I’m pleased to have the opportunity to bring you all up to date about the parish while we are in vacancy or, for those who prefer the older term, interregnum.

Without a Rector, the Church Wardens are responsible for leading the PCC, and so I have taken over the role as Lay Chair during the vacancy. It is a great honour, and thank you to all the members of the PCC for working with me on this.

Finding a new Rector will take some time. Some of you are aware of this from the last interregnum, which I believe was almost 2 years. We’re hoping this time won’t take so long, but we do need to follow the Diocese process for the recruitment, and we may not get applications.

We need to write a parish profile, a job description / person specification and an advert to entice the right person to want to come to Bilton to be the Rector. We have already had two meetings about this, one with Acting Archdeacon Gail and the Area Dean Steve Gold and then more recently with Archdeacon Barry and the Area Dean, the Diocese Team and the Patron of the Living, the Reverand Cilla Hawkes. At this meeting we were taken through the process in detail and what has to be done and in what order and timeframe. We are hoping that the draft paperwork will be ready to submit to the Diocese in February. Some members of the PCC have already begun writing the profile—thank you Alison Price, Penny Street, Alex Clark, Katherine Holton, Glenn Lowde and David Potts for their input.

Thank you also to all of those who contributed to the survey on what we want our parish and worshipping community to be in five years time and what you would like the new Rector to be like.

One of your key priorities was for St Mark’s to be more inclusive and diverse in the widest sense, and have more families, young people and children and youth activities. There was a strong emphasis on children and young people taking part in the services. The PCC are looking into having a Family and Schools’ worker for the parish – a part-time position and something that has been discussed for a number of years. There is now a job description for PCC approval. There were also many of you who want much stronger links with the wider community in all sorts of ways, including non-religious activities, and examples of these were “Snowdrop Saturday” and the concerts that are held in the church.

Thoughts on the new Rector were broad ranging and included: 

"Warm and welcoming; Accepting of different opinions; Good listener with care and empathy; Inspirational leader; Encouraging and helping to attain spiritual growth; Inclusive, grounded, and making meaningful services for all."

So as we work through this time of change, I would ask you all to pray for Glenn and Joy and Philip as they lead us in our worship; for the PCC and all those involved in the recruitment process and for our whole community.

Christine Assheton

A Prayer: 

God our Father, You have welcomed each one of us in Jesus and called us to be His Body in this Church;

Send us your Holy Spirit at this time of uncertainty and change, to fill us with vision, energy, and faithfulness in prayer, that we may be true to our calling to bring new life to our community;

And guide with Your heavenly wisdom those who are to choose the new Rector for this parish, that the one who we receive may be a wise and gentle shepherd of your people: ready to serve us with joy, to build us up in faith, and to lead us by example in loving obedience to your son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Amen