The Ministry Leadership Team

	Fr Stephen Gregory	Fr Michael Cozens		Linda Biggs	Peter Brown	Margaret Holman
	Jerry Porter	Sylvia McKenzie	Margaret Compton	Sue Read	John Elliott	Beryl Elliott

Photographs by David Jones

What is the Local Ministry Team supposed to do?

People have been asking the question 'What is the Local Ministry Team supposed to do?'  and have found the members of the team searching for an answer.  Well we are beginning to find out.

I don't know where the idea of  Local Ministry Teams came from, but our early forages into the purpose of the team has given us some idea.  If I were asked to produce a Mission Statement as is the vogue these days it would be something like:-

"Guided by the Holy Spirit, to seek the will of God for the whole of the Parish of Prestbury.  This entails:-
identifying its spiritual needs,
identifying its corporate gifts,
enabling those gifts to be used to fulfill the needs."

At the turn of the 20th century many more people went to church than do so today and there were more clergy.  This made it possible for the vicar to tend the whole of his flock.  These days we have an electoral roll in the hundreds in a Parish of eleven thousand people.  So the problem is clear.  There is no way that the vicar can even know what his flock needs let alone be able to do anything about it.  Hence the 'Local Ministry Team' idea.

Members of the team are not surrogate clergy, but with the clergy part of the team, they are much more 'at the hub of things' and can therefore be the eyes and ears of the Parish.

How does this differ from the existing PCC and specialist committee structure?  I believe the answer is 'fundamentally'.  The relationship between the Local Ministry Team and this structure will become clearer over the next few months.  One thing is certain - the PCC has the ultimate power of sanction.  Watch this space.

Pete Brown       
(January 2000)  

The team in training:   12-13 February 2000 Commissioning of the Parish:   5 March 2000