THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST ANDREW’S

Waterloo St, Wigan. WN6 7NA

www.standrewschurch.moonfruit.com

THE PARISH PROFILE

Welcome to our Parish Profile! We hope you find this informative and would like to join us and work with us as our leader.

Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”.

St Andrew’s Mission Statement:

The purpose of St Andrew’s Church is to

worship and serve God and to support the

spiritual and physical life of individuals and

families.

Young Generations’ Mission Statement:

We will give all children who come to St

Andrew’s every opportunity to be nurtured

in the Christian faith and to express their

faith in life and worship at St Andrew’s

SUMMARY

We are a friendly church who enjoys fellowship and socialising both in church Services and at other events. We would welcome an incumbent with many qualities, who will lead us and help us to develop our worship and embrace changes that are surely to come especially with the development of the All Saints Team Ministry of which St Andrews will be an equal and active member.

Our strengths lie in our excellent PCC which has set objectives for 2014/2015 to include:

Developing worship for young people:

As our young generation’s mission statement says we will always nurture to children and encourage them to express their faith and join with worship. Our young people regularly join in the worship and take an active role in All Generations Service

To enable the elderly to worship

This includes helping the elderly with transport issues and arranging Special Services and afternoon entertainment particularly for them

To improve our finances:

This has included gift days and fund raising activities. We also keep our congregation fully aware of our financial situation.

One of our main assets is St Andrews C of E Aided School of which we are rightly proud. We try to link closely with school, joining in Services together and sharing experiences to strengthen the links between church, school and the community, but this is something

which we would like to develop further.

Another of our assets is our fairly new parish centre which is used by all our church groups, this is also used by other groups and enables us to reach out to the community, but we would also like to develop the use of our parish centre further and there is scope for this.

THE VICAR WE WANT

The new vicar of St Andrews will need to possess many qualities.

In particular they will need to be versatile and able to prioritise their workload in order to meet the demands of the role. They will need to have a willingness to embrace the changes and challenges that will come, particularly in view of the formation of an All Saints Team Partnership.

They will need to be enthusiastic with good communication skills.

They will need to be a good leader, able to express their opinions and contribute ideas to encourage and nurture the growth of this church, but also be able to listen to and embrace the thoughts and ideas of others

Someone who is able to sympathetically reach out to people especially in times of need such as illness or bereavement.

Someone who is keen to develop the worship we have here at St Andrews, but at the same time is sensitive to its traditions, in order that we may grow in numbers.

Someone who is interested in all people at St Andrews but with ideas to encourage children, young people and their families to continue to attend worship here. To embrace the “All Generations” Service and encourage children to actively take part in worship.

Someone who will liaise and work closely with our school and encourage both the school and our congregation to work together in projects and ventures, in the hope of encouraging more families to worship here.

Someone who will encourage people to offer their gifts and talents to God in terms of volunteering and offering of their time as well as financial offerings.

Church and Vicarage

Some quotes from our congregation about the Vicar we are looking for, include:

“A good leader, caring person. A

good listener, patient and

considerate to all”

“Able to guide us on our

travel with the Lord”

“Someone who will be able to

maintain what we have here

and build on it for the future”

“Someone who is lively, forward

thinking, friendly and enthusiastic to

lead the church into the modern era”

ABOUT THE PARISH

Springfield is less than a mile from Wigan Town Centre; it is an urban area with a mix of private, social and residential properties. There are good transport links – buses run regularly into town and there are easy links into Liverpool and Manchester by rail.

Schools in our parish –include St Andrew’s C of E Aided Infant and Junior School. Other schools close

by are: Sacred Heart Catholic Primary and Beech Hill Community Primary. Two High School centres are The Deanery (with a Sixth Form) and St. John Fisher; both have excellent reputations in our Parish. There are several young people in our congregation who attend these schools.

Other churches in our area are Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Gidlow Methodist, Whitley Methodist and St. Anne’s Beech Hill, our daughter Anglican Church.

The parish is situated close to the town centre and

locally we have a variety shops as well as many other

amenities. We are within walking distance of a

beautiful park with facilities for all, beautiful gardens,

crown green bowling, tennis courts, band stand and

monuments (go and rub the “lucky foot” of Sir Francis

Sharpe Powell). There is a duck pond, recently restored waterfalls and fountain, cafe

and a children’s play area. A really nice place to walk around and

contemplate life.

We also have another “church” to some people – the DW Stadium

– home to Wigan Athletic Football and Wigan Rugby. Many of our

congregation follow either team, some both. Wigan is also ‘on the

map’ for its famous Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls and its ‘pies’.

For the youth there is a new Youth Zone, again within easy

walking distance. This project provides many activities for

the young people of our town.

THE CHURCH AND ITS PEOPLE

Our congregation is a vibrant mix of worshippers and our electoral roll

numbers 133, from those who have worshipped here for over 60

years, to young families and their children.

The main worship pattern of the

church consists of: Sundays 9.00

am, which is an alternate sung and said Eucharistic

service. Sundays 10.45 am service, which follows a

varied pattern throughout each month; the 1st Sunday

being a “Service of the Word”; the 2nd Sunday is our

“All Generations” Service, with the youth of the

church and day school often involved in this service; the 3rd and 4th Sundays are a

standard Eucharistic Service.

We also have weekly Services of Holy Communion on Tuesday

evenings at 7.00pm and Wednesday mornings at 9.30am. Other

services throughout the year are: Advent (Service of Light); Choir

Carol service; and on Christmas Eve we hold a very popular Crib

Service at 6 pm for families and later celebrate Midnight Mass.

Special services are also held on Ash Wednesday, Maundy

Thursday, Good Friday, Ascension Day, Remembrance Sunday and

St Andrew’s Day. We also celebrate Christingle and enjoy Pet

Services.

Messy church is a new fresh expression for us; enabling

the church to reach out to families in the community and

beyond. A committed team of helpers has resulted in

some successful events in 2014, but this needs to be

reviewed.

St Andrew’s boasts a very fine mixed choir, led by our

extremely talented Organist and Choir Master. They

regularly sing anthems at our Parish Eucharist and lead the

Advent Service of Light and the annual Carol Service.

We have a wide range of church groups, including

Andy’s Kids (Sunday School), Mothers’ Union,

Women’s Fellowship, uniformed organisations, Bible

Study groups, all well supported and who regularly

take part in worship.

There is a small team of lay people who, on a rota

basis, take Holy Communion to the housebound and

the two residential homes in the parish.

We have a dedicated core of people who work hard to keep St. Andrew’s running

smoothly from week to week. A new enthusiastic Treasurer, group leaders within the

church, 2 new Vergers, a team of Servers, a team of welcoming sides people, lay group

readers of scripture, ‘holy dusters and moppers', dedicated flower ladies, magazine team,

and a full complement of eager PCC members.

We have several sub-committees, i.e. Worship & Mission,

Social, Stewardship, Fabric and the Parish Centre. These

committees are in addition to the PCC and members of the

congregations are encouraged to serve on them. We have

fund raising events organised by the Social Committee

throughout the year and also individuals who raise funds in

their own way.

We are currently awaiting the renewal of our Child Friendly

Church Award by the Diocese.

We work quite well with children, but we would

like to develop a ministry with men, so we would

like to look towards this ministry.

THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY

During 2013 Baptisms took place on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of the month (13).

Weddings (6). Funerals (16) took place when requested

by the family. We had 14 young people and 2 adults

Confirmed in this year.

We have had choir and band concerts in church,

throwing open an invitation to everyone. We run a

bingo session each Monday in the Parish Centre for

church and community people.

We offer home communions and transport to church on the first Sunday of the month, to

those who need it.

Periodically, we have afternoon worship and tea, for

the elderly and invite people from the local residential

homes, offering transport where needed. We have

provided lent lunches [soup and roll], held quiz nights

and produce quiz sheets, regularly, which are taken by

people far and wide. Our Pantomime, performed by

church members and parishioners, is popular with both

people at church and people from the community. Oh yes it is!

We have a strong school link with St Andrew’s C of E Aided Infant and Junior School, especially through the Church Aided status, work of the Chair of Governors, foundation governors and the Excellence and Distinctiveness leader, all who are members of St. Andrew’s congregation.

The school boasts a ‘Good’ status with a reputation for excellent behaviour, as

said by Ofsted, and achieved a ‘Good’ status under SIAMS. The school has a forward looking head teacher and an experienced teaching team, who provide a loving and caring environment for all our 200+ children.

School Services in church and church special events are both quite well attended and we aim to develop that link further over time, so that we can grow our church and reach out to more school families.

The new incumbent will be expected to be a school governor, but not necessarily the Chair of Governors.

We have a good number of our congregation, who volunteer with other community

groups, some of the congregation go singing in the local hospital at Christmas time, even

if they can’t sing too well! We have others who are involved in Age Concern, charity

shops and hospital cafés. We have our own team of people who run Coffee mornings

each month, raising funds for all the different charities. We regularly support US

(formerly United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) and The Children’s Society.

St Andrew’s church is part of Wigan North West Churches Partnership along with 12

other churches including Methodist, Baptist, United Reformed and Roman Catholic. We

have three representatives from St Andrew’s who go along to the meetings,

approximately 4 times per year. We do activities together; share Lent and Advent studies

and for the last two years, we hosted an Agape Meal in our Parish Centre and have joined

in united services; and taken part in the Easter and Christmas events in the town centre.

More tea Vicar

THE CHURCH AND ITS BUILDINGS

St Andrew’s Church is approximately 132 years old. Its foundation stone was laid on 3

June 1879 and the church was dedicated on 1st August

1882. It is a Grade 2 listed building because of the

carved oak, wood panelling around its interior and

wonderful carvings and magnificent chancel screen.

Around the church on its East, West and South

boundaries there is a Garden of Rest.

The church is in a reasonable state of repair, with only a

few minor repairs to be done from the last Quinquennial

Inspection. We work in association with the

Quinquennial architect and approved builders.

The next Quinquennial inspection is due 2015.

We have a new Parish Centre (2008), which runs

smoothly with the help of Lay people, taking on

different roles. The Centre is now running at a

profit. The Centre has its own Committee which

meets 6 times a year and keeps on top of the day

to day management of the centre e.g. last year the

centre was re-painted throughout.

The hall and meeting room are used by both

church and community groups (Keep Fit and

Zumba, the local History Society, private parties,

birthdays and other celebrations). But there is

scope for more activities during the day.

In addition monthly coffee mornings are held to raise funds for various charities and

during Lent, Soup lunches are served.

Lottery Grants have helped both church and the parish centre, and also community

grants have helped to equip the parish centre.

We have a modern vicarage, in a good state of repair, decorated, roomy, with a separate

office, cloakroom and pleasant garden.

View of vicarage with garage from the

front

The rear of the vicarage with its garden

Good place to party The Soup Kitchen, many hands make light work!

THE CHURCH HISTORY

Our church was built in 1882. The foundation stone was laid by Canon Bridgeman.

Rev. William Wickham organised the funding and building of the church but due to lack

of money and damage by gales during 1881, it was not completed until 1882. It was then

consecrated on 1st August 1882 by the Bishop of Liverpool.

According to the records at the History Shop, the church building is 55 ft high, about 104

ft long and about 37 ft wide. It is supposed to accommodate 583 people.

The church is in the 'Early English' style with special features such as the 18 arched

windows, up in the clerestory above the

Nave, pointed arches and the tall 'Lancet'

windows on the East and West walls. The

roof is supported by king-post trusses and at

the north-west corner is the Bell Tower. The

bell was made in the Haigh foundry in 1835

and was given by the Wigan Coal and Iron

Foundry.

Inside the church, the Font, a large stone receptacle, is an exact copy of the almost

unique Early English decagon Font of Tingrith church in Bedfordshire. It was provided by

the two Tingrith sisters, Nelly and Edith Hall and from collections made by the Sunday

School children.

The church contains many detailed carvings in oak with a number of intricate carvings

among the choir stalls and on the Chancel screen. These carvings were done by Advent

Hunstone from Derbyshire, who also carved and donated

the Eagle on the Lectern.

The carved communion rail was copied from a marble

balustrade on a Venetian Palace, as seen and sketched by

Mr Wickham.

The original organ was bought in 1888 at a cost of £350. It

was built by Mr Wilkinson of Kendal and was modernised in

1960. The organ chamber, above the vestry, contains over 600 organ pipes.

The East window, which is a copy of the West window of Dunblane Cathedral, was

installed in 1929 in memory of William Wickham and his family. St George's chapel was

added to the building and opened on 29th November 1921.

CHURCH FINANCE

St Andrew's has a dedicated and proactive Stewardship Committee with a very competent treasurer ensuring we are working to timely and accurate financial data. Finance updates are integral at PCC meetings and we ensure our economic positon is considered when making decisions concerning the business of the church. In recent years we have struggled to pay the complete Parish Share amount. Within 2013, we paid 60% of the in year amount owed. We then moved the dial on this significantly and we are projected to pay 80% for 2014. We have a Parish Share Payment Plan to continue this positive trend over the next few years, whilst maintaining an appropriate reserve that has been set and maintained. We understand the key drivers of our inability to currently cover 100% of Parish Share lie in lower weekly giving, changes to levels of disposable income within our congregation, increasing cost of utilities and sporadic legacies. However, we believe in our financial potential and initiatives undertaken to improve this so far have included: the promotion of giving by standing order, review of and subsequent tighter control of supplier expenses, gift aid, Giving in Grace, gift days, preaching around stewardship, regular fundraisers, to name a few. We receive income from our excellent facility in the Parish Centre, which has the potential to be explored further. In addition to this opportunity, we’re in the process of looking into: the new Parish Giving scheme, legacy awareness month and a ‘Friends’ initiative. Despite a major focus on improving our giving at St Andrews, we don't let this diminish our focus from raising monies for other charities. We donate to various different organisations, through regular fundraising events and responding to requests. These include United Society, Children’s Society, Derian House, MedEquip for Kids, Macmillan, Samaritans. Please see below for a summary of the Income and Expenditure for FY13/14.

Annual reports and accounts are available upon request.

WIGAN DEANERY - PARTNERSHIP

The Wigan Partnership 1 is at present in process of becoming a single benefice team of 12 parishes located to the north and east of Wigan and including Wigan town centre and in the Wigan deanery.

Team Ethos St. Andrew’s

The team clergy are always looking to work collaboratively, recognising and affirming one another’s gifts and skills, experience and wisdom. They seek to bring all of this to create a supportive learning environment.

The benefice provides opportunities for a wide range of experience in ministry both parochial and extra-parochial. It is particularly suitable, when opportunity arises, for both new and experienced incumbents to exercise and extend their gifts and skills. We believe it is also an excellent place for ministerial formation as a curate.

The clergy currently in post are all committed to the Team ethos and have met on a regular basis for some time to develop links among themselves and across the parishes.

We would expect all newly appointed clergy to embrace this ethos, and be enthusiastic about working alongside others in growing the churches in our partnership and supporting others in their ministries.

All Saints St. George’s

The parishes of the benefice and team are:

All Saints Wigan and St. George Wigan (united benefice) www.wiganparishchurch.org

St. Michael and All Angels Swinley www.achurchnearyou.com

St. David Haigh and St. Elizabeth Aspull (united benefice) www.achurchnearyou.com

St. John the Baptist New Springs and St. Stephen Whelley (united benefice) www.ststephens.btik.com

St Catherine Scholes and Christ Church Ince (united benefice) www.wigan-st-catharines.co.uk

St. Mary Ince www.achurchnearyou.com

St. Andrew Springfield www.standrewschurch.moonfruit.com

St. Anne Beech Hill www.achurchnearyou.com

The stipendiary incumbent allocation is 5 i.e. 1 Team Rector and 4 Team Vicars

Other ordained staff as of September 2014 comprise, 1 House for Duty priest-in-charge, 1 Stipendiary curate-in-charge (until September 2015), 1 non-stipendiary priest, a Pioneer minister, and 1 OLM.

There are 8 licensed and active Readers in the team who make themselves available to work across the team’s parishes.

St. Michael & All Angel’s

Responsibilities

Each incumbent is named as responsible for particular parishes in the team and is also licensed to work in all of the Team’s parishes. The Team Rector, as well as being named as responsible for particular parishes has overall responsibility for the team.

St. David’s

Pioneer Ministry

There is a recently established (by Bishops Mission Order) Pioneer Ministry church (Gateway). It has its own stipendiary Pioneer Minister in charge.

St. Elizabeth’s

Partnership Council

Each parish has its own Parochial Church Council. The wider team is represented by a Partnership Council with 2 or 3 lay representatives from each parish as well as all the clergy (lay members are currently the Deanery Synod representatives.) The Partnership Council meets regularly to discuss strategic plans and across-team issues and projects. The Partnership clergy meet regularly for prayer and planning for mission across all the parishes.

St. John’s

The Churches

There is a spectrum of churchmanship and worship styles across the team varying from modern Anglo Catholic and High Church through to Evangelical and Low Church. It is important that all the team clergy are able to minister and lead worship in any of the churches and are willing to be involved in developing Fresh Expressions of different styles of worship across the team.

St. Stephen’s

All of the churches have Sunday morning and midweek worship and some Sunday evening. The Sunday worship is at present predominantly Eucharistic. The pattern of times and locations of Sunday worship will change and develop in coming months and years as the team responds to changing attendance patterns, and emerging needs and as the team works towards growth.

The worship across the parishes is mainly Common Worship (Eucharist and Service of the Word) with a small number of BCP Services (Eucharist, Morning Prayer and evensong)

A number of the churches hold Messy Church

The team’s parishes have good ecumenical relationships with other Christian denominations in and around the town and there is an inter-faith network.

St. Catherine’s

Characteristics and Features of the partnership area

10 of the 12 parishes are predominantly urban/suburban/residential with Haigh and Aspull being predominantly rural. The historical coal and cotton industrial heritage has long since given way to a mixture of commerce, light engineering and local business with larger manufacturing industry e.g. H.J. Heinz Ltd. in adjacent areas.

Christ Church

Wigan is located mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester within a few minutes access of the M6 and M58 motorways. It is served by the West Coast main railway line and regular local rail services between Liverpool, Manchester and neighbouring towns. Local bus routes are very well served and access to all of the team’s area is possible by public transport

The team also covers Wigan town centre which has modern shopping facilities and a variety of forms of entertainment. It has a number of popular restaurants and has a lively night life at weekends. It is also the centre of local government in Wigan Borough and many voluntary organisations work from bases in the Town Centre, among them CAB, Age UK and Victim Support.

St. Mary’s

A range of sports and recreation facilities are available in and immediately adjacent to the team’s area, the DW stadium being the home of Wigan Athletic football club and Wigan Warriors rugby league club

Schools

Within the Team’s boundary there are:

6 Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary Schools

1 Voluntary Controlled Church of England Primary School

4 Local Authority Primary Schools

5 Roman Catholic Primary Schools

1 Church of England High School St, Anne’s

1 Local Authority High School

1 Roman Catholic High School

All of the Church of England schools have continuing strong and developing links with the parish churches and incumbents are Foundation Governors of the schools in their parishes.

Higher Education

Wigan Deanery High School Sixth Form College

Wigan and Leigh College

Wigan University Technical College

Hospitals Deanery High

Wigan and surrounding area is served by the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust. The main hospital is the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary less than a mile from Wigan town centre.

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The Diocese of Liverpool

Clergy vacancy – The Wigan Partnership 1

The Partnership consists of 12 parishes in the Centre, East and North of Wigan.

It offers a wide spectrum of churchmanship, as well as a church plant. The Partnership, in process of becoming a team, consists of Team Rector, four stipendiary team clergy, a pioneer minister, and currently, a priest in charge, a house for duty priest, and two curates, although this will change over the next 2 years.

The clergy in post have met regularly for the past 12 months and are committed to the team model as a basis for future ministry in this part of Wigan.

We are looking to appoint a Vicar who has proven experience of pastoral care and:

has good leadership qualities and can identify and encourage gifts from within the congregation

brings experience to help develop with colleagues a vision for the new team

is committed to working in a team

The successful applicant will have responsibility for two parishes in the team, at St Andrews Springfield and St Anne Beech Hill (Parish Profiles attached), as well as sharing in mission with all the parishes in the partnership. Currently the Vicar will live in St Andrews Vicarage, with a good sized garden and off road parking.