Parish Diary

From the Vicar

Later this year the present Incumbent of the United Benefice of Antrobus, Aston-by-Sutton, Little Leigh and Lower Whitley (known as the Four Parishes!) will be leaving the Deanery to take up a new post in Malpas Deanery, in South Cheshire. As Rural Dean, and as one of the Patrons of the Four Parishes in my capacity as Vicar of Great Budworth, I have been involved in discussions about the future of the Four Parishes, and this process is currently on-going. The opening remarks of the Archdeacon at a recent meeting gave me food for thought, and prayer, regarding the ministry of the Church of England throughout the length and breadth of the land. The Archdeacon spoke about the importance of ministry within each of the parishes, about their own individual and particular identities, and also about the cost of ministry – facing up to the economic realities of the times we live in. The task facing the Archdeacon, myself and the Churchwardens of the Four Parishes is to try and reconcile these sometimes conflicting factors, and to try to find a solution for on-going ministry that will be the best, and most appropriate, for the parishes.

The Four Parishes are not of course unique in this respect – these sort of conversations take place in every parish where there is to be a vacancy – but facing up to the cost of ministry, and changing patterns of population and church going habits, are perhaps more important now than they were in previous generations. The shape of the Church’s ministry has, of course, always been subject to change and development – sometimes gradual and sometimes radical – and we in the 21^st Century are no less subject to this change and development than were our forebears. The parochial system of the Church of England, which has evolved over the last 1000 or so years, is coming under increasing stress and pressure, because of the factors mentioned above, but the mission of the Church of England remains constant – to be a presence in every parish of the land, witnessing to the love of God in Jesus Christ and ministering to all people, whether members of the Church of England or not.

Please keep the Four Parishes, and all their peoples, in your prayers as discussions concerning the future shape of ministry in those parishes continue, and let us also give thanks for the years of faithful worship, witness and work of the Church in those places.

May God bless each one of us in this coming monthy.

The Revd Alec Brown.

Site last updated on May 01, 2012