Associate Rector - new joint Benefice of Chelsfield with Green Street Green PB

Overview

Associate Rector to join new joint Benefice of Chelsfield & Well Hill with Green Street Green & Pratts Bottom.  Semi-rural location.  Close to town centre of Orpington. 

Introduction

The new Pastoral Scheme will join the two parishes on 1st June 2021.  Working with the Team Rector, the person appointed will have significant input into the development of the new Benefice, including creating new patterns of worship and building up the team of LLMs.

A range of services is currently provided across the 4 churches, including BCP and CW Sung Eucharist with choir and Family Worship.

The new Associate Rector will be based at Chelsfield but will work across the whole Benefice.  [For the time being it is anticipated the two parishes will remain distinct].

Main Responsibilities

This is an exciting time for the two parishes.  The Rector is based at St Mary's Green Street Green, which is the more suburban end of the Benefice.  The part-time Administrator works across the whole Benefice and is based in the Parish Office at St Mary's.  The church of All Souls' Pratts Bottom is a short distance away in a more rural, village setting.

St Martin's Chelsfield is a Grade 2 Listed building set within an extensive churchyard in a conservation area.  Within the parish is Well Hill 'mission church', built around 125 years ago to cater to itinerant hop pickers in the area and where 2 services a month are still held.

The Ideal Candidate

Someone who is prayerful and Holy Spirit-led, willing to work with the Rector to:

* lead us through and manage a time of significant change, building a sense of unity and common purpose across all congregations;

* encourage and develop work with families and young people, and build community links as an energetic and outgoing leader;

* work collaboratively and flexibly to move us forward in worship and outreach, leading us into spiritual and numerical growth.

About us

We have an enthusiastic and capable Team of lay ministers. 

Our congregations include people with a wide range of ecclesial traditions, and these styles of liturgy are valued by many.  However we have sought to include more diverse forms of worship in the recent past and we would expect this trend to continue.

The current pandemic has motivated both parishes to engage much more with social media, including the introduction of both live and pre-recorded services. 

Further details about the two parishes can be found in the Parish Profile and by visiting their websites: http://www.stmartinchelsfield.org.uk and http://www.smasch.org  

For further information about The Rectory, please see accompanying document.

If you would like to speak to the Rector (Susan Atkinson-Jones) about this post, please contact her in the first instance through the Archdeacon of Bromley & Bexley's EA (Fiona Porter) on fiona.porter@rochester.anglican.org 

Interviews will be held on Monday, 26th April