- Joint Annual Report
For 2009
June 2009 saw the endorsement of the Benefice of our Vision ’Affirming Moseley with God’s guidance, generosity and love’. Three solid years of prayer, planning and preparation have led to us identifying the five key areas to focus on : Renewing Worship, Developing Discipleship, Sharing Faith, Providing Pastoral Care and Offering Hospitality and vision teams have subsequently been created; putting our plans into practice has been harder. Enthusiasm by one or two to try and develop all five areas has led to strong growth and development in worship and hospitality whilst others remain at a stage of discussion. In September the Diocese launched the Transforming Church programme and parishes are recommended to try and concentrate on reviewing and developing one or two specific areas of ministry at a time. We need to take heed of this, as well as being prepared to stick to the agenda that the Benefice has signed up to.
The Renewing Worship Team has reflected carefully on our existing patterns of worship and implemented some changes at the beginning of Advent. These will take time to adjust to and develop and will be reviewed in a year’s time. In particular the Teaching Eucharist and the Alternative worship are being designed to see new growth in our congregations.
Improving our publicity and methods of communication has been a priority of the Hospitality group and we hope to capitalise on our many positive and successful social events to demonstrate our faith in action. The involvement of the Benefice in many significant local activities last summer has done much to improve our profile in the community most notably the Moseley Mysteries, Moseley Festival, Moseley-in-Bloom and the residents’ street party at St Anne’s were all highlights. The Benefice has also hosted a wide range of other activities such as the launch of the Bell appeal at St Mary’s, Africa Night and the Pet Service; these and the Christmas Tree festival attended by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham were also highly commended and well attended by people across Moseley.
In June 2010, we will be evaluating what has been achieved in the first year of our vision and look forward to celebrating the many areas of growth and development and then working out a further timetable in order to achieve our aims and goals. Alongside this has been the continuation of maintaining and developing the fabric of the Church buildings and at the time of writing, work has finally begun to improve music, kitchen and toilet facilities at St Mary’s; this compliments upgrades at St Anne’s and hopefully marks the first stage of a programme to upgrade the Church’s ancillary buildings on both sites - the development of the Benefice Office is now a major priority and should be considered shortly. All these facilities will make a difference and pray that this will no longer be a distraction to the prime vision focus of developing disciples, sharing faith and offering quality worship and hospitality for the glory of God’s love to be made known in Moseley.
This is a challenging task and in the past few months the Ministry Team have been reviewing their roles and the Benefice also needs to consider what resources and support are required in order to support our aims. It is intended to develop a whole church programme for discipleship but this year has seen the Start enquirers course being run twice, as well as 15 adults and young people being confirmed. Our youth and children’s work continue to remain a priority and we are fortunate to have so many people committed to this work. It is our hope that during 2010 we will see many more people growing in confidence in sharing faith. This will come as we deepen and strengthen our prayer life. To continue to develop this the PCC’s will continue to review the job description of the Associate Vicar’s post so that in the future, the Office holder will hopefully focus on particular areas of mission across the Benefice rather than be attached to a specific Church.
Ownership of the Church and shared leadership are necessary to support our vision and it is our hope that each team will have its own leader to take forward the proposals. In May, Robert Brown took up the role as Vice-Chair of the PCC at St Mary’s and I hope that we will also build up other leaders to support and relieve the work of the Clergy and Wardens. As Vicar and Associate Vicar, we see our roles are to support and enable these people; it is important that the Benefice takes responsibility for what it delivers and that it is not dependent on a smaller ministry team being there to lead it. In June 2009, Peter Hansell left the Benefice at the end of his four year curacy with us; he had offered many gifts particular in education and consequently has begun training Readers in the Coventry Diocese. After 45 years of outstanding service Eric Dwyer retired in May on celebrating his 75th birthday; Eric continues to serve in the Benefice, but especially at Moseley Hall Hospital he has been the backbone of the chaplaincy during extended sick leave of The Revd Lyn Morris. After a six month period of leave, Cathie Carey decided not to continue as a Reader; she has served the Benefice faithfully for 12 years and we thank both her, Eric and Peter for all their service over many years. During 2009 The Revd Richard Tetlow and The Revd Dr Ivor Jones came into the Benefice as retired ministers; it is good to have them with us and draw on their support and advice; both continue to pursue active interests with other denominations and faiths outside the Church of England. This builds on Rosemary’s recent visit to Malawi creating a link with the Parish of Magamero and extends links with Ho in Ghana and the knitting of blankets for Stitches of Hope which have enabled us to appreciate more fully being part of a world wide church.
Overall 2009 was a challenging but fruitful year which will hopefully see the Benefice more sustainable in the future. We thank a whole host of people from wardens to all those who give their time and talent to making our 2 churches places that reflect God’s love. This is something to be built on and strengthened and we look forward to the journey ahead.