St Weonards Benefice www.stw.org.uk is made of up of five rural parishes in the western part of the Ross and Archenfield Deanery. It has a population of about 2,000 with good road access to Hereford, Ross-on Wye and Monmouth (M50 – 20 minutes, Severn Bridges – 50 minutes). Although there are a few large, highly successful agribusinesses in the benefice, many smaller family farms are finding life challenging, and they worry about the future. The vicarage in St Weonards is in a central location. St Weonards and Garway have maintained primary schools. There are two village shops, three village halls, five pubs and a garage.
St Weonards Benefice working with the Deanery hope to appoint a parish priest who will give 80% of their time to the parishes and 20% of their time to helping the Benefices in the Deanery engage with children and families more effectively.
In this period of ‘interregnum’ the parishes have developed a collaborative approach and wish to explore how to further improve this to a manageable group, to support the incumbent.
So please join us in our discovery.
The benefice seeks someone to be a servant of God in the service of the community (80% of role)
To play a distinctive and intentional role in inspiring each generation, proclaiming Christ and growing disciples by:
Deanery Role (20%) To work in conjunction with our incumbents and key children & family workers in each parish/benefice to:
An important feature of the benefice is the tradition, since the 1970s, of collaborative working and worshipping together. The benefice embraces a variety of worshipping traditions. The first Sunday of the month we have a benefice service that rotates around different churches (on Zoom during COVID-19), which enables us to meet and worship together.