February Message

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

(Jeremiah 29 verse 11 … Good News Translation)

This verse from Jeremiah 29 has been drawn to our attention many times already during our time of vacancy. But now we are a few steps closer to knowing what the future might hold for our little group of five parishes

Adverts have recently appeared in the Church Times and on the Lichfield Diocese website. The closing date for applications was Mon 26 JAN but we do not yet know whether anyone has respond to these adverts. Hopefully that will become clearer soon.

The advert was for an INTERIM MINISTER who would initially be appointed on a three year contract. At the end of that time and following a review the contract might be extended for a further three years. The reason why the post is initially going to be on a short term contract is that there are currently some question marks about the future viability of our benefice. The total amount of money that our five churches are currently able to raise each year falls some way short of the cost of providing a full time minister. Also the number of people attending services week by week and the average age of our congregations give some concern about what the situation might look like in six years time.

We are very grateful that many people in our villages already help to support our churches but going forward it is clear we are going to need even more help if all five of these churches are going to remain open in the long term. We need to grow the size of our congregations and we need to grow younger. The Lichfield Diocese have put in place some very generous funding to help pay part of the cost of our new Interim Minister over the next six years. But by 2032 we will need to show that we can stand on our own feet and meet the full cost of our minister ourselves. We pray that our new Interim Minister will help us to achieve this.

Brian Turner … Churchwarden St Mary’s Knockin.