| Ministry
I’m not sure when you will read this, but if all goes to plan then I shall be licensed as Priest-in-Charge of St Giles Packwood on 29th September 2024. Perhaps you will, or have, joined in with the celebratory walk to launch the Oversight Area. (See page 12/13 of September’s magazine.) A Priest-in-Charge is a temporary Vicar. The arrangement is temporary to allow a Pastoral Reorganisation to take place. Packwood parish is being unlinked from Nuthurst cum Hockley Heath and instead will be linked to Baddesley Clinton and Lapworth. It will take a couple of years for the various consultations and legalities to work through, but the plan is for Baddesley Clinton, Lapworth and Packwood to become one benefice, under one priest. At that point I would expect to be relicensed as Vicar of Packwood, rather than Priest-in-Charge. But even before then we have the “Oversight Area”. An Oversight Area is a group of parishes (often with their own vicars) working together and sharing resources. The Oversight Area of Baddesley Clinton, Lapworth and Packwood will be launched on 29th September. I also have a role as Bishop’s Adviser for the Environment. Fortunately that role has become much more manageable since some volunteers were appointed to help me in May 2023. But even so, I was quite busy enough with Baddesley Clinton and Lapworth even before Packwood came along. Until last year Vicar of Packwood was a 50% of full-time role. That kind of role can’t simply be absorbed. A complete rearrangement of ministry is required with much more being done by volunteers such as Readers and retired priests. I’m very grateful to those who step forward. I find, more and more, I have to think about my own ministry as facilitating the ministry of others, rather than about what I can do myself. Sometimes I feel I am spread far too thin, such that I am skating over parish life without properly engaging. But there are many advantages in having a ministry team: breadth, diversity, resilience and we need to make the most of these. With prayers and best wishes – Fr Patrick
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