There are big changes taking place for the North West Hampshire churches! The parishes of Ashmansworth, Crux Easton, East Woodhay and Woolton Hill have joined together to form one parish and the four churches will have one PCC.
A special meeting with fizz and nibbles was held to mark the “momentous occasion” and the culmination of three years of work. The meeting formally put into place the members of the new PCC, which will be made up of clergy, churchwardens and lay members from each of the four churches.
It’s also a double celebration as the benefice is preparing to welcome a new rector.
Rachel Hardy attends St James, Ashmansworth. She is vice-chair of the new PCC. She said, “It has been a lot of work to pull four churches together with very differing views on how things should be done but we’ve managed it. I’m very excited because I think there’ll be more energy coming from being part of four churches rather than each church individually. We are four totally different places. Ashmansworth is a tiny church building whereas East Woodhay is huge and very grand and Woolton Hill is much more modern. So, they’ve all got their different personalities and I think it will work really well. The foundations are already in place because we’ve been part of a benefice of five churches for more than 10 years now, so we’ve got to know each other during that time. I think by being part of a bigger group, we can tap into the different personalities of the churches and encourage more people to come to church. We need more young families, more young people coming through. It’s very important.”
There are five churches in the benefice of North West Hampshire but the fifth parish of Highclere has opted not to join at this time.
The idea for the parish merger began in 2021 following conversations with Bishop David considering the need for greater efficiencies and more streamlined working across the Church of England as a whole.
The Pastoral Scheme included a public consultation with an opportunity for parishioners and others to comment on the proposals. A “shadow PCC” with representatives from each church worked with the Diocese of Winchester and Whitchurch Deanery before a decision by the Church Commissioners.
It’s hoped the amalgamation will strengthen and simplify administration. The Rector will now oversee two PCCs rather than five, releasing more time for ministry and mission. Churchwardens will chair four local church committees.
Andrew Colville is churchwarden at St Martin’s Church in East Woodhay. He said, “Our incumbent had to deal with five churches, each of which were having four or five meetings every year. Some of them had standing committees so that doubles the number of meetings. That meant she had over 40 meetings a year and she was very keen on going to all of them. One of the ideas of this is to cut the admin so that the new incumbent has more time to go out into the community and boost worship and will have great support from all the churches at the same time. One of the benefits of having a coordinated group of people at the top is that maybe we can improve some of the ways we do things and use best examples from some of the other churches. I think from that perspective it will be good. It’s taken us three years and we’re very glad now that it’s up and running and we’re excited for the future.”
There are plans to improve online communication and social media, getting messages out into the community and building relationships.
David Wolfenden is churchwarden at St Michael’s and All Angels at Crux Easton: “This will give the clergy more time to undertake priestly duties and we need to concentrate on evangelism. Churches need to get into workplaces and schools and into the community. They need to go and preach Christ’s gospel. They can’t do that sitting behind a desk with a computer. I’m hopeful that when the new rector arrives, she has the ability to go and knock on doors and meet the community. I’m hoping that the single PCC concept will help her and give her time to be able to do this.”
A second celebration takes place at St Thomas Church on 29th July with the institution service for the new rector Rev’d Lisa Rodrigues.
