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The Rt Revd Paul Butler, Bishop of Southampton
The Bishop's Office, Ham House, The Crescent, Romsey,
Hampshire, SO51 7NG
Telephone: 01794-516005
Email: paul.butler@bpsotonoffice.clara.co.uk 17th October 2007
www.winchester.anglican.org
To: Clergy and PCC Members in the Lyndhurst Deanery Southern Cluster
SUBJECT: PASTORAL PLANNING OF LYNDHURST DEANERY SOUTHERN CLUSTER
The Lyndhurst Deanery Plan has always been based on "a strategy of harnessing lay resources, in support of stipendiary clergy, to maintain existing levels of public worship and to seek growth and renewal through new expressions of being church." It is also developed on the basis that "We must ensure that any review undertaken is emphatically not about the effective management of a declining church. It is aimed at renewing congregations and empowering those with gifts to offer in ministry, renewing the church's cutting edge by engaging with the real needs of the wider community and encouraging more people to hear the Gospel."
In other words the number of stipendiary clergy is reducing but we are planning for growth and renewal through the whole church working together. This fits the New Testament vision for the ministry of leadership. St Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 4:
11He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, …15 we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
The leaders (apostles, prophets, pastor/teachers and evangelists) are set free to hold and lead the vision, teach the faith and enable every Christian to exercise their ministry. The church grows only as every believer responds to God's call on their life to live for Christ where they are.
This is the context in which specific plans have to be made. For the parishes of the Southern "cluster" the fact on the ground is that with the number of stipendiary clergy nationally reducing the future number available is 6 rather than the 7 of recent years.
The proposals which follow arise following
a) A series of conversations and e-mail exchanges with the current clergy, Deanery Pastoral Committee leadership, Archdeacon and Bishop.
b) The Diocesan Pastoral Steering Group (PSG) has noted the need for more clearly defined proposals before any agreement to make appointments at Pennington and Hordle (if such appointments are agreed as part of the proposals).
c) PSG have also noted that in terms of gradual reduction in stipendiary clergy numbers through to 2013 Lyndhurst is lagging behind most other deaneries across the Diocese.
d) A meeting was held on October 11th at which all parishes concerned were represented by churchwardens and clergy to look at an initial proposal along the lines of what follows.
The proposal set out below seeks to take on board all comments made from discussions so far. There is a desire to continue working informally as a larger cluster (perhaps incorporating Lyndhurst, Minstead and Emery Down as well) but within this to have some more formal arrangements.
Note: Archdeacon's Formula referred to in the following proposals is based on several criteria (Size of population, number of pewmembers, number of churches, geographical area) and normally used to determine the clergy available to dioceses. In this context however, it helps to confirm our thinking in relation to the reduced number of stipendiary clergy available across parishes - it is not a reflection of total workload.
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