St. Stephen, Hightown

Diocese of Liverpool

St. Stephen’s Road

Hightown

Liverpool

L38 0BL

Website: StStephensHightown.org.uk

Email: Churchwardens@StStephensHightown.org.uk

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Contents

Contents ...................................................................................................................... 1

Welcome To St. Stephen’s Hightown ............................................................................. 2

The Priest We Would Like ............................................................................................. 3

What We Aim To Offer You ........................................................................................... 3

Our Parish ................................................................................................................... 4

Our People And Worship ............................................................................................... 5

How Ministry Is Shared At St. Stephen’s ........................................................................ 6

Our Church Community ................................................................................................ 7

Our Church Buildings .................................................................................................... 9

Finance...................................................................................................................... 10

From The Area Dean .................................................................................................. 11

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Welcome To St. Stephen’s Hightown

We are delighted that you want to find out more about us. The post we are seeking to fill is a half time stipendiary post with a vicarage available if required.

During our Vision Conference four years ago we agreed the following Mission Statement:

Our Church is:

• integral to community life

• welcoming and joyful in worship

• inspiring and loving in our ministry to children

This was reinforced recently when we consulted widely with our congregation and groups linked to the church.

Some of the key objectives established at that time have been achieved, particularly during the lead up to our Centenary year. In order to secure the finance for the project many fund raising activities took place enhancing the profile of the church in the village. Through these activities people were drawn to our worshipping community and are now part of our church family. We are looking to appoint someone with enthusiasm and fresh ideas to carry this work forward.

Our church family is joyful in worship in diverse ways recognising that although we may worship in different ways and at different times we are all part of the family of St. Stephen's. We recognise that we are at different places in our spiritual journey and would look for someone who could nurture us in this area.

We have a small group of young families who regularly worship with us both during the Sunday Family Eucharist and at the Friday Peewit group. We are looking for ways to encourage young families to be involved with the church and would like to explore the setting up of a Sunday School. In addition to this we have a well-established youth club for 7 to 11 years old, but would like to engage more fully with our older children.

The needs of the elderly are also an important part of our ministry. Much work has been done to allow us to be awarded the Disabled Friendly Church Award and our Carers support group is looking to encourage our community to become Dementia Friendly. We would hope that our new Priest would be part of this journey.

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The Priest We Would Like

Someone who:

• Has proven pastoral skills to minister sensitively to all

• Can develop our worship appropriately for all age groups, whilst respecting our liberal Catholic tradition

• Has the ability to maintain established links with the people and organisations in the village and continue to increase our growing congregation

• Is able to provide effective leadership to continue to develop the spirituality and talents of the congregation

• Is an encouraging and affirming leader with a sense of humour

• Is an engaging and effective preacher

• Plans the use of their time and deals effectively with administration

• Is interested in working collaboratively with other clergy at all levels and ecumenically

What We Aim To Offer You

• A warm welcome to our church family

• Prayerful and loving support, which also respects the half time nature of your role

• A congregation which is joyful in worship

• People who are willing to take on new roles and responsibilities in order to spread God’s word and grow God’s kingdom

• A supportive P.C.C.

• A dedicated organist and an enthusiastic robed choir

• A lively and informative parish magazine distributed to every household in Hightown and currently published 10 times a year, as well as frequently updated and well visited website

• A beautiful, well maintained Church, hall and vicarage

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Our Parish

Hightown is a small rural village of around 2,000 people in the Metropolitan borough of Sefton in Merseyside, located mid-way between the city of Liverpool and the coastal resort of Southport. It is located on the coast near the boundary of the Mersey estuary and Liverpool Bay. The River Alt joins the sea at Hightown.

The Parish is very much a residential and commuter area, with a largely settled population and with many families having been resident for generations.

The village has its own GP surgery, dentist, pharmacy, post office, village shop, hair salon and village pub – “The Hightown Hotel”, all situated around the triangular village green. Supermarkets, banks and other facilities are located in nearby Formby or Crosby.

The Hightown Club, founded in 1907 offers tennis, bowls, squash,

racquet ball, cricket, rugby, football and social events.

The Blundellsands Sailing Club, also founded in 1907, has its clubhouse situated on the foreshore in Hightown.

There are good primary and secondary schools locally in Formby and Crosby, both 2-3 miles away. Formby primary schools are served by school buses.

There are excellent public transport links by train to Liverpool and Southport. Only minutes away by road, the M57 and M58 provide links to the M6 and M62 for quick and

easy access in every direction.

The Hightown Dunes and Meadows Nature Reserve stretches from Hall Road Coastguard station to the mouth of the River Alt forming part of the Crosby Coastal Park and contains part of the Sefton Coastal path. The Alt estuary is of international importance for shore birds. Much of the Sefton coast is of national importance to wildlife. On the beach by the sailing club tree trunks and roots of a 3 - 4000 year old submerged forest are clearly visible lying in a peaty layer at low tide.

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Our People And Worship

Our style of worship places strong emphasis on the Eucharist. Our current services are:

• Family Eucharist takes place at 10.30am each Sunday using Common Worship. Attendance 35 - 40

• Midweek Eucharist on Thursday at 11.00am. Attendance 6 - 10

• Book of Common Prayer Eucharist at 9am Second Sunday of each month. Attendance 6 - 8

• Book of Common Prayer Evensong every Sunday at 6.00pm, predominantly led by one of our two readers. Attendance 8 - 10

• Family worship is held on the first Sunday of each month at 4.00pm, this is activity based and lasts 30 minutes. Attendance varies between 4 - 10

• Peewits - simple worship every Friday at 9.00am with coffee for Mums / Carers with preschool children. This is occasionally lay led. Attendance 10 - 15

• Ecumenical Morning Prayer takes place once per month, in either St Stephen’s or Our Lady’s, and weekly during Lent. Attendance 8 - 14

St. Stephen’s has very good ecumenical relationships with the only other Church in Hightown; Our Lady of Victories Roman Catholic Church. We have strong collaborative links with Churches Together in Formby, Altcar and Hightown.

• Additional special services include:

o Renewal of Marriage Vows

o Ecumenical walk of Witness on Good Friday

o All Souls to which recently bereaved people are invited

o Act of Remembrance at Hightown War memorial followed by Remembrance Day worship

o Service of Nine Lessons and Carols

o Two Christingle services on Christmas Eve

Our services are joyful and music plays an essential part. We have dedicated organists and a robed choir during our morning worship.

After the Family Eucharist we serve refreshments in Church in our newly refurbished porch, offering the opportunity for further fellowship.

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How Ministry Is Shared At St. Stephen’s

• There are two readers and an honorary assistant priest, Revd. Annette Nixon (retired), who helps regularly

• We have an established Bible study group: ‘Word Together,’ which meets twice monthly and is led by one of our Readers. In addition we have lay led short Bible based study courses so far held in Advent and Lent

• Members of the congregation lead the intercessions and read the scriptures on a regular basis

• We have a lay worship group who arrange several services throughout the year

• Once a month, as part of the Family Eucharist, there is the opportunity for prayer for healing and the laying on of hands which is led by a small trained healing ministry team

• A team of sacristans ensure all preparations are made for the Eucharist

• Eucharistic ministers distribute the sacrament each week and several are trained and vetted to take the sacrament to the housebound

• A magazine committee who meet regularly to produce ten Church magazines per year which are distributed free to every home in Hightown

• A group of parishioners, supported by the Deanery Family worker, who organise and deliver Children’s Fun Days during school holidays

• A pastoral care team

Hightown War Memorial Good Friday Walk Of Witness Renewal Of Marriage Vows Service

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We place great emphasis on being a friendly church and our dedicated sides people ensure everyone is individually welcomed. We have recently been awarded the Diocesan Disabled Friendly Church Award in recognition of our work to ensure easy access for all.

We are introducing the contented dementia model into our caring and sharing group at St. Stephen’s. This will ensure our community have access to support with Dementia

issues. We have plans and leaders in place to encourage our community of Hightown to become dementia friendly.

In our attempts to engage with young people and families we have established a youth club for 7 - 11 year olds, which meets each Friday in our Church Hall. The club is led by a younger member of our P.C.C. who is paid through a grant from the Deanery Mission and Growth Fund.

We are also in the process of establishing a Church Beaver Colony to commence in September 2016 with support of the Scout Association.

As a high priority we hope that our new priest will support us in our work to establish a Sunday school. Although small, we have a slowly growing number of children at the back of church engaging in activities, but we also have developed a room within the church which we hope may facilitate a Sunday school in the near future. We are working towards our Diocesan Child Friendly Church Award.

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Our Church Community

We currently have 112 people on our electoral roll with only 12 of these outside the Parish boundary.

Occasional Offices in the past year:

• Baptisms – 7

• Marriages - 2

• Funerals - 6

• Confirmations - 3

Our church hall is at the centre of our village and is used by a wide variety of Church and Community groups including:

• Toddler Group

• Church Youth Club

• Ladies’ Guild

• Church Craft Group

• Carers’ Support Group

• Collecting Point for Crosby Food Bank

• The Tuesday Group for our older residents

• Gardening Club

• B-Fit

• Sequence Dancing

• Karate

• The Townswomen

• Zumba Gold

The hall is also hired for private functions such as children’s parties and band practice. It is also the venue for the annual Flower show, is used as the Hightown polling station and Hightown Parish Council meetings. It also has a small meeting room.

We have an enthusiastic social and fundraising group who organise a full programme of events each year. These attract a large number of people from the local community.

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Over the past year we have had:

• Garden parties

• Lady’s Day

• Amadeus choral concert

• Bach Collective concert

• Race night

• Santa Dash

• Quiz night

• Wine tasting

• Christmas Extravaganza

• Family fun day

• Monthly coffee mornings with sale of goods from our craft group. The proceeds are used to support a wide range of local charities as well as the Church

Our Church Buildings

We recently celebrated our centenary in 2014. Following a major refurbishment, full redecoration and reordering we feel our beautiful Church is now fit for purpose for the next 100 years. Major fundraising and a generous bequest allowed us to rebuild the porch to include accessible toilet

facilities and a kitchen area to allow us to serve refreshments after our services. The large glass doors of the new porch allow passers-by to see right into the Church to the altar. A bequest enabled us to restore the beautiful Harry Harvey stained glass window above the porch in 2013. Our resurfaced car park with sloped access to the church means it is accessible to all. These changes have been instrumental in our achieving the Disabled Friendly Church Award.

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In response to a community need, funds were raised for a Garden of Remembrance, which was consecrated in 2011 by the Bishop of Warrington. The Garden is much valued locally as a final resting place in

Hightown for loved ones. It currently has the cremated remains of 28 people. It provides a sacred place for quiet and stillness.

The Church Hall was built in 1956 and shares a car park and large grassed area with the Church. It is much used by many organisations in the village. It was refurbished in 2006 and is well maintained by a dedicated Hall Management Committee. The many activities which take place provide a means for people, who could otherwise be quite isolated within the community, to get together.

The Vicarage, built in 1975, is a modern 4 bedroomed, detached, family home. It is adjacent to the Church but is set in its own grounds. This will be available to be a home to the new priest if required.

Finance

In recent years the church has been able to meet its commitments including the regular payment of the parish share. A great deal of fundraising has enabled the completion of a number of major projects including the Garden of Remembrance, Redecoration and the Centenary Project. Our Church finances are well managed by our church treasurer.

At present we are encouraging the congregation to revisit their giving including adopting The Parish Giving Scheme. The P.C.C. has also agreed to a plan of action to encourage giving via wills and legacies. This is being supported by the Diocese.

Copies of the most recent church accounts are available on request.

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From The Area Dean

St. Stephen’s is in the Deanery of Sefton.

Sefton Deanery runs from Formby in the north, to Crosby in the south and Maghull & Melling in the east. There are fifteen parishes presently in the Deanery.

The clergy enjoy a good supportive relationship across the Deanery and have regular Chapter meetings. The Deanery has been through Pastoral Re-organisation and has the required number of clergy in the Deanery. This has enabled the Deanery to be allocated a full grant from the Diocese to form the Deanery and Mission Growth Fund Charity whereby churches in Sefton Deanery can apply for money to be used for Christian mission and outreach with in the Deanery. We are currently using money from this fund to employ a part time leader for St Stephen’s youth club. In addition the Deanery employs a Deanery Family worker Caroline Collins who has worked with the young people of St Stephen’s and is leading the monthly family praise during the interregnum.

The Deanery still have a half stipend that in the future we plan to use when the mission potential and needs of the Deanery have been fully explored.

St Stephen’s is also part of the Formby, Altcar & Hightown Churches Together network. Churches Together are very active and the clergy have regular informal gatherings to keep in touch with one another.

St. Stephen’s has good lay leadership with able and supportive wardens.

This is a unique opportunity as a half-time post in a parish that is enthusiastic about the future. St. Stephen’s is the only Church of England Church in Hightown and has a real sense of wanting to reach out to that community.

The new Vicar of St. Stephen’s will be warmly welcomed to the Deanery by clergy and laity and we look forward to working together in the service of God.