VICAR KINGTON with HUNTINGTON, OLD RADNOR, KINNERTON and TITLEY

Overview

In Kington we have enjoyed a variety of churchmanship over the years and we value regular celebration of the Eucharist and more traditional services with robed choir. However we recognise that to grow and bring new youthful life into the church we need to embrace more modern styles of worship too. We are active in our community but there is so much more to do. This is a beginning calling for innovation and energy to reach our town and rural communities.

Introduction

We are conscious of living between times. Our Lord’s coming to walk amongst us and share our hardships, the servant King. Yet we also anticipate his return when he shall come as triumphant King. We live as Christians in such borderlands. Our churches are cherished and beautiful where some of us meet on Sundays, but we long to spread God’s grace where people live and work and often struggle.

Some say Kington is a drovers’ town; others say we are a quarrying town. Look up at the whale-back hills and you know you are almost in the uplands. Yet drive towards the Cathedral city of Hereford and you are amongst cider orchards and rich potato lands. We live between the woods and the water; the River Arrow with its green-meadowed fingers flows right through town, meandering its way to the Lugg and the Wye; but ancient oaks remind us of wilder forested pasts. Our Marches community is full of Welsh names with Old Radnor and Kinnerton parishes firmly in Radnorshire. Yet go to Titley and you find Saxon names and landscape memories. Up at Huntington, amongst its green wooded banks, you are back in Welsh Herefordshire.

Main Responsibilities

Our churches recognize that with aging congregations we have to reach out to our communities more actively. We seek someone who will be at home with us, feel excited by the challenge and want to develop and grow our ministry.

The Ideal Candidate

We seek a priest with these gifts:

• Passion for growth. We wish to attract an applicant who naturally makes spreading the Good News of the gospel a high priority, especially among families and in the schools.
• Building a team. It is essential to be a team maker and a team builder; they must be able and comfortable to delegate.
• Worship with variety. Whilst keeping a balance with much loved traditional services, develop and nurture variety and fresh approaches that would encourage a younger generation, families (including teenagers), and new comers where we can connect as a local community.
• Love of community. An incumbent should be outward looking and happy to become an involved part of a small market town, with its challenges and demands, as well as ready to feel at home ministering in the rural and farming parishes.