RECTOR

ST MICHAEL’S, STOKECOVENTRY

PARISH PROFILE

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BISHOP’S INTRODUCTION

The picture on the front of this Parish Profile tells its own story: a Central Church with people of all ages, together, and having fun sharing their Christian faith.

This encouraging combination is what awaits the next Rector for St Michael’s, with the additional benefit of some newly refurbished church buildings.

It would be a fairly easy temptation for the congregation of St Michael’s, at this enjoyable stage of their life, to sit back a little and take it easy for a while. They have a good congregation, and good buildings. Their heart however is not to relax, but to continue their forward movement for growth and extending the Kingdom. As the little poem they wrote for their advert expresses it:

Our church is growing, it’s in full bloom, but where there's growth there's always roomFor us to grow a little more, with help from volunteers galore.

We seek a leader keen to nurture, us along the journey further!

And so I indeed encourage you to think seriously about whether God is calling you to nurture this already growing church along the journey further!

I commend the post to you.

With my prayers.

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DEANERY SUMMARY

Coventry East is an exciting and varied place with an eclectic mix of people resident in the deanery and worshipping in our churches. The Deanery is not a particularly affluent area, and there are some areas of significant deprivation. Therefore, most of the churches in the Deanery find themselves involved in meeting not only spiritual hunger but practical, social and material needs, too. With few resources, we rely on God’s grace to survive so we have become accustomed to things constantly changing, and relying on God to provide. It is humbling to see how much is being done in the name of Jesus in this area, and how God blesses those who seek to bless others. This is not a deanery that sits inside their churches wondering where everyone is. It is a deanery that is out and about within the community showing and sharing the love of God in Christ, and many of the fifteen church congregations are growing as a result. There are six single parishes, a local ecumenical project based in the nearby village of Binley Woods, the current Caludon team, a newly formed 'conventional district' on a hitherto unloved post-war estate, plus a recently re-opened church pioneering as a partnership church to resource the deanery and diocese. Both our chapter and our deanery synod meetings are characterised by a sense of warmth and informality with people genuinely enjoying each other's company, offering mutual encouragement and support, and there is a shared commitment to increase our levels of giving (despite the poverty around us) in order to reduce the extent to which we rely on the support of other deaneries to meet our costs of ministry. With Coventry being voted the City of Culture 2018 and the rapid expansion of Coventry University (voted best Modern University 2014 and 2015) many students are resident in Coventry East in halls of residence and rented housing, providing an energy and excitement as students come here from all over the world to study. With every blessing, Rev Pam Howell (Area Dean)

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BACKGROUND TO POST

The Caludon team was formed in 1976, comprising four districts staffed by Team vicars and a Team Rector, the latter based at St Michael’s, Stoke. The Team has been through many developments and evolutions over the years, driven by changes in missional considerations, leadership, staffing, and resources. A reduction in ordained stipendiary resource led to a decrease in staffing levels which put some pressure on the Team clergy and some parishes. However, this has been addressed more recently with the result that each church now has their own dedicated clergy leadership.

Each of the former districts of the Team will become a single parish benefice, with its own PCC, and it is the sincere desire that the partnership and fellowship enjoyed over the last four decades will continue.  

The formal consultation process for this separation is underway and, given the level of DCC and PCC support for it, we hope it will be completed by the time the new post-holder is beneficed.  The post will be Rector of the newly reduced Benefice of Stoke (subject to Pastoral Organisation taking effect).  If the Scheme is not made, the post will be the current Team Rector of the Caludon Team Ministry, with the expectation that the post will become solely the Rector of St Michael if/once the Pastoral Scheme is finalised.

Relationships in the Team and wider Deanery are currently very healthy, so much so that the Team has decided to cease being a team and to become separate parishes, but retaining the positive mutual respect and support which currently exists. This will also greatly simplify administration and financial accountability, and allow for a greater focus on mission for each particular church. Each of the former districts of the Team will become a single parish benefice parish, with its own PCC, and it is the sincere desire that the partnership and fellowship enjoyed over the last four decades will continue.

The previous Rector exercised a leadership across the Team for just over nine years, which included managing the Team, overseeing a major programme of renovation and re-ordering, and enabling the congregation to be very positive and forward-looking, with a new flexible and accessible worship space. The addition of a weekly All Age Service has helped reduce the age profile of the congregation with some very important and creative children’s ministry in place.

The former Rector left to take up another post within the Diocese.

The church is at the heart of a richly diverse community on the East of the city of Coventry and is confident that God has exciting plans to continue the momentum for health, mission and growth that we have.

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ROLE DESCRIPTION

The post is for a full time, stipendiary priest who will lead the church in fulfilling the Diocesan Mission Purpose:

Worshipping God Making New Disciples Transforming Communities

This will be achieved by delivering 8 Essential Qualities in the life of the church:

Empowering LeadershipGift-orientated MinistryPassionate SpiritualityInspiring WorshipHolistic Small GroupsNeed-oriented OutreachLoving RelationshipsFunctional Structures

PERSON SPECIFICATION

We would welcome applications from priests who value both the Eucharist and other forms of worship, and who:  

have an infectious Christian faith, love Jesus and the Bible, and can help further ignite these within our church.

are empowering and inspiring leaders, preaching God’s word, with uplifting services that explore new styles of worship, whilst enhancing our worship traditions.

encourage people wherever they are on their journey to become full members of God’s kingdom, reaching out into the wider community, and providing a positive presence and practical help for new Christians to grow in faith.  

recognise and value the importance of church family through all stages of life’s journey; who will laugh with us, cry with us, celebrate with us and eat with us; who are comfortable with who they are, and would be comfortable with us.

ST MICHAELS AND THE 8 ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF HEALTHY CHURCHES

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Our first NCD survey took place in March 2017 and we have just completed our second in which our results on the whole were extremely encouraging. We do, however, recognise there are areas that we need to develop in, which we have tried to include in our discussion on the eight essential qualities below.

Empowering Leadership

St Michael’s has a culture of supportive empowerment. We seek out leaders and train and coach them to take responsibility, and rejoice when they do. We benefit from strong lay involvement including lay people planning and leading worship, especially the weekly All Age Service, and we encourage lay participation in all aspects of church life. This includes baptism and wedding preparation. We have two lay people authorised by Bishop of Coventry to take funerals within the parish and two people

actively exploring a vocation to Reader ministry. We have three Readers involved in preparing, and delivering worship particularly the All Age Service.

One of our Church Wardens is in his 30s and is a leading figure in many aspects of church life, leading the youth group, where young people are given space and encouragement to take on responsibilities and build in confidence.

Our Home Group leaders encourage participation of all members and provide opportunities to grow in leadership and other gifts.

We have valued the development of lay leadership within the church and would welcome a Rector who will encourage this further. As the church grows, a leader of leaders will be an essential feature of this role.

Gift-orientated Ministry

This was our strongest area. Many people volunteer within the church and exercise considerable gifts, expressing a sense of being released to use their gifts and feeling valued. Often a word of encouragement can be all it takes to enable someone to embark on a new and fulfilling ministry in the church. We are generous with our time and skills.

From bell ringing to cake making and social media to flower arranging, we have a wealth of gifts in the church community. Catering teams figure quite largely in our ministry! Some have the gift of worship leading or for leading bible study groups

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whereas others are blessed with financial or administrative strengths - all of which are used by God in building our church.

Chris Cross, our youth group, is an important link to the teenagers and the leaders use their gifts to empower and motivate our young people to build friendships and explore their faith in a safe environment. Last year the youth group designed and led their own service which was well supported and really enjoyed by all who attended. The youth

group often raise money for charity and have contributed with an array of artistic offerings to the church.

Weekly management of the Parent and Toddler group is a valuable way of introducing new members into the church and supporting families in our community through outreach.

We hope our new rector will find ways of helping more of us to discover what our gifts are and how best to utilise them. Our recent survey has highlighted this as an area of relative weakness among our 9.30 congregation.

Inspiring worship

The Eucharist is at the heart of the worship for most people at St Michael’s. There is a strong choral tradition, enhanced by the appointment of a new Musical Director in 2015 who has helped lift our choral tradition to new heights as well as facilitating the creation of a new all age music group.

Although primarily Eucharistic, we have however recognised that people and their circumstances vary

tremendously and the introduction of a weekly All Age service, in addition to the existing provision, has allowed us to provide services tailored to the needs of the young families who come and those who seek a more informal and contemporary style of worship. Were they all to be there on the same Sunday we would have over 45 children at this service. Usual Sunday attendance by children has currently increased by 60%.

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We have found that baptism families and wedding couples have found this All Age service an accessible format and over the years many have continued a worshipping commitment. Occasional offices have always been a prominent focus of ministry at St Michael’s and much of our growth has come from developing worship patterns and a welcoming community that helps them to connect and commit. Last year we were able to stage a “worship in the round” for the very first time in the newly re-ordered building which was very powerful.

People expect to meet with God in worship and accordingly prepare themselves carefully beforehand and there is a readiness to experience new patterns and possibilities, particularly at the All Age Service.

Highlights in a rich and varied worship calendar have been the creativity of Holy Week, which over the years has included donkey processions, Passover meals, worship in the round, and stations of the cross with children acting out the parts and a Tenebrae service. A dawn Easter Vigil, All Souls memorial service, Harvest celebrations, Christingles and joint services where the whole church family comes together, mean that worship at St Michael’s has scored highly in the survey.

With the help our very talented Musical Director, choir and junior band we are keen to explore how we can inspire worship through music, as our recent NCD survey highlighted this area as a need for future development in both the 9.30 and 11 am services.

Bringing people together whilst recognising their differences is acknowledged very well in the ‘worship in the

round’ services and this should continue.

We have a communion service on a Wednesday morning at 10am. It is regularly attended by around 15 people who share tea, coffee and cake afterwards. Clearly there is a need for a personal discipleship to grow here, but it could also be an opportunity to encourage those within the community to come in and see.

Our church is growing, and also growing in diversity of worship needs. It will be important to continue to offer a range of worship experiences, so that we can develop

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inspiring worship across a range of traditions and provide spiritual fulfilment to all. Our new flexible seating and lighting arrangements should help in this….as well as our new Rector, of course!

Passionate Spirituality

Prayer is very much at the heart of the life of St Michael’s and people readily ask for prayer in times of need. The newly re-ordered Lady Chapel is a quiet contemplative place on a Sunday that many use in order to pray and prepare themselves before services. We are keen to explore and experience new expressions of prayer and it is our desire that our new rector would share that passion.

Each year there is a week-long retreat organised to Holy Island, Lindisfarne, and this offers space for a really deep encounter with God in prayer, worship and fellowship. Great value is attached to these times of refreshment and renewal. In addition to this there are quiet days organised and Lent and Advent courses that help people prepare for the great festivals of the Church.

There has been a big emphasis on the importance of home groups within the life of St

Michaels. Here people have been able to share more about their faith and grow in confidence. Recently a Bible Study Group following the 9.30am service has been established, under the banner Discipleship Nurture and Apostleship (DNA). Over the years a variety of courses have been run to help people new to Christianity including Alpha and Emmaus and this is something we would like to undertake once more. Confirmation is an important area in the journey of faith and we have seen many experienced Christians take these meetings as an opportunity to ‘refresh’ their faith.

As highlighted in the NCD survey, we need some help in reading and using the Bible as a guide to decisions in everyday life. This was highlighted as a relative weakness for both the 9.30 and 11.00 congregations. There may be an opportunity to address this through the various small groups for at least some of our parishioners.

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Holistic Small Groups

Whilst there are many groups that meet for fellowship and social activities, until recently there were none that met regularly for study and pastoral care. Considerable attention has been given to address this pastoral need with the creation of small groups who meet together to study Scripture, pray and play together. These have proved

very successful and we are keen for our new priest to support and encourage this continued growth.

Our survey reflects that within the groups there are a variety of experiences and that as people learn to trust and share with confidence they grow and flourish in their faith and involvement in the life of the church.

Other small groups include a group of worshippers who meet for toast and coffee after the 8am service. Similarly after the midweek communion service most people stay for coffee and fellowship and these are really valuable times for people to minister to each other. The weekly youth group have grown really close to one another and the members of the choir regularly meet after Friday rehearsals. A Dad’s group has been established for fathers and children to come together on a Saturday morning regularly, and St Michael’s has a Mothers’ Union who meet on a monthly basis. We have had a women’s group and a men’s group run in the past but they have not met regularly recently.

Our desire is that the future ministry at St Michaels will build on the successful creation of small groups and ensure this important element of church life is accessible to everyone. When new people come to our church we would want them to feel welcome and included.

Good co-ordination and communication within and between small groups and with the church leadership should be maintained, harnessing new technologies where appropriate, such as WhatsApp and Facebook and our church web based communication system iKnow Church. This may help to encourage the development of small groups at the 9.30 service, an area of development highlighted by the survey.

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Need orientated Outreach

Many members of our church are engaged in mission and outreach opportunities. A number of our congregation have become Street Pastors and go out into the City at night and provide practical and valued contribution to young people.

Mike’s Tikes, the Parent and Toddler Group, is a valuable community group and provides a life-line to

address isolation of young parents, and valuable advice and support. Equally, the newly-formed ‘Saturday Dads’ provides a relaxed environment for fathers and their children to come and enjoy time together. This is part of the vital work of drawing more 20s-40s, particularly younger men who are currently under-represented in the worshiping life of the church, to St Michael’s given the high proportion of this age-range in the local population. We have strong links with a number of local schools, including church visits and input into curriculum. Our leaders/lay members visit people in hospital and provide services and pastoral support to the local care homes in the parish, as well as to people in their own homes when they are no longer well enough to come to church. Church magazines are also delivered as a way of keeping in touch.

Events such as Café+, lunch clubs, Afternoon Teas, Bingo and Beetle Drives help to address needs of the lonely and isolated, but rarely bring in new people from the Community.

Our Christingle Service brings in many families who we would love to see in our church more regularly than once a year. We recognise that this is an important ministry to take forward.

Our links with the wider global church family are many but most specifically with the Bethesda Ministries of India, who provide secure welfare for some of India’s most vulnerable children. As a church we have made an ongoing commitment to sponsor 12 children each year which helps towards food and education costs.

We would value a more coherent process of helping people explore and access Christian faith. We have not, for example, held many enquirer’s courses recently. We need to be able to reach out more to our local community including refreshing our ecumenical links and to develop a new relationship with neighbouring parishes including those parts of the Caludon Team that could be set to become parishes in their own right.

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Loving Relationships

We know we are biased writing this Parish Profile, but we can honestly say that St Michaels is a joyful and fun place to be! Full of laughter and encouragement! Many spend time together outside church particularly from the 11am service which is well established and relationships have been in place for many years. Similar relationships are starting to build at the 9.30am service and this is an area to be developed further.

The leaders and members of our church regularly praise and tell people when they do a good job. Equally disagreements are addressed, resolved and quickly forgotten. Every church has issues that require attention, however these are generally not of a major or urgent nature.

We are a welcoming and accessible church where friendships are quickly formed and flourish. An annual church camping trip at a nearby camp site has been running for a number of years now and provides an opportunity for families and individuals of all ages to go away for a long weekend and have some fun together. There is also an annual retreat

to Holy Island in Northumberland.

The Social Committee arrange a range of activities that provide the opportunities for members of the various services and the wider Stoke community to come together and build relationships and get to know each other better in a fun way - Tea with Santa, Christmas Fayre, Quiz nights to name a few.

Of course there is always room for doing more, recognising those who find it difficult to fit into a group situation, and gaining their trust to take that step of faith. We are particularly looking to draw in those new to Christianity, through encouraging more links between our congregations, thus building on the success of previous joint services at Easter and other occasions in order to strengthen the relationships within our church family.

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Functional Structures

This is an area we score well on, particularly in the sharing of goals and the mentorship of our church leaders. This will need regular review and renewal to ensure our approach remains relevant.

St Michael’s has an active and effective church council which meets bi-monthly. There are 20 members, including 2 Church Wardens and 3 Deanery Synod representatives. We have a wide variety of ages represented from aged 18 to people in their 70s. The church council has lay-led sub-committees for Finance,

Ways and Means (Buildings and Fabric), Social, and General Worship. All of these committees are well organised and effective, and give reports back to the church council.

We have a rota system for readers, intercessors and Eucharistic Assistants, who are reminded automatically by email. Effective rotas also exist for cleaning, flowers, refreshments, coffee morning and sides-people.

We have recently implemented a web based communications system, iKnow Church, to help with the organisational side of church life. Several groups use modern communications to keep in touch and notify of changes.

We have a monthly magazine ‘Messenger’ which is a very important source of information and is well received. Our Facebook page has well over 300 followers and our website is well used up to date and relevant.

We give great importance to safeguarding. The Diocesan Safeguarding Policy has been adopted by the DCC and Safeguarding is on the agenda at each meeting. We have appointed a Parish safeguarding officer.

The building is in very good condition. The new Rector has an opportunity to benefit from this and experiment and find new ways of using the reordered flexible church space in more creative and inclusive ways.

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THE PARISH OF STOKE

Population

St Michael’s Stoke, Coventry is found in the Upper Stoke Ward of the City of Coventry, about a mile and a half east of Coventry city centre. However, a significant number of the congregation do not live in the parish and live either in other parts of Coventry or in Warwickshire.

The City of Coventry has a population of 353,200 (Coventry City Council Data) with 33.4% of the population BME. The Upper Stoke Ward had according to 2011 census a population of just over 18,000. Approximately 59% of the ward are identified as white British. The data from 2011 indicates a wide range of occupations. The Census also indicates that one-third of households fall within categories with one or more indicators of deprivation.

Schools

There are four schools in the parish:

Ravensdale Primary School (460 on roll– Ofsted “good”). Good regular links with the church. The Rector was a community governor, took assemblies fortnightly, and visits from the school to the church are part of the curriculum. St Michael’s hosts their Christmas school services.

Stoke Primary School (447 on roll – Ofsted “good”). Good regular visits from the school to the church as well as invitations to lead regular assemblies

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Pattisons College (Independent non selective day school) (147 on roll). Regular school assemblies as well as hosting the School Christmas service in church.

Stoke Park Secondary School + Sixth Form (Student population 1,090 - Ofsted “serious weakness”. No current links with the church.

Blue Coat is the local Church of England Secondary school where many regular worshippers attend or did attend! Ofsted rated “good” in 2016 and it was the highest rated Coventry State Sector School in the Good Schools Guide 2018.

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Housing and Health

The parish is predominantly residential with a couple of pockets of light industry and would be described as mostly ‘working class’, with an increasing number of ethnic minority and student residents. Housing in the area is a mixture of privately owned and rented accommodation, comprising predominantly 3-bedroomed, terraced properties built between the wars and one older, conservation area, Stoke Park. There has been a large influx of students from the nearby Universities over recent years which has brought down the average age in the area to 28 as opposed to 39 nationally.

The area experiences income deprivation, affecting older people and young children. There are a particularly high proportion of older people living alone. The childhood obesity rates for the area are significantly higher than the national average.

Shopping

There are a number of shops in the parish reflecting the diverse nature of the community with various retail outlets. There are two main shopping areas:

The Forum Shops comprise of take away outlets, restaurants, a Polish supermarket, estate agents, hairdressers and various retail outlets.

Empress Buildings, where there is are Lidl and Iceland Supermarkets and a number of other small retailers.

Walsgrave Road Shopping area (known locally as Ball Hill) has a Tesco Metro, several supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, branches of High Street Banks and several other small retailers

FarGo is an artistically repurposed industrial space on the edge of the Parish, designed exclusively for creative, independent businesses and like-minded visitors. Located on Far Gosford Street, a recently regenerated area of the Midlands with a rich cultural heritage, the area surrounding FarGo Village is quickly establishing itself as Coventry’s Creative Quarter.

Healthcare Provision

We are fortunate to have a community dentist adjacent to the Forum Shops. In addition, there are many good local General Practice surgeries and a local renal dialysis unit. Plus, we are within a mile of the main local Acute Hospital, The University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, in Walsgrave and the City of Coventry Health Centre which provides a walk-in-centre and a range of primary care services.

City of Culture 2021

In 2017 Coventry was awarded the title of UK City of Culture 2021 by the department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The programme is built on a series of principles that all involved are asked to commit to: these reflect community led involvement, accessibility and learning, and legacy and sustainability.

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Other places of worship

Other denominations in the parish are:

Sacred Heart Church- Roman Catholic Hocking Road Church - United Reformed Church Hebron Christian Faith Church – Free Church Meredith Road Church - Baptist

Historically there have been positive relations and shared activities between the local churches. With changes in staffing this has been a neglected area in recent times. Currently the only links are an invitation each month for members of other churches to join us at our Lunch Club. We hope that ecumenical links might be encouraged and strengthened by our new Rector.

ST MICHAEL’S CHURCH

Church Building

St Michael’s can trace its origins back 1100 when Hugh, the Earl of Chester, (the nephew of William the Conqueror) built a church on the site. The current building however is Grade 2* listed and dates to the 14th Century. The Tower, and parts of the south aisle and nave are medieval but in 1861 the church was dramatically enlarged to reflect the growing local community. Records suggest the Victorian extension created a building capable of seating 500. This included a balcony, which no longer exists. A toilet and Choir and Clergy vestry were added in 1930 and finally in 1950 the North and South aisles were extended eastwards. This created what is now the Lady Chapel and the Organ Chamber.

In 2016 a major re-ordering and restoration took place. The Victorian pine pews, which had restricted access and flexibility, were removed. The floor was raised slightly to allow ramps to be installed providing disabled access to all areas of the building. New toilets including baby-changing facilities were incorporated in the plans and flexible seating introduced to allows for a wide variety of worship options including services in the round and other community activities. A new kitchen area was installed in the north-west corner allowing for refreshments to be served.

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Areas of deterioration were addressed: the building was rewired and re-lit with new LED lights, and the Lady Chapel was glassed in creating a space ‘apart’ from the main building and can now be heated independently making it ideal for meetings, youth work, crèche and creative worship. The addition in 2018 of a beautiful bespoke Altar added to the beauty of this special place.

As a result of the alterations the building can now, in addition to enhanced creativity in worship, be used for Christmas Fairs, social events, conferences and there is scope for offering wedding couples the option of having their service and reception in the same venue.

St Michael’s Churchyard

The churchyard is approximately 4 acres in size. It was closed in 1980 by Order of Council and is maintained by the Coventry City Council, a team from Community Pay Back who come weekly, and by a team of volunteers. Bi-annually we have Open Churchyard Days where members of the congregations volunteer to tidy up the churchyard. A Garden of Rest was created in 2011, which has ample provision for the interment of cremated remains for many years to come. Names are inscribed on communal headstones on a first come first served basis. The grounds are a beautiful green space and a haven for wildlife in a rather built up part of the city.

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St Michael’s Centre

The Church Centre was built in the 1960s and comprises of two large meeting rooms, toilets and an office space used by the parish administrator. In addition, there is a large recently re-fitted commercial grade kitchen. Solar panels were installed 2013 and this greatly reduces running costs and provides a revenue stream for the church. The facilities are used by a variety of local community groups and individuals and there is a car park for up to 30 cars at the rear. The church uses this

building for many of its social activities and it is where the youth group are based and where important meetings and receptions can be held.

Stoke Rectory

The Rectory is modern bungalow built in the grounds of the church in the 1960s. It has 4 double bedrooms and a generous garden. There are two reception rooms, a study, an additional study area, and a double garage.

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Services There are three regular Sunday morning services at St Michael’s:

8.00am – Said Holy Communion 9.30am – All Age Service (Holy Communion once a month) 11.00am – Sung Holy Communion

The DCC (to become PCC) has agreed an open policy for the receiving of Communion by children.

During the week there is a service of Holy Communion on a Wednesday morning, and once a month there is a service at a local nursing home. Home Communions are taken as and when required.

Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals

Baptisms 9Weddings 11Blessings of marriage 1Funerals in Church 17Funerals at Crematorium 12

Figures vary year on year but we see Occasional Offices as a vital part of our mission to the local community and would hope a new Rector would share this vision.

MINISTRY TEAM

Curate – Revd Dr Noel Phillips

Noel has been Assistant Curate to Stoke St Michael’s since his ordination as Deacon in July 2017. He was ordained as priest in July 2018. His curacy is due to end in 2020. Currently, Noel is tasked with a Leadership Project, working with two of our readers, to refresh the 9.30 All Age Worship Service. He has recently formalised a regular All Age Eucharistic worship for 9.30 All Age Congregations on the third Sunday of the month, and recently established a Bible Study Group following the 9.30am service, under the banner Discipleship Nurture and Apostleship (DNA). He is experimenting with differing styles of worship in church and the community. He has also established our Saturday Dad’s group.

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Noel’s areas for specific focus: Development of worship that is accessible to those who are new to church. Exploration of alternatives to the traditional Sunday format Devise strategies for engaging young dads. Look at outreach initiatives to connect with the wider community Develop audio visual opportunities in the newly re-ordered church

Readers

We have three active Readers who are all involved in planning and leading worship, two are licensed funeral ministers, one is involved in the Baptism team and all three are involved in taking Home Communion to those who are housebound or sick, or for any other reason they are no longer able to attend St Michael’s.

Administration

The church office is situated in the Church Centre and is a large space with good colour photocopying facility and optional space for additional clergy / staff to work. The church currently pays an administrator to work 4 weekday mornings.

Our website is managed by a committed group of church members and friends who assist in maintaining the site, refreshing it and ensuring its content is up to date. It also provides a place for people to get in touch with the church.

We are very active on Facebook, sharing events, posts and photos from life in the church. These are particularly popular and enable us to reach a wide audience of both church members, our local community and even to former church members now living across the globe.

Finance and Stewardship

The table below summarises our financial situation in 2017. Full sets of accounts for the last three years are available on request.

Total

General Income 52,871Planned Giving 44,298Gift-Aid 12,084Fundraising (e.g. fetes)

4,536

Grants 17,845General Expenditure 70,488Parish Share Contribution

61,560

Unrestricted Reserves 10,000Restricted Reserves 0

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The year 2017 was a relatively quiet one financially following on from the major expenditure of Phase Two building work carried out the previous year. We ended the year with just under a two and a half thousand pounds deficit. This would have been worse but for the very good response to the Stewardship campaign held in October.

Many people make their financial contributions to the church by standing orders, weekly envelopes, plate collections in services, donations and fund-raising activities, and often are able to apply Gift Aid to them. We have 83 people that gift-aid their contributions and 12 other planned givers.

We rent out the halls in our Church Centre building and figures relating to those activities are included in the general income and expenditure figures in the table above.

Clergy expenses are met in full.

We pay for the services of a verger, an organist and a church administrator.

Plans for future expenditure include repairs to the Church Centre and work needed to the Church building over the next five years, mentioned in our recent quinquennial inspection report.

The prospects as we entered 2018 were that we ought to break even in this coming year, but there are three provisos if we are to achieve this:

Firstly, it will take all of our income. This includes the monies that are generated by the Church Centre activities, which we really ought to be setting aside for improvements to that building so that we can properly overcome the flat roofing defects, and bring the fire escape exits up to standard.

Secondly, we shall not be able to transfer any money to the Church Fabric Fund which effectively stands empty. We should not be expecting to have to spend very much in this regard in the short term following the major re-ordering, but we need to rebuild that fund for the inevitable expenditure which will be required in both the medium and long-term future.

Thirdly, the costs of Phase Two used all of our Reserves. Because we were able to reclaim some of the VAT we were obliged to pay, it has been restored to £10,000. It is our policy to maintain reserves which equate to approximately six months’ unrestricted payments to cover emergency situations that may arise from time to time. To achieve this, we aim to bring our Reserves up to £70,000.

We successfully concluded 2017 without defaulting on any of the dues that were required of us, and that includes paying in full our Parish Share of £61,560 which is above the cost of the post for the incumbent, towards the Coventry East Deanery contribution to the Diocese.

The generosity expressed in the Stewardship Campaign shows that the spirit is there to ensure the work of the church will not go unsupported, and that we shall do our utmost to achieve the vision which was set out in October 2017.

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Statistics

The Parish of Stoke has 174 on the electoral roll of which 106 are resident in the parish.Usual Sunday attendance at 8.00am is 15Usual Sunday attendance at 9.30am is 40 (15 children)Usual Sunday attendance at 11.00am is 75

Further Information

For further details and an application form please contact:Joe Grayson, Administrative Assistant to the Archdeacons

By email to Joe.Grayson@CofE.org or 02476 521337

Informal conversations welcome. Please contact:Archdeacon Missioner, Ven Morris Rodham, on tel: 07506731892

(Morris.Rodham@CovCofE.org) orArea Dean, Rev Pam Howell on tel: 02476303266 (revpamhowell@gmail.com)

Expressions of interest are welcome!

An application form can be downloaded from the Diocesan Website:http://www.dioceseofcoventry.org/vacancies

Enhanced DBS disclosure is required for this post.

This is a Crown Patronage Appointment.

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