Online Worship Together

The project for installing new heaters at ASM is about to start. Last summer the old infra-red heaters (from back in the 1970s?) were condemned and taken down. Since then we have relied solely on the oil-fired boiler to keep us warm and we had severe problems with that for many weeks. The new heaters work in a different manner to "normal" infra-red heaters in that significantly more of the power gets radiated. They are also better at heating objects around us. Unlike when we use the boiler when we either have the whole church heated or not at all, the electric heaters will be split into 5 zones (chancel, nave, side chapel, north aisle and south aisle) which can be turned on and off individually. Though running all heaters for an hour is significantly more expensive than running the boiler for an hour, we should need to turn the heaters on for a shorter time before events start and will only use the zones we need at any one time. This winter we have been turning on the boiler some 3 hours before events. Exactly how long we will need to turn on the heaters before events we don't know yet, but it should be significantly less than with the boiler. There will be a lot of trial and error getting the right balance, so please bear with us.

Work is due to start on 18th March for 3 days and then the following Monday 24th March through to Easter. We will meet in ASM for worship as normal on Sunday 23rd, but thereafter will be meeting in the Methodist Church for the next 3 Sundays. Easter Sunday itself we will all be at North Tuddenham anyway for the Benefice Holy Communion service. Thus, we won't be back in ASM until Sunday 27th April. We don't know yet whether we will have one or two services each Sunday at the Methodist Church.

During the time work is being carried out in ASM there will be no access except for people authorised by the churchwardens or PCC and the main door key held at Victoria Stores will be withdrawn.

The cost of the project is £27k, of which £17k has been given by the ASM congregations and the remaining £10k is a grant from the diocesan nett-zero carbon initiative.

Good news! We have just learnt that we have been awarded the expected £10k grant from the Net Zero Carbon fund in the diocese to go towards the cost of the new heaters to be installed in ASM. That means we now have the entire cost covered. God is good.

Sue and I are meeting with Charli Finch from Heissen (the manufacturers of the heaters) and Roger Atterwill (of Wensum Valley Electrical, who are our usual electricians and who will be doing the installation) Thursday of next week to check all the details and then hopefully we will be able to say roughly when the project will start.

As ASM will need to be closed for 2-3 weeks for the scaffolding while the installation is done, our friends as Mattishall Methodist Church have kindly agreed to let us use their building for that time (whenever that is) and we have told them we will pay properly for that hire.

More info next week.

Dear All,

The Authorised Pastoral Assistant (APA) scheme was launched in 2023 as part of the diocesan ‘Transformation’ series, under the pastoral banner.

The idea is for those who wish to attend, to be authorised as APAs, but it is perfectly OK for people to just come along and find out more.  The benefits of being authorised as an APA are:

• You are covered by DBS checks and will need to have passed, the 2 first Safeguarding courses (Basic and Foundation), plus the Raising Awareness of Domestic Abuse course.
• The Ministry Team will be there to support you.
• There is a clarity to the pastoral role.
• Someone may contact the office or the Ministry Team and we would ask the APA to visit, so there is an authority extended to the APA. We would need to consider providing ID to the APA or placing fotos and names of the APA’s on the website so their ID can be ratified.  This does not stop people dropping in to visit others unofficially, but when done officially, it has to be an APA.

Training must be completed, safeguarding courses completed and DBS checks done before authorisation takes place.  Prior to training starting, there is a process of references being taken up or PCC approval given, depending on our knowledge of the applicant.

The 6 sessions are entitled:

1. What is pastoral care?
2. Listening and responding.
3. Visiting people at home followed by a home visit and they will be asked to reflect on that visit.
4. Supporting older people.
5. The bereavement journey.
6. Caring for the carers.

Each session starts with prayer, workbooks worked through, activities undertaken, either individually, in pairs or as a group, finishing by closing worship.  There is homework!

The training consists of 6 x 2 hour sessions plus one home visit.  The material is all prepared and the course will be delivered by Rev Sue Hemsley Halls and myself.

The dates for your diaries are:  12th May, 19th May, 2nd June, 9th June, 16th June and 23rd June.  These are all Mondays.  The time is 10am to 12 am on each of those days and the course will be held either at ASM or the Church Rooms, dependent on numbers.

Do let me know if you are interested in the course and if you have any questions, do ask.  It’s a wonderful way to serve the communities where we are called to serve.

More details about the role can be seen at Authorised Pastoral Assistant (APA) - Diocese of Norwich.

With every blessing.

Jackie Crisp

Lay Minister in the Mattishall and Tudd Valley Benefice

07860 795625

On 13th November 2024 the PCCs of the benefice held a joint meeting, as required, to approve the Benefice Profile to be used in the advertising for a new rector. A copy of that profile can be viewed or downloaded from HERE. It has been sent to Archdeacon Catherine for use in the advert which will appear in the Norwich diocese "Pathways" section on the diocesan website (Vacancies - Diocese of Norwich) and which will be available to anyone looking for posts in this diocese. Catherine will create a job description and some other documents will be added to the advert, with the hope of getting these in Pathways by about 25th November.

The current intention is that applications should be received by 6th January 2025 and any applicants will visit the benefice and be interviewed on Wednesday 19th February 2025.

These are the dates being aimed at currently, but they may change.

The Christmas booklet for 2024 has now been completed and sent off to the printers. At some point fairly soon we will need volunteers to take them out around the benefice. In the meantime an electronic version of it can be read HERE

Having sent off the version of the benefice profile approved by the Ministry Team, churchwardens and AWA, we have received back a helpful list of suggested amendments from Catherine, our archdeacon. Alan Cossey, as the main link, also had a phone chat with her.

The ministry team have amended the benefice profile and the latest version has this morning (Wednesday) been sent off to Catherine for her perusal and, hopefully, passing on to Bishop Jane.

If Jane and Catherine are OK with it, our intention is to have a "Section 11" meeting on Wednesday 23rd October of the PCCs together and formally sign off the profile and to appoint parish reps to take part in the interview process. Parish reps have to be members of the PCCs and it is likely that each parish will have one such rep apart from Mattishall, which will have two reps to represent two of the three congregations there. Parish reps have to be able to truly represent their congregations. Since ASM 9.00 and 10.30 congregations are somewhat different, we are looking for two reps. There will not be a rep for the monthly Oasis congregation at ASM, two reps being the maximum per parish. However, reps, including how many, will be formally decided at that Section 11 meeting.

When the benefice profile has been approved by the joint meeting of the PCCs, we will make it generally available to everyone. We have not made it generally available so far as we are up to version 10 and it might be confusing if various versions were flying around. Please be assured, though, that the PCCs have been diligent in representing their parishes and we have taken into account the things discusses and voted for at the Vision Day in July to which everyone was invited.

A very rough timescale for the continuation of the process is as follows. Please note, though, that it may well vary, particularly if Catherine or Jane need us to make any more changes to the profile.

1) Approval of benefice profile and appointment of parish reps by the end of October.

2) The post of Rector gets advertised. The joint PCCs meeting is where this will be requested (if we decide that is what we want). It will definitely be posted at Vacancies - Diocese of Norwich and we can ask for (and pay for!) it to be posted in the Church Times. There will also be word of mouth...

3) Closing date for applications would be around 6th January 2025.

4) Interview day would be 19th February 2025.

Assuming we get at least one applicant, he/she would be shown around the benefice on that interview day, meeting people at each church (and church office), would meet with the Ministry Team, have lunch and then there would be a formal interview with, probably, Bishop Jane, Archdeacon Catherine and the parish reps.

If that interview concludes positively, an offer would be made, but no-one on the interview panel is allowed to tell anyone that. The reason for this is not to be awkward, but the applicant might not then want the job, a parish rep might object or, if all goes well, the announcement of appointment would need to be done simultaneously in their current benefice (assuming they have one) and here in ours. It would not be right for news to slip out and, say, their benefice to find out from our end that they are losing their incumbent. Note that the appointee will likely have a 3-month notice period to serve out, just like Mark M. did here. Please don't ask the parish reps how things went!

Additional bit...

So, if we find someone who wants to come here, we might be talking about a start around early June. However, if they have children in school they might want them to finish their school year ... and then holiday... so we might be taking about a start of late August or early September. At least we have got some idea of what might happen.

Dear all,

The Ministry Team (Sally, Jackie Crisp, Mel and Alan) the churchwardens (Jools, Chrissie, Rosemary, Susan, Sue, Sarah, Clarke, Su and Janet), Anne Molyneux as AWA and Mandy as Benefice Administrator, have taken the information from the benefice Vision Day in July (to which everyone was invited and a good number came to), the various PCCs' suggestions  and melded them into a draft Benefice Profile. The people mentioned above met this last Tuesday and gave it their approval (so far). Copies have now gone to all the PCCs. Jackie has been the driving force behind bringing the profile together and Heather Flint has put the document together into a suitable form (and helped the churchwardens with suggestions).

This draft profile has been sent to our Archdeacon, Catherine, for her to look at and possibly make further suggestions.

Our intention is for the various PCCs to meet on Wednesday 9th October in what is known as a Section 11 meeting to formally agree the profile and appoint parish reps to represent the benefice/parishes when we get to the point of interviewing anyone who applies and is seen as a viable Rector. Once the profile has been formally agreed by the PCCs we'll make it more widely available.

FYI, there is a sort of "holding" vacancy notice about the benefice at Vacancies - Diocese of Norwich in the Archdeaconry of Lynn section, which mentions the hope of advertising the vacancy in late autumn. We will try to get it advertised as early as possible, bearing in mind that the Section 11 meeting is on October 9th.