course title / Date / ProviderOther:
2: EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Please list in chronological order, starting with your current or most recent employer. Please explain any gaps in employment. Continue on a separate sheet if necessary.
Employer's name & address / Position held & main duties/responsibilities / from / to / Reason for leaving / Salary3: CHRISTIAN LIFE & EXPERIENCE
Briefly describe the beginning, growth and significance of your Christian faith.
Please give details of your current church.
What involvement/responsibilities do you have in your church or other Christian group?
Do you have any links with St Mary’s Battersea?
SUPPORTING STATEMENT