Team Vicar (0.5 FTE) & CEAO Parish Ministry Development Officer (0.5 FTE), Warlingham W Chelsham & Farleigh Team Ministry

Overview

Our semi-rural Team Ministry in East Surrey and bordering Greater London is seeking a priest (Team Vicar 0.5 FTE) who will work with the Team Rector and four parishes to serve the people of Warlingham with Chelsham and Farleigh. The Team Vicar will have formal responsibility for one of the churches in the Team with regular involvement with them all.  St Christopher’s Parish, is part of the Inclusive Church network.  This post will also include being a Parish Development Officer (0.5 FTE) for the Croydon Episcopal Area working with Parishes in developing their Mission Action Plans.

Introduction

The Team is made up of the four parishes of All Saints’, Warlingham; St Christopher’s, Warlingham; St Leonard’s, Chelsham; and St Mary’s, Farleigh; which are situated on the boundary between suburban and rural areas in North East Surrey and just beyond the outskirts of Croydon, within the Deanery of Tandridge and Archdeaconry of Reigate, in the Croydon Episcopal Area of the Diocese of Southwark.

Warlingham Village itself is a leafy suburb – mixed housing and considerable green open spaces. Salient facts from the 2021 census are that it has a population of about 8,600, is ethnically 87% white; 30% of households have pensioners living alone. 56% call themselves Christian - a drop of 10% since the 2011 census.

By contrast, Chelsham and Farleigh are rural, lying in the adjacent greenbelt. Chelsham has about 250 houses and Farleigh 100.

Warlingham is commuter territory, principally for London and Croydon. Farleigh and Chelsham have agriculture and leisure employment.

The area is served by a number of schools: Warlingham Village Primary, Hamsey Green Primary, Warlingham Park Independent School, and Warlingham School (Secondary). Clergy have a good relationship with the schools and take part in assemblies at all of these. Schools regularly visit the churches for services and education.

The churches range in tradition from Common Worship modern language with a robed choir and choral evensong, to BCP Matins, BCP Holy Communion, country services and informal worship with modern songs for Brunch Church.

Main Responsibilities

Team Vicar

We are seeking a half-time, mission-hearted priest to join the Team. Someone who is warm, friendly and energetic  to help grow our congregations in faith, in spirituality and in numbers but who also has a heart for pastoral care and will share in the ministry of weddings, baptisms and funerals. We are four small churches that have faithful but ageing congregations which have reduced since the pandemic and we know that we need to grow to be sustainable into the future. We have a traditional ministry with occasional offices being regularly requested which can lead to opportunities for developing relationships and mission.

Parish Ministry Development Officer

This post is a crucial part of the delivery in the Croydon Area of the diocese’s mission and strategy. If the churches of the Area are to grow and flourish, they will need to reflect on their life and mission, and learn the skills of managing change and developing new ways of worshipping God and serving God’s world. Parish ministry development in this context, and across the wide variety of social and economic settings of the Area, will be an exercise in discernment and prayer as much as strategy and planning.

The Ideal Candidate

The priest we are looking for should be:

• Collaborative: willing and happy to work closely with the Rector as well as laity across the Team Ministry
• Flexible: able to manage their time across both roles effectively
• Embracing of traditional ministries: grounded in the Gospel and the opportunities that occasional offices bring
• Missional: supportive of missional activities and able to see new ways to build community 
• Pastoral: have a heart for families and older people and exercise a pastoral ministry
• Able to work across the Team with both modern and traditional language services

About us

Warlingham Team

There are four churches in the Team - St Mary’s is Norman, All Saints’ and St Leonard’s are 13th century, and St Christopher’s dates from the early years of the 20th century.  All Saints’ and St Christopher’s serve Warlingham itself. The other two churches serve their separate communities, and all churches attract members from further afield. The churches are connected by country roads.

The Team is staffed by:-

• The Team Rector: Revd Michelle Edmonds (Instituted and Inducted 31 October 2016 and having previously served as Team Vicar for 7 years) also Area Dean (May 2020) and Chair of Churches Together in Warlingham.
• The Team Vicar: to be halftime (vacant) 
• Southwark Pastoral Auxiliary (specific focus - Spirituality)

Each Church has its own Churchwardens and PCC. There is a consultative Team council and a Team budget to which each of the four churches contribute.

Clergy and Lay Readers (from beyond the Benefice), regularly take Sunday services. There is a midweek Communion service, a weekly Bible study group and a Toddler group. Messy Church and Brunch Church are held monthly.  Lay teams sustain an active church life in individual parishes. At times congregations combine for joint services and meet together as a Team for worship on any fifth Sunday of a month.

In general members of the congregations feel their loyalty is very much to their own church and yet there is a developing sense of an overall Team Mission and purpose, which is being encouraged by the Rector. As a Team our core statement is Being Christ to one another and the community (Christ centred and outward focused). Our Team Mission Action plan has three focus areas: Welcome, Community Outreach and Communication.

Croydon Episcopal Area

The Croydon area covers the boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, and the district of Tandridge, the vast majority of Reigate and Banstead district, and parts of the borough of Bromley and Mole Valley District. It is geographically the largest in the Diocese, covering two-thirds of Southwark’s total area. It extends from areas of significant ethnic and social diversity in the north of Croydon and Sutton, through the rapidly evolving landscape of suburbia and into the countryside, country towns and urban overspill of Surrey.

To find out more, please do review the Profiles for both posts.

If you would value an informal conversation with the Archdeacon or Team Rector, please contact Kathleen.bailey@southwark.anglican.org

Closing date: Wednesday 11 October 2023 (midnight)

Parish Visit and interview: Wednesday 15 November 2023

We have a policy in Southwark Diocese that to be appointed to an incumbent status post, a priest must have served a title post in an Anglican church in the British Isles. We aim to be a diverse and truly representative Diocese, and particularly welcome applications from women and people of UKME heritage.

This post is subject to DBS enhanced disclosure.