Many communities across our Diocese have been subject to decades of underinvestment from national and local government leading to significant socio-economic disadvantage and marginalisation. Across the Bristol and Swindon area approximately 30 of our parishes sit within the 20% most deprived in the country when ranked using the national Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).
Local churches and clergy serving in these areas often face a range of particular challenges, not least, limited resources. We long to turn the tide and see clergy and churches in these areas flourishing and cultivating sustainable good growth, through intentional investment and support.
What does this culture change programme cover?
The Priority Communities (PC) programme can be viewed in two wings of investment and activity:
Support for clergy, lay leaders and churches who serve in PCs, through:
Priority Community Network (PCN) gatherings for prayer, planning or social events. This has initially focussed on gathering clergy from the churches below, and other invited clergy.
Tailored lay & ordained ministry development coaching, courses, and programmes.
The offer for 5 parishes to be part of the ‘Jesus Shaped People’ discipleship programme, which is running parallel to the PC programme for churches in the 30% most deprived communities (IMD). Alongside this our Priority Communities Trainer is developing a new training programme that will equip local lay leaders from priority communities to fulfil their callings within their churches and communities. The programme will be a contextual course focusing on personal transformation, mission & evangelism, and leadership.
The following list of 14 PC contexts have been invited to take part in the core funded programme as they sit in the 12.4% most deprived communities (IMD:
- St. Andrew, Hartcliffe, & Withywood Church, Bristol (Rev. Derek Maddox)
- St. Barnabas, Filwood, Knowle West, Bristol (Rev. Clive Hamilton)
- Easton Christian Family Centre, Bristol (Rev. David Moore)
- St. Peter, Penhill, Swindon (Rev. Lydia Morey)
- Shine Pinehurst (BMO), Swindon (Rev. Simon Halls)
- St. Peter’s Lawrence Weston, Bristol (Rev Nic Harris)
- St. John’s & St. Andrew’s (Parks & Walcot), Swindon
- St. Luke with Christchurch Barton Hill & St Matthew Moorfields, Bristol (Rev. Nicola Coleman)
- St. Stephen’s Southmead, Bristol (Rev. Gaby Doherty)
- St. Agnes in St. Paul’s, & St. Anne’s Church, Eastville, Bristol (Rev. Melanie Otto)
- St. Mary Magdalene with St. Francis, Lockleaze, Bristol (Rev. Rob Smith)
- St. Mary’s, Henbury, Bristol (Rev. Jae Chandler)
- St. Mary’s Fishponds, Bristol (Rev. Lizzie Kesteven)
- St. Mary’s, Shirehampton, Bristol (Rev. Alison Sowton)
The 5-year PCN programme is intended to enable:
- New Christian Communities (NCCs), and increased engagement in the NCCs.
- Increasing numbers of fringe church contacts.
- Increased numbers of young people engaged in community activities.
- Increased engagement with children through school ministry.
- Increased numbers of community groups using church buildings.
- Growing numbers involved in lay leadership, (with 40% under 18).
- Lay leadership and participation in church broadly reflects diversity of context.
What is on offer to the funded PC contexts:
One of the core principles of the PC programme is that deployment of resources is shaped by the local churches involved, in a contextually relevant way.
Funding for one full time equivalent lay ministry post, plus funding towards admin support and expenses are available for each of the above contexts. The PCN staff team will support clergy and their church PCCs to create a proposal and to implement their plan once it is approved. For some parishes this might mean employing a community evangelist/outreach worker, or launching a schools/youth outreach programme, or a shared community grocery, workshop, parenting programme, etc. It could be appropriate to employ individual ministry staff to work in a particular parish as part of the ministry team or build a bigger team across several of the above PCN contexts.
The PCN funding is enabling admin support to be put in place, by developing several Operational hubs to support clusters of the PCN churches, with a few others using funds to recruit their own part-time Operations Manager.
The team supporting this programme are:
 Revd Andy Murray - Dean of Priority Communities |
 Martin Green - PCN Project Officer |
 Revd Michelle Taylor - Priority Communities Trainer |
 Evie Jones - Priority Communities Project Administrator |
Get in touch with the PCN team here