If you are up for a challenge, can bring some creative missional thinking, will love us as you find us, and can work collaboratively with Anglican and ecumenical colleagues working to a shared agenda, then this may be just the post for you!

Central Telford Parish covers around a third of Telford’s population, a mix of well-established and new communities within this rapidly growing new town, making it a vibrant, diverse, and exciting place to minister and live.

We are a single parish with four churches, each with their own distinctiveness but a growing sense of unity across the whole parish. The tradition of the parish is middle Anglican, with an openness to different styles of worship and a commitment to serve the local community. The churches retain some of the feel of the traditional village churches that they once were, despite being in a large town: there is a strong sense of community, as well as ownership by the wider community.

With the recent arrival of our new Team Rector, fresh thinking of the Deanery’s mission and resourcing, and a renewed positivity about turning around the low levels of church attendance in the town, we are feeling more confident that we will be able to embrace the opportunities and challenges facing us and look forward to welcoming a new Team Vicar to journey with us.

We are looking and praying for a missional and pastoral Team Vicar who will work with our Team Rector to:

• build up the life of the congregations spiritually and numerically, across all age ranges
• work collaboratively with us to give strong, creative, and strategic leadership for mission
• help us to put our developing Mission Action Plan into practice by promoting discipleship, vocation and evangelism
• strengthen a ‘whole parish’ sense of belonging, while giving each church confidence in their own identity and purpose
• inspire us to work effectively with other churches in the Deanery, with ecumenical partners and secular organizations across the Parish
• affirm, respect and encourage our gifts and grow more lay leaders.
• help us to become sustainable so that we may continue to reflect the light of Jesus across our parish for years to come

Our Team Rector is looking for a colleague to minster alongside her across all four churches in the parish. It is likely that the Team Vicar would take the lead in pastoral ministry and occasional office ministry, as well as having responsibilities for various portfolios across the parish, depending on their gifts/skills.

We can offer supportive colleagues; enthusiastic people who want to grow in faith and transform the lives of others; and a commitment to care and pray for our new Team Vicar.

Doing mission and ministry here requires imagination and innovation, as well as a deep commitment to more traditional expressions of church life. So, if you’re looking for a challenging adventure in ministry and mission here is a place to find it!

About the Diocese

Lichfield Diocese is one of the most diverse dioceses in the country. Rolling countryside and vibrant inner-city life nestle together in a region that takes in Staffordshire, the Potteries of Stoke-on-Trent, most of Shropshire and bustling Black Country centres including Walsall and Wolverhampton. The only thing we don’t have is the sea!

Our shared diocesan vision extends an invitation to all to “Come follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad”.

As we follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad, we pray that the two million people in our diocese encounter a church that is confident in the gospel, knows and loves its communities, and is excited to find God at work already in the world. We pray for a church that reflects the richness and variety of those communities and partners with others in seeking the common good, working for justice as a people of hope.

For an informal discussion, please contact the Revd Prebendary Jo Farnworth, Team Rector, jo@telfordchurch.co.uk, 01952 416370.

Further information about the Diocese is available at https://www.lichfield.anglican.org/

Enquiries: Bishop of Shrewsbury's Office

All applicants should normally have 3 years’ experience in the Church of England or other Anglican church in the British Isles.

Closing date: 14th October 2022

Familiarisation date: 23rd November 2022

Interviews: 24th November 2022