Team Vicar in Christ Our Hope Team and Associate Priest in Stoneycroft All Saints

Introduction

Team Vicar, Christ Our Hope Liverpool (All Saints Stoneycroft) 

Overview  

We are looking for a collaborative, creative and pastoral priest to join this newly established team serving across the West Derby Deanery. You will have particular responsibility for leading the church of All Saints Stoneycroft through a time of transitioning into full membership of the team ministry, and for leading with vision and mentoring the planting of a worshipping community into the Dovecot area of the parish. 

We would love to hear from you if you feel that God is calling you to work in a diverse, inner city environment, with supportive colleagues and modelling a new way of working as a closely accountable and supportive team. We are looking for someone with particular gifts in working with children and young people, who can build on the open invitation from the local school and existing links with uniformed organisations who meet in the church, to grow faith and discipleship among all ages. You will have the opportunity to lead on a portfolio that matches your gifts, skills and passions across the whole team, whilst being supported by colleagues who have taken on other portfolios, and central support staff to considerably lessen the burden of administration. 

Post introduction  

This is a full-time stipendiary post for a Team Vicar within the large team parish of Christ Our Hope Liverpool. You will be working with a Team Rector (the Revd Helen Edwards) and 6 other team vicars, as well as many other lay and ordained colleagues. Recently established central support services provide administrative, financial and buildings support across the whole team. There is a single central PCC on which the clergy team are represented by the Team Rector and 2 Team Vicars elected each year. The parish is committed to a shared clergy leadership team meeting weekly, a combined approach to governance and administration and a commitment to shared vision and leadership. 

Within this collaborative and supportive structure, each church has its own identity and worship tradition, and is led by a local leadership team and named clergy lead. All clergy and laity are encouraged to work collaboratively in shared opportunities to plant new worshipping communities, shape strategy and resource the wider mission of the church across the whole new parish. Together the vision is to be growing Christ-centred communities that enable everyone to flourish through the four mission priorities, embedded in prayer with supported communication and a focus to become a younger more diverse church. 

All Saints is not yet formally part of the team due to the circumstances in which the previous vicar left (see the parish profile), but is working closely with the team with the plan to bring forward a scheme to join it later this year. This post is to be a Team Vicar within the team, with responsibility as the named clergy lead for All Saints .The post also carries the responsibility for developing plans and mentoring teams to plant new worshipping communities/mission initiatives into the area of the parish previously served by Holy Spirit Dovecot, which was closed for public worship in autumn 2024. The successful candidate, depending on their particular gifts and experience, would also take a portfolio lead across Christ Our Hope on one of these missional priorities: introducing people to Jesus, deepening discipleship, or developing Christian leaders.    

Liverpool is a vibrant city, with world-class cultural, transport, sporting and educational facilities. The parish lies just to the west of Liverpool city centre, where the M62 enters the city limits and becomes Edge Lane, a major destination for edge-of-town shopping with large shops like B&Q, The Range, bowling and an enterprise park. All Saints is in the area known locally as Old Swan, a diverse residential and commercial community with good schools, shopping and transport links. The parish is in the 3% most deprived in the country, with a varied mix of housing. There is a great opportunity to build on existing links with a local primary school and with uniformed organisations that meet in the church hall. 

Main responsibilities  

With your context you will be particularly responsible for  

•    Building on the invitation from the local school to develop links with the church, and further develop links with the uniformed organisations and parade services
• Lead All Saints in the transition to membership of the new parish
• Encouraging discipleship and identifying and developing leaders in the congregation, with a particular focus on developing a vision and a team for re-planting into Dovecot

Closing Date: 27th April

Interview Dates: Friday 23rd May

For more information please contact: Ven Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Archdeacon of  Liverpool

Email: miranda.threlfall-holmes@liverpool.anglican.org

We are continuing our work to actively increase the diversity of those working in the diocese and in pursuit of that we are using anonymous shortlisting. 

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:  

“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 rolling out a diocesan strategic transformation project called ‘Fit for Mission’ which is an ambitious, growth-orientated and locally delivered change programme to enable mission and ministry to flourish in the Diocese of Liverpool. All clergy in the Diocese are expected to align themselves fully with this vision and work to its fullest possible implementation.  

We have 4 mission priorities which are foundational to this vision:  

(i)  introducing people to Jesus;  

(ii)  deepening discipleship;  

(iii)  developing Christian leaders, and  

(iv)  working for justice.  

We are determined to make these priorities real in our life and ministry that includes:  

• a commitment to working in teams rather than in isolation, 
• a major investment in lay leadership, 
• a radical re-structuring of our parishes and 
• a releasing of clergy to enable them to focus much more fully on their gifts and vocational call.