Diocese of Birmingham Post of Rector in the Salter Street & Shirley Team Ministry

The Patrons of this parish wish to appoint a Rector to lead and serve its four churches. Salter Street and Shirley is a large and vibrant parish, part rural but mostly artisan urban, where there are exciting opportunities for growth, service, discipleship and outreach. The Rector has a crucial role in shaping the thinking of this large parish made up of four committed and distinctive Anglican communities who: Share a desire to serve and worship Christ faithfully; Recognise the power of prayer and the importance of bible-based teaching; Seek to find a balance between traditional and family based worship; Are united in an ambition to grow and embrace our surrounding communities in all their diversity particularly children and young families.

We are looking for a gifted priest who will take us into this next chapter of our story, working with us to develop our capacity as Christian witnesses and shape the future vision of this Team Ministry, and to share the Gospel with the people of this parish. 1. THE LOCATION. The Salter Street and Shirley Team Ministry is situated in the West Midlands Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, near to the M42 motorway which feeds the M6, M40 and M5. Birmingham City Centre is 9 miles from the parish; Stratford is 18 miles and Coventry 20 miles. 2. THE PARISH SETTING. The creation of a Team Ministry was completed in 2000 with the parish of St. Patrick, Salter Street, joining St. James the Great, Shirley, Christ the King and St Johns Tidbury Green. The parish is mixed in terms of housing and employment. Some 44,000 people living in the parish according to the 2001 census but this does not include the substantial development of Dickens Heath village which continues. The population of the parish is mainly white British; of the ethnic minorities the Asian Group amounts to 5% at present. That proportion can be expected to increase. 3. THE TEAM MINISTRY. a) The Team Ministry has four centres of worship: St. Patrick Salter Street, St. John the Divine Tidbury Green, St. James the Great Shirley, and Christ the King. There is an allocation for three priests of incumbent status comprising of a team Rector, and recently appointed team vicars serving St. Patricks with St. Johns, and Christ the King. Worship in the parish is substantially but not exclusively sacramental. At present there are two Readers and a team of lay pastoral assistants who meet monthly with the associate minister to discuss pastoral issues. The majority of our pastoral team has undergone training in the Diocese for "Pastoral Care and Community Skills". The Sacrament of Communion is taken to residential homes and housebound church members by clergy, Readers and authorised members of the Pastoral Team. The parish exercises the churchs Ministry of Healing: on the first Wednesday of every month the Eucharist is celebrated and the Guild of Raphael meet to pray for the sick. b) The clergy team meets at least weekly to deal with issues of strategy, day to day issues and for prayer and mutual support. There is a parish administrator who supports all the clergy in the team and is the first stop for general enquiries, for the arranging baptisms, weddings and for undertakers booking funerals as well as responding to

requests for the occasional offices. The parish administrator works from the Parish Office on a daily basis and is in regular contact with the ministry team and lay members. c) The collaborative style of ministry within the team as a whole has resulted in some very successful projects which could not have flourished if they had been undertaken by individual churches. For example, work with children and young people, the Mothers Union, Christian Aid, extensive support for the Sparkhill Foodbank and a whole variety of fund raising events. The level of effective lay leadership in all these activities has greatly contributed to their success. With the help of the Bishops Advisor on Childrens Ministry we have developed Messy Church in four of the infant and junior schools in the parish. This project is at the heart of our mission to children and young families. More than 300 younger school children attend our Christmas and Easter Journey events, which are delivered by members of the joint congregations and in March 2013 over 150 children and members of the Shirley community, took part in music and drama event telling the story of St James church. d) Communication within and beyond the parish is via an increasingly ambitious monthly magazine, a newly upgraded website and through the weekly parish wide pew slips. e) The team vicar of St Patricks and St Johns is responding very effectively to the considerable growth of housing and population in the Dickenss Heath area of the parish and the recently appointed team Vicar of Christ the King links with the Shirley Town Centre Partnership and is working to heighten a church presence and to support Christians in the workplace. Churches and Industry Group Birmingham (CIGB), which serves Birmingham and Solihull, is a valuable umbrella body for this. Similarly, the team engages with other faith communities through Shirley Churches Together, which meets regularly and to which all the churches are committed. The Faith Forum, set up by a former Mayor of Solihull, responds to the growing diversity of cultures and faiths in the area and seeks to enhance community relations, both along the Stratford Road, and in the gradually increasing Asian population. f) The Parochial Church Council meets quarterly and is chaired by the Rector and the Parish Wardens on a rotating basis. Each Church has its own District Church Council which meets bi-monthly. These meetings are chaired by the Team Vicar. In addition to the two Parish Wardens, St James, St Patricks, St Johns and Christ the King each have two district church wardens.

4. CHURCH COMMUNITIES IN THE PARISH The four sister churches which make up the parish each has its own strengths and individual characteristics. The following summarises the churches as they are and is not intended to preclude any developments that a new Rector, with the team of clergy, might wish to consider for the future. St James St James shares its spiritual role in the parish with St Patricks, St Johns and Christ the King, as well as with four other Shirley denominations - Baptist, Methodist, Free Church and Roman Catholics. St James is a reasonably well attended Church (130 ASA) which keeps its doors open for people to come, go and pray everyday. The daily office is said regularly; as well as on Sunday at 8 am and 10 am, the Eucharist is celebrated three times a week - on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday - and Evensong is on Sunday is at 4.30pm. Baptisms are conducted on three Sundays each month and weddings principally on Saturdays. The Lady Chapel is used for midweek celebrations of the Eucharist, confidential conversations with clergy / pastoral team members, confessions and Churching (Thanksgiving for the birth of children). The sacrament is reserved and, with the Bishops permission, taken out by pastoral visitors to Christians who are in hospital, in the eleven residential homes in the parish or who are unwell at home. Holy oil is also kept in the Church for use by the clergy.

The churchyard is now full but there is an area set aside for the strewing of ashes. There is a Book of Remembrance kept in church to record the names of those whose remains are in the churchyard. Opposite the church is Church House. The hall is used for the usual parish activities, clubs and societies, for people of all ages. Attached to the hall is the office where the Parish Administrator works each weekday between 9.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m.. Mrs Sue Pitham receives calls concerning funerals, weddings, hall bookings, clergy visits and a host of other issues on behalf of the whole team and ensures that the relevant priest / pastoral team member is informed. The Friends of St James, who hold a charitable status, is an active and successful group of supporters of the church who arrange a full calendar of fund raising events open to the whole Parish. The church has close links with local schools, particularly but not exclusively, with the church school, Tudor Grange Primary Academy, St James, where there is a regular Messy Church and choir. St Patricks St. Patricks is a Grade II* listed Victorian Church set in the countryside but within easy driving distance for the local population. There is no public transport passing the door. Sunday Services are currently: 8.00 a.m.: on the first Sunday of each month with said Holy Communion, Common Worship using traditional language; on other Sundays there is Lay led Morning Prayer at 8 am. 11.00 am.: on the first Sunday of the month there is a parade together with all Age Worship; on the second, fourth and fifth Sundays a sung Eucharist - Common Worship using modern language and accompanied by a Junior Church (led by lay volunteers) meeting in the under croft; on the third Sunday of the month, an all age Communion. Baptisms are held on the second and fourth Sundays of the month. Adjacent to the church is St Patricks C of E Primary Academy which has a regular assembly and service at 9.00 am in church every Wednesday. The school is a one-form entry facility which converted from a Voluntary Aided School in September 2010 to an Academy. It enjoys a close working relationship with the church. New initiatives recently taken on by the church include Messy Church in the school hall and Open the Book at Dickens Heath Community Primary School. St Patricks is also working hard with the Baden Powell groups. The Cubs recently completed their faith

badges and the Explorers are lending practical help with the managed conservation project in the churchyard. St Patricks has an active and loyal lay membership who work extremely hard to raise funds for St. Patrick's and also regularly support other social and fundraising initiatives across the whole parish. This year, 2013, St Patricks electoral roll has risen from 58 to 69. Christ the King The church of Christ the King has been meeting at Widney Junior School since 1985, and comprises a warm and outward looking congregation. The normal pattern of worship consists of a weekly service of Holy Communion at 9.30am, with activities for children, followed by an evening service of either Holy Communion or Evening Prayer at Phoenix House a local residential home. There is an experienced and gifted Reader (Gill Gough) who preaches on a regular basis, and takes services across the parish. Christ the King works in partnership with Widney Junior School, and seeks to support the school in a variety of ways. The congregation hosts monthly Messy Church events for families with children and some of these families also occasionally attend Sunday services. There is a fortnightly Eucharist at Swallows Meadows residential home and occasional services at St Georges Home for the Elderly. A regular feature is the fortnightly Ploughmans Lunch at Church House, which is open to anyone in the churches of the local community and is well attended. Two small groups meet each week for prayer, Bible Study and fellowship; and this year a Lent Course and Confirmation Preparation classes for young people have been offered to anyone in the parish and have been taken up by more individuals than for some time. Members of Christ the King are active across the parish, serving various events for children, young people and families in particular. Members also serve as part of the Pastoral Team, and are involved in the ecumenical life of the parish. Numbers of people on the electoral role, and average Sunday attendance is gradually increasing and currently stands at 30. St. John's St. John's is a wooden church built in 1925 as a daughter church to St. James, but is now a district church in its own right. Within the site, as tenants of the church, there is a flourishing independently run nursery which meets each weekday in its own separate building and the vicar visits regularly. There is a dedicated congregation

at the church who take loving care of the building and site and there is a strong sense of community. There is a share a prayer meeting' once a month where the needs of the church, the parish and the wider community are prayed for. There is also a 'coffee and a prayer' morning held once a month which is well supported by the whole parish. We take 'Open the Book' in to the local Dickens Heath Primary school every week during term time, - this is something we do collaboratively with members from both Christ the King and St. Patrick's. We also support Messy Church which is held bi-monthly at St. Patrick's Primary school. The Sunday service is at 9 a.m. and is a Eucharist with hymns. The usual Sunday attendance is 18 and the Electoral Roll figure is 19.

he New Incumbent We are looking for a new Rector to: Articulate and embody the vision for the parishs ministry and mission in the coming years. Be an ever present ambassador for the church in the community at large, and with statutory and voluntary organisations. Shape the life and energies of the churches in the parish in order to meet the demands of a changing society and to equip Christians to meet those challenges. Nurture and maintain stability across the four churches. Think and plan strategically for the future health of our four churches and particularly, given the aging nature of our congregations, to devise strategies for

growth among families, children, youth, and youth groups, and across the whole community. To find an appropriate balance across the spectrum of Anglican traditions - between the established styles of worship (particularly bible based teaching) which many are eager to hold on to whilst at the same time to creating an appetite for breadth and variety as part of future developments. The new Team Rector should be a person of prayer and enthusiasm who enjoys working within the context of a team ministry and in collaboration with lay people. It is important that the new Rector should feel called to this community and enjoy being here. We are hoping for a new Rector who will: Lead and teach with warmth and compassion. Manage and communicate effectively. Make the most of the gifts of the clergy, Readers and lay members. Sensitively support and encourage an even closer interaction, in worship and socially, between the four churches and between the churches and schools in the parish. Maintain and encourage the parishs traditions of pastoral care, nurturing faith and lay leadership. Build on the parishs musical tradition. Be a person of enthusiasm who enjoys working in the context of a team ministry and in collaboration with lay people. Feel called to be a part of this community and relish the prospect of enjoyment that this parish offers. In welcoming the new Rector the four congregations of the Salter Street and Shirley parish offer: Willing support and partnership. Our imaginations, loyalty and energies. Prayer and commitment. A readiness to journey in faith into new areas of work and witness.