Vicar of Thornton and Crosby All Saints with St Frideswyde

Overview

We are looking for a confident, collaborative priest to continue to build and grow a church that is open and welcoming to all ages. There are significant opportunities to do this through baptism and funeral ministry and through links with the infant and junior schools across the road and the local secondary school.

The church buildings have been re-ordered to create modern facilities with a new front and space for catering. The church hall has a wide range of community use including a host of uniformed groups, choirs and community groups and All Saints Children’s Ventures Ltd, a charitable company that provides wraparound care and nursery sessions.

Crosby is a seaside town to the north of Liverpool with a broad socio-economic mix with many commuting for work. It has very good connections to Liverpool and across the North West and it makes a great base for ministry.

Shortlisting: 16th June 2022

Interviews: 19th July 2022

For more information on this vacancy please contact the Venerable Pete Spiers, Archdeacon of Knowsley and Sefton on: 

Email: Pete.Spiers@liverpool.anglican.org

Telephone: 07590 690780

Introduction

Created in 2011, the parish of All Saints with St Frideswyde brought together two former mission churches into a single parish.  This helped renew what were two ageing congregations into one church that has greater assets and energy for mission. It also led to a re-ordering of the All Saints’ church building to create somewhere that can create strong links to the community.

You would therefore be joining a church that has worked through many changes over the last ten years establishing itself in new ways and that recognises a need to continue changing in order to reach new people.

So this is a significant moment in the life of a church seeking to become younger, more diverse and inclusive. There are plenty of opportunities to grasp

The church is in the L23 Partnership which brings together local Anglican churches working together to strengthen the joint mission across 4 parishes. The Vicar will also be ex-officio trustee to All Saints Children’s Ventures Ltd.

The church has achieved Child Friendly status and Disability Friendly status and is a Fairtrade church. The church hosts an Open Table congregation specifically geared to LGBTQIA+ communities. The church also achieved an Eco-church Silver award and is planning for the Gold award with several sustainable projects around the church.

The church is supported by a Reader and has an active music group and team of organists to lead its pattern of worship.

The vicar will be offered a 1980’s purpose built vicarage.

Main Responsibilities

As well as your local responsibilities, as a leader in the Diocese of Liverpool you will be expected to:-

• Constantly advocate diocesan strategy
• Sign people up to the Rule of Life
• Nurture existing leaders and identify new ones
• Identify and commission teams
• Build and lead a leadership team
• Create a positive culture of accountability
• Establish connections between worshipping communities
• Attend to financial health of your worshipping communities

The Ideal Candidate

We are seeking a priest who can

• Develop a renewed vision for mission with the PCC and a strategy for achieving it
• Nurture and develop the congregation in their faith as disciples of Christ
• Engage and reach out to younger families through baptism opportunities, uniformed organisations and local schools
• Maintain and develop key partnerships in the local community including acting as a trustee of All Saints Children’s Ventures Ltd.
• Work collaboratively with Readers and lay leaders
• Encourage everyone in the congregation to play their part so that everyone shares responsibility for its life and work 

About us

Being part of the Clergy Team in Liverpool Diocese

For many years we have been working to achieve growth in our diocese. We have used different ways to express this but the aim and direction of travel has remained the same – consistent with the whole of the Church of England. Bishop Paul has articulated a vision for this growth by saying
 

“We are asking God for a bigger church so we can make a bigger difference”; said another way, “We long to see more people knowing Jesus and more justice in the world.”

To achieve this vision we are working to develop:

• 100 new congregations

•  1000 new leaders
• 10,000 new disciples

Further, we are asking every worshipping Christian in our diocese to:

1. Sign up to the Bishop of Liverpool’s rule of life which will encourage and support us to Pray, Read, Learn, Tell, Serve, Give, #RuleOfLife www.ruleoflife.org.uk
    
2. Bring 1 person into the regular worshipping and serving life of the church #BringOneFriend www.liverpool,anglican.org/BringOneFriend
    
3. Do 10 acts of service or find 10 new points of connection beyond the walls of the church #DoTenThings www.liverpool,anglican.org/DoTenThings