North Chippenham
Group of Churches
2008 Annual Church
Meetings – Rector's Report by Simon Tyndall
This is my 7th report to the annual
meetings of the churches of the North Chippenham Group of Churches – St Peter's
Langley Burrell; St Michael & All Angels' Kington St Michael; St Nicholas'
Hardenhuish; St Paul's Chippenham – having become Team Rector on 30th
April 2001. It is a post I am really
enjoying and find working with you and amongst you to be a great
privilege. Thank you for being the
church and for all your support and encouragement over the past year. I am aware that so many people do contribute
to who we are. Thank you - your
part is important and appreciated!
THANK YOU!
- I do want to acknowledge the
contribution made to our life and witness by both James & Inger Denniston
and to record my sincere thanks for the love and support they gave during their
4 years with us. We wish them well in
their new ministry and ask for God's continuing blessing on all they do. I do also want to thank all those who
regularly take services in our churches; the Ministry Team of John Woodward,
Steve Cooper, Karin Needham, Karen Rudge, Ron Pool, Barbara Wood, Pam Tayler
and 3 others who were licensed this year.
It was lovely to be able to share with Dave Kilmister as he was ordained
Priest and also that Tim Woodward and Anjali Kanagaratnam were licensed as Lay
Ministers (Readers).
GROUP LEADERSHIP
- these Ministers along with our
Church Wardens are now forming our Group Leadership (which aims to meet 4/5 times
a year). And I want to thank our Church
Wardens for all they do – Veronica Kilmister, Neville Hammersley, Martin
Ellett, Cynthia Smith, Derek Boulton, Pam Tayler and Janet Elms (who stood down
at the KSM annual meeting) and was replaced by Colin Labouchere.
ESL - 2007 was the year that I was given a 3 month
ESL (Extended Study Leave) and this gave me a wonderful opportunity to travel,
reflect and be refreshed and re-invigorated after 23 years of full-time
Christian work. I have written about
things elsewhere but it is fair to say that the experiences have left a deep
impression on me – time on Iona, walking the Thames Path, improving my French,
spending time at the Arocha project and working with refugees and asylum
seekers. There is so much more to life
than what happens within the parish and it was good for me to be able to spread
my wings and be challenged by what I did and saw.
ST PAUL'S RE-ORDERING
- upon my return I was projected
back into the issue of what to do with St Paul's buildings – both the hall
& church need things doing with them.
The question is – what? And by whom?
It became clear to me that although many wanted to see progress with
re-ordering there were not the people in place to take this forward. So, we set up a Mission & Vision Group to
try to work out what the priorities and agenda for St Pauls should be. It has come up with a suggested way of
working as a church in structure and leadership – and we hope and pray this
will be brought in at the 2008 annual meeting – and give us a better way of
working that might mean that re-ordering can be picked up again by a group of
people able to give the required time and commitment.
MY RE-LICENSING
- while I was away the question
of my re-licensing came up. You may (or
may not!) know that when I came in 2001 the Bishop gave me a 7 year license and
this could be renewed for a further 7 years.
(Interestingly, if it were not to be renewed there is no mechanism for
clergy to get another job – we just have to apply for vacancies! But presumably it could mean that some clergy
would lose their job and also be made homeless as we have to live in tied
houses!) I am not sure that the process
was handled as well as it might have been but thankfully (for me & Ann at
least!) Bishop Lee has written to say that my license is being renewed for a
further 7 years. This is not a guarantee
that I will stay for a full 7 more years but that I could be here for that
length of time. It is in God's
hands. (By the way, if you want to know
more about this please do ask me!)
COMMUNICATION
- I want to take this opportunity
to thank Kay Mason & Martin Ellett for all they do in producing 2 of our
most important means of communication – I refer to the weekly pew sheet and the
monthly edition of CLARION. I try to
make sure that as much information as possible is circulated in the parish –
can I encourage you to use these resources and also contribute to them? Also, thanks to Jon Davis & Dick Wood for
all they do running the websites for St Pauls (www.stpaulsweb.co.uk) & Hardenhuish churches (www.harnish.org.uk).
FUTURE TEAM APPOINTMENT - we
are being given permission by the diocese to proceed with an appointment of a
new Team Vicar. I have written about
this elsewhere and I hope you have seen that the post will be quite different
from that filled by Wendy Sanders and James Denniston. We are looking for someone who will be
involved in new ways of reaching out and being church in a world where the
Sunday morning slot is taken by all sorts of activities. Please pray for this important post and that
we appoint the person God's wants here.
FRESH EXPRESSIONS
- at this point it is worth
pointing out that we are beginning to hold more and more expressions of church
and worship that happen outside of the Sunday morning slot in our church
buildings. Often referred to as Fresh
Expressions, we would count Beta (youth worship); our midweek services of Holy
Communion and the worship of the Women's Union as part of this. And 2008 sees the launch of The Village Hall
On Sunday in Kington St Michael. That's
quite a list!
DOORWAY & NIGHTSHIFT & REVELATION & OLIVE
BRANCH -
I do also want to mention that some wonderful things are happening in
Chippenham which involve volunteers from all the churches. They are always looking for new people to
join them and I am really enthusiastic about these 4 joint initiatives of the
local churches. We do work well together
in Chippenham and there is a very good feeling of co-operation amongst the
local ministers from all churches when we meet – whether as formal Churches
Together or when the evangelical ministers meet up.
MY WIDER ROLE
- is still important to me. I have been Chair of CCT (Chippenham Churches
Together) and step down early in 2008 – handing over to David Spink (an elder
at the URC); I am a Trustee of the Revelation Shop; I am still a governor at St
Pauls' primary school; and I am on the Deanery Standing Committee. I will probably be a Selector at one CMS
Conference this year and I have begun to volunteer at the Harbour Project
(Swindon) for Asylum Seekers & Refugees.
None of these take up a lot of time but they give me valuable insight
and experience into things outside of our parish boundaries.
THREE SPECIAL THINGS
- in this report I just want to
pass comment on how please I am that The RISE Trust is moving towards its goal
of running a Children's Centre at St Paul's School; also, how much I
appreciated and enjoyed the summer visit we hosted from Mukono (Uganda);
and remember the wonderful evening we
had when we hosted Stuart Townend.
These, and many other things, give great cause to rejoice at what God is
doing amongst us.
Of course 2007 has had its difficulties as well as its
blessings but I want to thank God for the journey we have made through the
year. In our churches we will have our
ups and our downs – we are, after all, only human! - but the question is how we
deal with these. Is our life together
marked by prayer, care, forgiveness and wishing the best for each other – ie
love? St John wrote these words (1 John
4:11-12):
Dear friends, since
God so loved us, we ought to love one another.
No-one has ever
seen God;
but if we love one
another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Thank you for sharing the year with me! And thank God for all that he gives us!