St. Paul’s Church, Chippenham

North Chippenham Group of Churches
2008 Annual Church Meetings – Rector’s Report by Simon Tyndall

This is my 7th report to the annual meetings of the churches of the North Chippenham Group of Churches – St Peter’s Langley Burrell; St Michael & All Angels’ Kington St Michael; St Nicholas’ Hardenhuish; St Paul’s Chippenham – having become Team Rector on 30th April 2001. It is a post I am really enjoying and find working with you and amongst you to be a great privilege. Thank you for being the church and for all your support and encouragement over the past year. I am aware that so many people do contribute to who we are. Thank you - your part is important and appreciated!

THANK YOU! - I do want to acknowledge the contribution made to our life and witness by both James & Inger Denniston and to record my sincere thanks for the love and support they gave during their 4 years with us. We wish them well in their new ministry and ask for God’s continuing blessing on all they do. I do also want to thank all those who regularly take services in our churches; the Ministry Team of John Woodward, Steve Cooper, Karin Needham, Karen Rudge, Ron Pool, Barbara Wood, Pam Tayler and 3 others who were licensed this year. It was lovely to be able to share with Dave Kilmister as he was ordained Priest and also that Tim Woodward and Anjali Kanagaratnam were licensed as Lay Ministers (Readers).

GROUP LEADERSHIP - these Ministers along with our Church Wardens are now forming our Group Leadership (which aims to meet 4/5 times a year). And I want to thank our Church Wardens for all they do – Veronica Kilmister, Neville Hammersley, Martin Ellett, Cynthia Smith, Derek Boulton, Pam Tayler and Janet Elms (who stood down at the KSM annual meeting) and was replaced by Colin Labouchere.

ESL - 2007 was the year that I was given a 3 month Extended Study Leave and this gave me a wonderful opportunity to travel, reflect and be refreshed and re-invigorated after 23 years of full-time Christian work. I have written about things elsewhere but it is fair to say that the experiences have left a deep impression on me – time on Iona, walking the Thames Path, improving my French, spending time at the Arocha project and working with refugees and asylum seekers. There is so much more to life than what happens within the parish and it was good for me to be able to spread my wings and be challenged by what I did and saw.

ST PAUL’S RE-ORDERING - upon my return I was projected back into the issue of what to do with St Paul’s buildings – both the hall & church need things doing with them. The question is – what? And by whom? It became clear to me that although many wanted to see progress with re-ordering there were not the people in place to take this forward. So, we set up a Mission & Vision Group to try to work out what the priorities and agenda for St Paul’s should be. It has come up with a suggested way of working as a church in structure and leadership – and we hope and pray this will be brought in at the 2008 annual meeting – and give us a better way of working that might mean that re-ordering can be picked up again by a group of people able to give the required time and commitment.

MY RE-LICENSING - while I was away the question of my re-licensing came up. You may (or may not!) know that when I came in 2001 the Bishop gave me a 7 year license and this could be renewed for a further 7 years. (Interestingly, if it were not to be renewed there is no mechanism for clergy to get another job – we just have to apply for vacancies! But presumably it could mean that some clergy would lose their job and also be made homeless as we have to live in tied houses!) I am not sure that the process was handled as well as it might have been but thankfully (for me & Ann at least!) Bishop Lee has written to say that my license is being renewed for a further 7 years. This is not a guarantee that I will stay for a full 7 more years but that I could be here for that length of time. It is in God’s hands. (By the way, if you want to know more about this please do ask me!)

COMMUNICATION - I want to take this opportunity to thank Kay Mason & Martin Ellett for all they do in producing 2 of our most important means of communication – I refer to the weekly pew sheet and the monthly edition of CLARION. I try to make sure that as much information as possible is circulated in the parish – can I encourage you to use these resources and also contribute to them? Also, thanks to Jon Davies & Dick Wood for all they do running the websites for St Paul’s (www.stpaulsweb.co.uk) & Hardenhuish churches (www.harnish.org.uk). [Editor's note: Most of the content management on St Paul's website is done by Amanda and Rob Kingsland - thanks to them also. Jon.]

FUTURE TEAM APPOINTMENT - we are being given permission by the diocese to proceed with an appointment of a new Team Vicar. I have written about this elsewhere and I hope you have seen that the post will be quite different from that filled by Wendy Sanders and James Denniston. We are looking for someone who will be involved in new ways of reaching out and being church in a world where the Sunday morning slot is taken by all sorts of activities. Please pray for this important post and that we appoint the person God’s wants here.

FRESH EXPRESSIONS - at this point it is worth pointing out that we are beginning to hold more and more expressions of church and worship that happen outside of the Sunday morning slot in our church buildings. Often referred to as Fresh Expressions, we would count Beta (youth worship); our midweek services of Holy Communion and the worship of the Women’s Union as part of this. And 2008 sees the launch of The Village Hall On Sunday in Kington St Michael. That’s quite a list!

DOORWAY & NIGHTSHIFT & REVELATION & OLIVE BRANCH - I do also want to mention that some wonderful things are happening in Chippenham which involve volunteers from all the churches. They are always looking for new people to join them and I am really enthusiastic about these 4 joint initiatives of the local churches. We do work well together in Chippenham and there is a very good feeling of co-operation amongst the local ministers from all churches when we meet – whether as formal Churches Together or when the evangelical ministers meet up.

MY WIDER ROLE - is still important to me. I have been Chair of CCT (Chippenham Churches Together) and step down early in 2008 – handing over to David Spink (an elder at the URC); I am a Trustee of the Revelation Shop; I am still a governor at St Paul’s primary school; and I am on the Deanery Standing Committee. I will probably be a Selector at one CMS Conference this year and I have begun to volunteer at the Harbour Project (Swindon) for Asylum Seekers & Refugees. None of these take up a lot of time but they give me valuable insight and experience into things outside of our parish boundaries.

THREE SPECIAL THINGS - in this report I just want to pass comment on how please I am that The RISE Trust is moving towards its goal of running a Children’s Centre at St Paul’s School; also, how much I appreciated and enjoyed the summer visit we hosted from Mukono (Uganda); and remember the wonderful evening we had when we hosted Stuart Townend. These, and many other things, give great cause to rejoice at what God is doing amongst us.

Of course 2007 has had its difficulties as well as its blessings but I want to thank God for the journey we have made through the year. In our churches we will have our ups and our downs – we are, after all, only human! - but the question is how we deal with these. Is our life together marked by prayer, care, forgiveness and wishing the best for each other – i.e. love? St John wrote these words (1 John 4:11-12):

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another.
No-one has ever seen God;
but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Thank you for sharing the year with me! And thank God for all that he gives us!

Simon Tyndall