We are looking for a vicar to join our active, outward looking, single church parish in West Reading as we seek to serve our local community. The key responsibilities include:

• Encourage, nurture and challenge us to grow in our discipleship, ensuring we are a church for the 21^st century
• Work with us to develop and implement a strategy to extend our outreach to children and young people
• Extend our reach into the community, leveraging and strengthening our links with individuals, groups and organisations
• Develop how we serve the Calcot area of our parish
• Work with us to affordably achieve net carbon zero and to understand our role in working for social justice
• Lead and experiment with confidence a range of styles of service

Closing date: 25^th June 2023

Interview date: 13^th July 2023

All appointments are subject to acceptable pre-appointment checks, including a satisfactory Enhanced DBS Check.

The Role, working with us to…

• Nurture and challenge us in our daily walk with God, deepening our discipleship and sense of shared purpose, helping us become the people that God wants us to be
• As our discipleship increases, help us move forward into the 21st century and change, being willing to let people change us as they join
• Build and strengthen our community involvement, leveraging our community café and existing links, so we have a stronger community presence, working with the community and providing a glimpse of the Kingdom of God
• Jointly with us and in line with God’s direction, develop and implement strategies to increase our diversity, particularly to achieve our desire to share Jesus’ love with a younger age group, and to better serve the Calcot area
• Take our services forward in the unity of God’s love, recognising the wide spectrum of worship preferences
• Support our efforts, led by our green team, to care for God’s creation, increasing awareness of our responsibilities, and affordably achieving carbon net zero
• Together with us, corporately discern what our level of involvement in striving for social justice should be, and then move forward to achieve it, working with Citizens UK as appropriate
• Continue our links working with Reading Churches Together, Deanery Synod, the Reading Deanery and Citizens UK

We pray for someone who is……..

• Filled with the Holy Spirit and led by God
• Able to develop and challenge us in our faith, see our limitations and help us change and be better
• Outward looking into our community and enthusiastic, friendly and approachable
• Resilient to be able to stick with us, living with the inevitable moans and diverse views!
• Prepared to experiment as we work together to determine how to be church in the 21st century

Reading is a large historic town in the Berkshire Thames Valley, with excellent connections to London. It is home to the Reading festival and the University of Reading, and it is a dynamic and vibrant place to live. It has diverse communities and welcomes many newly arrived people from around the world each year, who make the town their home.

St Catherines Tilehurst sits to the west of the town and this role is an exciting opportunity to join a faithful team of Christians working in a one church parish.

The parish is lively, and community focused, and the busy church building is well appointed and well run.

This is a great opportunity to work with a strong team and lead an outward looking faith community as they seek to serve God in their community.