training curacies profile - stamford, lincs

Two Training CuraciesStamford All Saints

and St George’s

Training CuraCies Profile all sainTs and sT george’s, sTamford

Two Training curacies in The Deanery of sTamforD The Bishop of Lincoln proposes to create two training curacies in the Deanery of Stamford for Petertide 2014. One of these will be based at St George’s Stamford and the other at All Saints Stamford. In terms of support and supervision these two curates will train alongside each other and there will be a degree of ‘cross over’ between the curacies as each curate draws benefit from a training experience that draws on two churches with different traditions but with a common commitment to working alongside each other. This experience will extend after the first year or so to involve other ministry experiences across the Deanery of Stamford while remaining under the supervision and direction of the two principle clergy who have supplied the profiles below. Each post is open to any ordinand who can commit to this style of learning and who is prepared to work with either a male or female counterpart. We think it is an exciting and innovative way of offering training curacies and welcome calls of interest to either the respective incumbents or the Director of Ordinands.

all sainTs wiTh sT John The BapTisT

Incumbent: The Very Revd Mark Warrick Bsc BCS

Date of Ordination: Deacon July 1983; Priest July 1984Time in parish: Licensed January 2009

Previous Experience:

1983 - 1987 Assistant Curate, Grantham Team Ministry, Lincoln Diocese1987 - 1991 Senior Assistant Curate, Cirencester, Gloucester Diocese1991 - 1997 Vicar of Over, Ely Diocese1997 - 2009 Vicar of Deeping St James, Lincoln Diocese

Alongside my parish work I have served part-time in hospital and army chaplaincy and in healing and deliverance ministry, and as chaplain to local authorities. I have been elected to the diocesan synods of all three dioceses in which I have served.Before ordination I was a town planning assistant in an architect’s practice.At present I am in my second term as Rural Dean and hold the historic office of Dean of Stamford.

Contact details: All Saints Vicarage, Casterton Road, Stamford, PE9 2YL 01780 756 942 | [email protected]

sT george’s

Incumbent: Martyn Taylor

Date of Ordination: June 1996

Previous Experience:

Length of time in Parish: 17 years (4 as curate, 2 as Associate Rector, Interregnum, 10 as Rector).Other Posts Held: Lecturer at Uganda Martyr’s Seminary, Namugongo, near Kampala. Part time Hospital Chaplain, Mayor’s Chaplain, Assistant Rural Dean, Member of the Diocesan Synod, Bishop’s Fresh Expressions group.

Contact details: 16 St George’s Square, Stamford. PE9 2BN 01780 757 343 | [email protected]

all saints and st george’s, stamfordtraining CuraCies Profile

Training post for Deacon who expects to be ordained Priest / Presbyter

According to a Sunday Times report, Stamford is the best place to live in Britain! This will depend upon your needs and desires, of course, but it is certainly one of the most attractive towns in many ways. Until 1974 a Borough, Stamford has many proud traditions and a real sense of community. It has a growing population of about 20,000 but has the facilities and vibrancy of a town very much bigger, drawing people from four counties to its shops and businesses.

Stamford is in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire and in the extreme south-west of the county, close to the point where four counties meet: only one road out of the town leads into the rest of Lincolnshire, and the nearby Unitary Authority Area of Rutland looks to Stamford as much to its own county town of Oakham. Peterborough is the nearest city and has most of the few facilities which are lacking in Stamford itself.

The historic core of the town was the country’s first Conservation Area and is considered by many to be the finest stone town in England. But Stamford does not only look to the distant past. The industrial revolution brought engineering industry to the town and manufacturing was a substantial component in its economy until very recently. There is now only one major engineering factory in the town which still makes a big contribution to the town’s life.

Stamford continues to grow and is weathering the current economic difficulties quite well, with employment opportunities in many fields and a good range of shops still trading. A large housing estate on the west of the town is currently planned.

Stamford has its own hospital, currently part of the Peterborough and Stamford NHS Trust, three NHS GP practices and NHS dentists. There are two theatres, one of which is part of the Stamford Arts Centre and also shows films. The Arts Centre also includes gallery space and a ballroom. The town centre has a wide

range of restaurants, cafés and pubs and there are many clubs and societies within the town, catering for most interests and age groups. The local newspaper, the Stamford Mercury, claims to be the oldest newspaper in the world and serves the town well.

There are several excellent state primary schools and a rapidly-improving small comprehensive secondary school (with other both selective and comprehensive nearby in Lincolnshire and other counties) and the Stamford Endowed Schools provide fee-paying education to all ages with generous scholarships and bursaries for suitable pupils. New College, Stamford, is an excellent FE college with a wide range of courses including A Levels and foundation degrees..

There is railway station with an hourly service between Birmingham and Stanstead Airport via Cambridge, with connections at Peterborough (13 minutes away) for London ( a further hour) and the North-east and Scotland, and the A1 Great North Road passes just to the west of the town bringing most of the country within reasonable reach by car.

There is at present provision for three incumbents in Stamford with each Anglican Church reflecting the different distinct streams within the Church of England.

The Parish of All Saints with St John the Baptist comprises over half the population of the town and includes two primary schools (one a CofE Academy). There is a wide variety of housing types and a mixed population socio-economically, although little ethnic diversity.

St George’s parish includes Stamford Hospital, at least 4 residential homes, a day centre, Stamford School (Boys), New College Stamford (FE), St George’s C of E Primary School, out of town retail units, Morrison’s and McDonald’s!

Most main Christian denominations are represented in the town and work well together.


all sainTs wiTh sT John The Bap-TisT

All Saints’ building is one of four historic churches still serving Stamford alongside one twentieth-century church. It is the biggest in the town centre but is very small by Lincolnshire market town standards.

It is seen by many as the “town church” and so, for example, hosts the annual Celebration of Excellence” for the FE college and is the venure for most of the town’s church weddings and funerals. All the Anglican churches in town run open boundaries and work happily alongside each other. The ‘Churches Together in Stamford’ works together on set events at Easter and the Stamford festival and the ministers meet to share information over lunch three times a year. All the churches collaborate on a wide range of social outreach projects such as Street Pastors, FoodBank, Christians Against Poverty and a number of local projects based at Christ Church but using volunteers from and serving people in all parts of the town. The Evergreen care Trust is a cross-denominational charity providing many types of support to the growing numbers of elderly and vulnerable people in the town and district.

The church’s own life centres around the weekly Sunday Eucharist (around 100 communicants) with concurrent children’s group “Sunday Saints” and with fellowship over coffee in church afterwards.

There is also a substantial fellowship group around the 08:00 Eucharist, and the Thursday morning Eucharist as well. It is fair to say that the

tradition at All Saints’ is central and moderately liberal while adhering to the biblical witness and the centrality of the sacraments. Our age profile is wide but there is a distinct bulge at the upper end.

All Saints’ has a traditional four-part mixed choir of high standard under a talented professional Director of Music and there is a good standard of worship which we believe is formal enough without being inaccessible for enquirers and newcomers.

An enthusiastic team of ringers calls people to worship and announces that we are “in business” in the town, and several of them are also active in other ministries, notably the choir, as well as helping out other churches with their ringing.

We have been without an Assistant Curate for a few years but we have a long tradition of training curates and there are plenty of opportunities to exercise many aspects of ordained ministry in this parish. There are also two retired clergy who assist on Sundays and with some of the occasional offices and home visiting.

We have two Authorized Lay Ministers at the time of writing, and a small team of dedicated pastoral visitors.

All Saints’ runs a café in the church building on Fridays, market day, which is very popular both with local visiting the market and with the tourists in the summer.

There are close links with St Gilbert of Sempringham Church of England School (now an academy) both in terms of governance and pastoral and liturgical contact, with clergy and lay people visiting the school frequently and the


sT george’s

St George’s is established in the Evangelical Tradition of the Church of England and is an all age 0-90 congregation. At present we have three Sunday congregations at 9:15, 11am, and 6:30 and a monthly 8am BCP Holy Communion. (www.stgeorgeschurch.net)

St George’s has a USA of 4-500 (including children) across all the services and we provide children’s work at all our morning services on every Sunday apart from the first in the month which is an All Age service. Our building is cosy and whilst being the original Garter chapel and grade 1 listed includes plasma screens and soft chairs!

As Stamford is a market town our congregation come from the town (50%) and surrounding village (50%). As we are the only Evangelical Anglican Church in the area, we find that we attract some from a considerable distance to the north of Stamford as the A1 can make 20 miles a quick journey for a few families. All the Anglican churches in town run open boundaries and work happily alongside each other. The ‘Churches Together in Stamford’ works together on set events at Easter and the Stamford festival and the ministers meet to share information over lunch three times a year.

We have 30 midweek small groups that meet for Bible study, fellowship and prayer and see these as an essential element to the pastoral care of the congregation and creating a sense of belonging in a larger body.

We run the Alpha course and have done so since before my time at St George’s. We are a local resource church for Alpha and look to encourage other local congregations with training and running groups. We have recently started ‘Freedom in Christ’ as a discipleship course that we are using across the whole church and also for Alpha follow up.

St George’s has a long tradition of supporting world mission, sending out workers from our own fellowship all over the world, most recently to Malaysia and China. We have a particular link and focus on Uganda.

We have a staff team of nine employed people at present, with a mixture of part and full time ministry leaders. The ministry leaders manage a large number of volunteers in Children’s, Youth, Care, Admin, Music, Small Group leaders etc. We believe in every member ministry and have a large number of women and men serving in the church. The PCC have passed resolution B and in recent

school worshipping in the church from time to time, including an annual Eucharist. We also have occasional contact with the Malcolm Sargent School on the western edge of the town.

Each year Stamford Churches Together runs an activity day for year 4 children in the town’s and surrounding villages’ state schools in which groups of children undertake various activities in the churches of the town designed to give them an insight into Christian life, beginning and ending the day with worship songs to a band in the Corn Exchange Theatre - a tradition begun by a former curate from All Saints’ and in which the people of All Saints’ still take a lead role.

The All Saints’ and St John’s Church Centre is a community facility owned and run by a small charitable Trust largely appointed by the Parochial Church Council and functions among other things at the church hall for All Saints’ Church, although it is not immediately adjacent. It is the former premises of the school which became the current St Gilbert of Sempringham School in 1972 and provides two large and one small community rooms and is used by many social and a few commercial organisations as well as church groups.


years we have sent three men and three women forward for ordination.

At present the staff team meets together twice a week on a Monday morning at 11am followed by staff lunch and at 2pm on a Thursday for prayer together. I meet with staff members one to one at least once a month.

We are involved in the life of the local community with work in the residential homes and hospital and St George’s School. Mums and Tots is an increasing need in the town and we run two sessions a week which prove very popular. We believe in co-operative social action and many of our members are involved in social outreach projects such as CAP, Alternatives (crises pregnancy), Street Pastors, Food Bank and the ‘Ever Green Trust’ which cares for seniors in very practical ways.

As we are a small geographical parish we do not get over busy with the occasional offices but have about 15 funerals a year, the same in baptisms and about 10 weddings. The last two Easters we have baptised adults by immersion using a water tank in the chancel.

We celebrate Holy Communion on a weekly

pattern, 8am week 1, Evening Services week 2, Morning Services Week 3 (No HC week 4 or 5). The liturgy is either BCP or modernised BCP and prayer H.

At present I am also the Priest in Charge of Christ Church Stamford with whom St George’s has a partnership. We share an operations manager who leads on the delivery of co-operative social action. Christ Church parish is around 6500 people and includes some of the neediest parts of the town.

all sainTssunday worship

0800 Eucharist (Order I, said)0930 Parish Eucharist (Order I, sung)1115 3rd Sundays “Saints Alive!” All-age Service1830 Evening Prayer (CW, said) or Choral Evensong (BCP) once per month, or informal “Celtic” worship

Holy Baptism is normally held separately in the afternoon because of building capacity problems at the morning Eucharist.

Occasional ecumenical services take place elsewhere in the town at 1830 and no service is then held here.

weekday worship1000 Thursday - Eucharist (Order I, said)Daily Morning and Evening Prayer (CW) at 0800 (0900 Saturday) and 1700.

sT george’ssunday worship

0800 1st Sunday Eucharist (BCP)0915 Parish Eucharist (CW, sung) but 1st Sunday Interactive All Age Service1100 Parish Eucharist (CW, sung)1830 Informal Evening Service, 2nd Sunday Holy Communion

Holy Baptism is often held at the monthly All Age Service .


Stamford is now a designated training hub for new clergy who are notionally based here at All Saints’ Church and at St George’s Church with the Revd Martyn Taylor. This gives the opportunity to train as part of a wider group and the chance to serve and experience ministry across a wider area and in a variety of settings. The two incumbents each provide ministry roles and day-to-day supervision for the curates placed with them and act as supervisors for each others’ curates to ensure that the necessary skills are being learned to progress to incumbency. A theological reflector will also meet with each curate about every six weeks to think through the experience.As well as experience at the two churches to which the curates are attached, there is opportunity for ministry elsewhere in the deanery in both town churches and village churches of varying sizes as well as community work of various types. Training together will also help to develop as a collaborative leader.

training curacies profile - stamford, lincs

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