Firstly please let us introduce ourselves - Michael Gordon & Alison Fletcher . We are up here this morning / evening as your parish representatives involved in the process of selecting our next incumbent/vicar and importantly representing you . We are speaking at all the services today , to the youth this evening & at the 10.30 service on Wednesday morning . We want everyone to hear the same information so we’ve decided to read from a script to save us from waffling or missing parts out!
Most of you will know that we said farewell to Gary Wilton our previous Vicar back in June last year however our vacancy did not officially start until early September - after Gary’s notice period . Within the Church of England there is a formal process to go through when selecting a Vicar and we would like to briefly outline the process, explain where we are up to & what will happen next . The ‘ From the Wardens’ monthly updates have mentioned some of the information already but we feel it’s important we recap at this stage. We want to say at the outset that if you have any questions as a result of anything we say , we will be around after the service so do feel free to come and ask us then.
Back in July the PCC elected the two of us to take on the role of parish representatives and it also set up a group of 8 people to prepare three draft documents to be used in the selection process . The documents covered an outline of the parish, known as the parish profile , a role description and very importantly a person specification outlining the sort of person we want as our next Vicar. The group met a number of times over the summer and after consultation with the church family throughout August , took the draft documents to a PCC meeting in September where they were considered , tweaked and then approved . We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who contributed to that process during August - we had lots of contributions which helped us compile the final documents. The next formal meeting happened in early December when the PCC met with the Archdeacon , Malcolm Chamberlain- who was representing the Bishop . There were other guests at the meeting - John Hawley who is to be the the patron for this process, who is a retired Archdeacon and will be on the interview panel ,together with the Rev Toby Hole the Area Dean. At the meeting all three documents were looked at again and we were pleasantly surprised when the Archdeacon and the other visitors were happy with what we had produced with only a few minor alterations. So that meant that as a church we were now ready to move ahead to the next stage to agree the details of the selection process and advertise the vacancy. However the Archdeacon made it clear at that meeting that the Diocese was not yet ready to proceed with the appointment process.
So to bring you right up to date we are now waiting for the Bishop to allow us to advertise for a new Vicar. You may quite reasonably ask ......Why the wait? Our understanding is this. As you will all know we are part of the Diocese of Sheffield and like many other Dioceses it has found itself with a number of competing demands for its limited budget. In recent times there has been a 12 month moratorium when there were no Vicar appointments at all and so many churches across the Diocese with a vacancy have found themselves not able to appoint a new Vicar. They are still waiting. However since mid October the moratorium has been lifted and things have eased a little. The Diocese is hopeful there may be a small number of appointments during 2020. Whilst we are not 100% certain All Saints will be one of the churches able to advertise their vacancy during this year , we remain fairly confident that we will be able to but .........we simply don’t know when. That decision is out of our hands and with the Bishop. So we are ‘waiting ‘ which is a very Biblical theme and we have recently celebrated Advent - the season of waiting. We are meeting with the archdeacon Malcolm Chamberlain on January 22nd to try to ensure that the waiting period is no longer than necessary.
In a moment we will be leading us all in a prayer and our plea to the church family on behalf of the PCC is that you will commit to praying with us during this season of waiting.
Thank you Prayer Father God, We want to start by saying thank you for all your good gifts, to us, as individuals, and as a body of believers here at All Saints. Thank you for your faithfulness over the years and the generosity of your provision. Thank you that we do not need to fear in the face of uncertainty. You are the creator God who forms wonderful things out of dust from your unlimited resources. We pray that you will have your creative way with us as individuals and as a church. Be close to those here at All Saints who are working hard in the life of the church during these months of vacancy. Would you watch over them and give them energy, peace and inspiration. Give wisdom to those in the Diocese who will be involved in decision making in the coming months. For those required to re-imagine be at the centre of their thinking. For us as we engage with the diocesan representatives would you give us clarity of thought and a sense of your direction as we proceed through the appointment process. And finally would you be at work, preparing, calling and guiding your servant, in readiness to serve you in this place. We ask these prayers in Jesus name. Amen.