Team Vicar

Overview

We are now prayerfully seeking to invite a clergy colleague to the role of Team Vicar within the Team. We are looking to appoint a priest who is able to nurture Christians who worship in differing styles, who is familiar with biblical evangelical theology whilst at the same time being comfortable with a more choral and Eucharistic tradition and who has a heart for our wholeness in God through Christ who will be encouraging of our healing prayer ministry across the team.

Closing date: 18 December 2019

Interview date: 13 January 2020

Introduction

As in other parishes there are challenges across the team of churches in respect of the number of children and young families who are journeying with us in the faith.We would ideally like to appoint a Team Vicar who has recent experience in their recent appointment(s) of engaging in mission with children and their families and can help us develop and consolidate new approaches to worship.

It is envisaged that the Team Rector and Team Vicar will work out between them in consultation with their colleagues, lay and ordained how to ensure the best use of resources, human as well as financial, for effective mission and ministry across the three parishes. A significant emphasis is placed on establishing a pattern of ministry that promotes a healthy work/life balance for all and therefore protects time for rest and recreation outside of ministry responsibilities. This is not set in stone and is to be worked out prayerfully and will be subject to ongoing discussion and review.

Main Responsibilities

With and alongside the Team Rector:

• Specific responsibilities within the Astley, Tyldesley and Mosley Common Team depending on skills and experience.
• To strengthen and develop links with Church Schools.
• To contribute to the implementation of the developing mission strategy for the Team, including the MAP for the churches of the Team and the Leigh Deanery MAP as a member of the deanery clergy chapter.
• Encourage shared ministry within the Team.
• To promote new ministries, identifying and encouraging vocations to lay and ordained ministry.

About us

The Astley, Tyldesley and Mosley Common team has been in existence for over 10 years.Initially through the good working relationships of the incumbents of the three parishes, the team has continued to grow steadily over this period and relationships continue to deepen.The three communities of Astley, Tyldesley and Mosley Common are all different as are the three parish churches within the team as reflected in the parish profiles.

The number of stipendiary clergy posts in the team was reduced towards the end of 2011 clergy with the retirement of Rev Chris Straton, the Vicar at St George’s Tyldesley, who was not replaced. At this point the team went from being supported by 3 full-time stipendiary clergy to 2. The transition from 3 to 2 stipendiary clergy posts has not been easy but has been made possible by the significant goodwill of the 3 parishes. In 2015 the first Team Rector moved to a new parish. The Revd Martin Cox joined the team as Team Rector in 2016. Now in 2019 the Revd Julian Hartley, the last of the three initial Vicars who worked together to form the team has moved to a new parish and ministry. This vacancy and the change that will follow provide a further opportunity to deepen the relationships between the churches of the team alongside the challenge of ministering in three distinct communities.

It is envisaged that the Team Rector and Team Vicar will work out between them in consultation with their colleagues, lay and ordained how to ensure the best use of resources, human as well as financial, for effective mission and ministry across the three parishes. A significant emphasis is placed on establishing a pattern of ministry that promotes a healthy work/life balance for all and therefore protects time for rest and recreation outside of ministry responsibilities. This is not set in stone and is to be worked out prayerfully and will be subject to ongoing discussion and review.

This continues the development of a new approach to ministry for the parishes of the team that began with the three incumbents who initiated the team ministry. At this point we are seeking ways to consolidate how two full-time stipendiary clergy minister alongside ordained and lay colleagues across three distinct parishes that are working together in a team ministry and are eager to grow and serve as ‘Church for a Different World.’ Above all we are seeking to appoint an ordained colleague to the role of Team Vicar who is prayerful, flexible and collaborative, who is open to ministering with us in order that we might grow in Christlikeness and through the grace of God grow numerically as we engage more and more in intentional evangelism in the communities we are called to serve.