A new face - and a new model of ministry
The highlight for the parish for this month will be the ordination as deacon in Winchester Cathedral on 4th July of Trish Bancroft who is coming to be Curate with us in the benefice of Kingsclere and Ashford Hill with Headley.
Trish, as you may have gathered from her article in last month’s magazine, comes to us following a 3-year part-time ministry and theology training programme. Her 3-4 years with us form the second part of her training for parish ministry, at the end of which, she will, God willing, go on to take responsibility for her own parish – or, more likely, group of parishes.
We are extremely fortunate to have been asked to have Trish in this capacity. This year, there are only 6 other such appointments in the whole of Hampshire. Although there are some limitations as to what a curate in training in her first year is permitted to do - and this time must be spent getting to know the people and the parishes - clearly the longer she is with us, the more she will be able to contribute to the church’s ministry in the parishes.
Living in Ashford Hill Vicarage, many in this parish might well feel that it is good to have a resident minister again. However, first of all it is important to understand that Trish has no specific brief for Ashford Hill with Headley but will be ministering as I do across the whole benefice. Hopefully, her assistance will enable me to spend more time in this parish than I’ve been able to before.
Secondly, it is probably timely to sound a warning. The latest statistics from the Church of England warn us that numbers of full time clergy are still on an overall downward trend with as many as 40% of current serving clergy due to retire in the next 10 years. It is forecast that despite encouraging numbers continuing to come forward for ordained ministry, we as a national church should be preparing for somewhere around a 25% fall in paid clergy over the next decade.
This is to say, therefore, that Trish’s presence with us should not lull us into a false sense of security with regard to the future of the church either in this parish – or elsewhere. It is quite clear that the survival of the rural church in decades to come will depend on the willingness of local residents who value the presence of the church (even if not regular worshippers themselves) to take responsibility where possible for different aspects of the local church’s life - aspects which would once have been seen as the sole preserve of the Vicar. Meanwhile, the role of the full time paid clergy will be increasingly to identify lay people with appropriate skills and to resource them with encouragement, training and oversight.
Trish, in her training with us, will be focused therefore not only on the roles we traditionally expect of a parish priest but equally importantly on the role of enabler and trainer. With our responsibility for not just the present but the future of the church, she and I together will need to be identifying those in the parishes with the kinds of skills which, with appropriate training, will enable them to contribute to the church’s ministry in years to come.
I am sure you will welcome Rev Trish – and her family – warmly to the community but having two women priests in the benefice will not be the only change on the horizon.
With many blessings.
Rev Lucy Thirtle