Bishop Jill, Lead Bishop on our appointment, writes:

“This is a very special parish opportunity. It combines and ancient centre of worship at St Peter’s with its deep wells of Christian history close to St Patrick’s Chapel, with all the relational possibilities afforded by the St James’s Centre. The parish is in good heart with dedicated lay leaders, and good relationships in Heysham in a variety of spheres of influence: schools, businesses, power station. When I visited St James’s to preach recently at the end of lockdown, I was surprised to see so many families around and about in the streets on a Sunday morning. It turned out they were on their way to church like me. I am praying each day that God will call his man or woman to Heysham in this next season to continue to fan into flame of the gospel”.

The Parish of St Peter with St James and St Andrew is part of its larger neighbour, Morecambe. Heysham itself has grown into a small town of around 23,000 people, centred around the conservation area of Main Street with houses dating from the 16^th century. The parish combines ancient and contemporary. St Peter’s Church, situated on the cliffs overlooking Morecambe Bay, dates back to the 8^th Century whilst St James’ centre, built 1998, is a vibrant community facility at the heart of Heysham.

The parish is in the north-west of Blackburn Diocese, situated close to Morecambe Bay with easy access to the M6 giving excellent links to major towns and cities in the North West, as well as to the Lake District, the Trough of Bowland and the Yorkshire Dales.

We would love to welcome a new Rector who:

• Will have tried and tested strategies of enabling church communities like ours to grow – in number as well as spiritual depth
• Will be a person of prayer and deep personal faith, longing to reach others with the good news of Jesus Christ.
• Will be someone who is able to make and develop good and healthy relationships with those within the church family, and in the wider parish.
• Will seek to encourage, develop and enable the leadership of others within the church.
• Will be ready to exploit our new closeness of community to bring the two congregations closer together and lead us towards a new ‘Golden Age’ in Heysham parish.
• Will continue and build on the established partnership with St Peter’s School and grow relationship with other schools in the parish.
• Will consider how to develop links in the community through the café and St James’ Centre, in order to communicate the love of Christ more widely.
• Will assess and develop the ministry of occasional offices in order to work out how to forge lasting links with families and individuals in the parish.
• Will develop a realistic strategy to help develop and encourage the faith of the young families and children, including considering how to invest in young people as they leave primary school.
• Will help us to realise the parish’s potential and take us all further along our journey.

Parish website: https://heyshamparish.org.uk/

Closing date: Friday12 August 2022

Interviews will be held on Wednesday 31 August 2022

For an informal conversation about the post, please contact the Archdeacon of Lancaster: Ven David Picken (david.picken@blackburn.anglican.org)

For more information about Blackburn diocese: https://jobs.churchofengland.org/blackburn/vision-2026/

For more information about the Pathways application process https://jobs.churchofengland.org/clergycandidatesfaq/