Members of the Soar Valley Minster Community came together on Thursday (20 November) for a service of inauguration and commissioning of this newly forming Minster Community.
On what was a cold winter’s evening, Holy Trinity Church in Barrow was warmed by the faith and fellowship of people from churches and schools encompassing the Minster Community, including Loughborough centre and the villages of Swithland, Quorn, Barrow-upon-Soar, Walton le Wolds, Prestwold with Hoton, Wymeswold, Kegworth, Hathern, Long Whatton, Diseworth, Belton and Osgathorpe.
Bishop Martyn led the service, which also included the commissioning of the community’s Interim Oversight Minister, the Revd Clive Watts.
The day marked an important milestone on the journey to establishing a Minster Community and follows many months of prayer, conversation, and discernment of God’s leading.
At the heart of Soar Valley, there is a strong sense of the whole people of God working together for the Kingdom in this area of the diocese, with hopeful stories emerging about Minster Community choirs, collaborative parish safeguarding coordinator groups, bell ringing, and general shared wisdom and learning.
In his sermon, Bishop Martyn began by thanking the parishes of Soar Valley for the partnerships that have already begun in “exploring this new approach to ministry together”.
He said: “You are a gift to one another – I know we don’t always find it easy to think of ourselves as a gift to others – but even if nothing else comes from this evening, my greatest hope is that you will start to believe that you are a gift, that you have received many gifts from God, and that there are many more gifts to receive through the people and churches of this Minster Community.”
He then went on to invite everyone, as individuals, to consider what their role could be within this new body of the Minster Community and, to each church community, he asked what is their collective gift?
You can read his sermon here.
The service was well attended by parish clergy, including those retired with PTO, as well as a host of lay ministers and church family members from across the area’s congregations.
During the commissioning, the Bishop invited all from the Minster Community to stand, and asked: “People of God in this Minster Community, you are the Body of Christ, and the body is only healthy when each part is working well with every other part. Will you commit to work in partnership with each other and to share in the work of ministry and service together?”
Keith, a member of the church in Quorn, wrote and led the intercessions, praying for God’s blessing on the Minster Community; for those being commissioned, for the poor, vulnerable and overlooked in our communities, for the sick and those who care for them, for those who mourn, and for unity, hope and optimism as we move forward together. You can read the prayers here in full here.
Following the worship, refreshments were served, while people chatted and shared their hopes and fears for the future.
In the Minster Community process everyone has a choice, PCCs have a choice, and in Soar Valley, they have formally committed to this process.
Commenting on the process to this point, the Revd Dr Canon Nigel Rooms, said: “How do churches change? How do groups of churches and the institution that supports them change? I got involved in facilitating the process of forming Minster Communities as I have been interested in this question for many years and this seemed an opportunity to learn.”
He added: “The people that joined together to create the Soar Valley MC taught me a lot. First, that you don’t need many people – perhaps just two or three, to make a big difference. What is important is that those people have a vision that God is up to something and there are exciting, fresh possibilities if we partner with God.
“Second, it really helps if the clergy can be supportive (not either controlling or abdicating) of the laity who take the lead.
“Third, the challenge remains to understand that the resources for a sustainable, even flourishing future for churches are found largely in partnerships outside themselves with their wider community.”
James, a member of All Saints with Holy Trinty Church in Loughborough, has been serving on the Coordinating Group overseeing Phase 2 of the process to this point. After journeying all these months, he spoke to us, reflecting on how it feels to have reached this stage.
“I'm knackered!” he admits. “It's been fascinating to learn more about the parishes in our grouping and work together to consider what the Minster Community should get up to. I'm really happy to be at this stage and am excited about what's next.
“The biggest challenge has been to communicate effectively with parishes and congregants when some of what we've looked at has been complex or doesn't matter on the ground or in the pews - for instance, clergy licensing,” he explains. “The most worry has been about uncertainty over how many clergy (any lay ministers) we'll have and how they'll be deployed.”
Talking about the process across the Minster Community, he also shared how he was pleasantly surprised at how quickly their proposal came together out of the working groups.
“We found it really easy to pull together a proposal that has landed well in all the parishes,” he says. And equally, he has seen the joy that working together for the Kingdom has brought, such as “the enthusiasm of key people across the grouping who have grasped the potential for the MC and already spotted things we can do together to share knowledge, worship, or ministry,” he says.
“We've benefited from God's grace and wisdom throughout the process, and God's glory in moments such as the Minster Community Evensong we held in October.”
So what are the hopes for Soar Valley going forward? “The proposal and next steps document are full of hopes and intentions, and I'm sure we all have our individual hopes for the Minster Community,” says James. “My main hope is that by working together we can reduce the amount of time or effort it takes to start something new, make a change, or follow up on a new opportunity, partnership, or relationship.”
Jennifer, from the Swithland parish, says it has been quite “drawn out” within the working groups, but now they’ve got to this point and beyond the nitty gritty, it’s generally feeling very positive for the future.
“We’ve made some good friendships while we’ve been working together, and it’s been very interesting hearing from the different churches as we’ve learnt a lot from each other," she says. "Those who haven’t been involved are naturally a little more apprehensive, but when you do get involved, you realise, we all want the same thing. This is not just a way of surviving, but a new way of learning from one another. It’s a dynamic, organic thing - it’s going to change as we grow together and work together.”
Sandie, from Hathern recognises that it has been a longer journey that they had hoped to this point, but it’s got easier. “At the beginning we were filled with concerns and worries - worried what it would mean to us as a church - but as we’ve learnt more about it and got to know people from all the other churches, we now know we can work together,” she says.
“We still don’t know what the outcome’s going to be, but it’s a lot more positive in terms of the approach. We’ve already started sharing learning; I think the concern now is how the bigger picture, in terms of finance, ministry and mission, will be sorted out, but it’s easier to communicate as there’s trust across the Minster Community. God has been with us throughout, from the beginning, because it’s a really hard process and we’re only doing this because we feel God telling us that it’s the right way to go, and to trust, and hope and pray.”
Called by God to serve him and his church in this wider setting, newly commissioned Interim Oversight Minister, the Revd Clive Watts, says he’s looking forward to getting to know the people, churches, schools and communities in the Soar Valley Minster Community over the coming months.
“During the discernment and development phases of the Minster Community formation process our 13 churches have grown together with a renewed hope for the future,” he says. “As we are commissioned as the Soar Valley Minster Community and enter this third phase of the formation process, we look forward with renewed energy to discovering how God is leading us together in mission and ministry among our communities.
“There are 21 schools (10 of them CofE schools) in the Minster Community; developing our mission among children and young people will be a key opportunity as we learn new ways of working together for the Kingdom of God.
“We are already seeing the first fruits of our new closer working partnership, as Safeguarding Coordinators have come together and met to share best practice and support one another, and our various choirs have sung together,” says Clive.
“I look forward to many more opportunities to work together, support each other, deepen our discipleship together, grow new younger and more diverse faiths, love and serve our communities, and share the wonderful and immeasurable love of God with all people.”
