ANGLO-CATHOLIC TRADITION

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1 The Benefice of Worcester, St. Martin in the Cornmarket with St. Swithun and St. Paul was created in April 2014 as one of three new benefices following the dissolution of the benefice of Worcester City. It covers a section of the historic core of Worcester, the new St. Martin s Quarter development, many light industrial units and a small - but increasing - residential area. The parish has been in interregnum since the Benefice was created. Our ministry is divided in three ways between serving those who live in the Parish, those who work, study or spend their leisure time in the Parish and those who worship in our church. St. Martin in the Cornmarket has been the leading Anglo-Catholic church in the central and southern part of the Diocese of Worcester for more than a century. It is modern Catholic in liturgy and theology. The ceremonial aspects are complemented by a fine musical tradition. The church is undergoing a Development Project, and plans for the interior of the church, the garden, and the Parish Room have already obtained faculty approval. Plans for remodelling the courtyard entrance, including new railings, gates and paving, are currently being drawn up. The new Priest in Charge will lead this project.

2 ANGLO-CATHOLIC TRADITION St. Martin in the Cornmarket, often referred to as Old St. Martin s, has been the leading Anglo-Catholic church in the central and southern part of the Diocese of Worcester for more than a century. It is modern Catholic in liturgy, and Common Worship is used in the permitted form that has the structure of the Roman Mass. The main Sunday service is Sung Mass with celebrant and, when possible, a deacon. Incense is used at all main services, and the church possesses a fine collection of new and older vestments. The serving and ceremonial is generally of a high standard, especially at major festivals, although the number of servers can vary from week to week, according to availability. The Eucharist is celebrated daily, except Monday and Thursday, as well as celebrating all the main festivals, such as the Assumption and our patronal festival Martinmas. Other services include Evensong and Benediction and a Ministry of Healing on a regular basis. The Stations of the Cross are used in Lent, and the full Holy Week Ceremonies are celebrated. Whilst Resolutions A and B apply in our Parish, the ministry of women in every other respect is encouraged. In the past, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet has celebrated and preached at St. Martin in the Cornmarket, but not recently. The individual members of the congregation attend St. Martin in the Cornmarket for a variety of reasons, and it has to be acknowledged that there are wide differences of opinions with respect to women priests and women preachers. Some people are traditional Anglo-Catholics who do not accept women celebrants or incumbents, whilst others are more liberal and attend specifically to experience the beautiful liturgy, ceremony and musical traditions. MUSICAL TRADITION The ceremonial aspects are complemented by a fine musical tradition. An augmented choir sings Masses by the great church composers once a month and at major festivals. The organist / musical director, David Brookshaw, is well qualified and highly experienced. The church possesses a fine organ, which was refurbished in the 1980s. This is due to be enhanced by the addition of a trombone stop on the pedal later this year. The organ is used for recitals and lessons, as well as at all Sunday and other special services.

3 THE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT Our Development Project has blossomed under the guidance of the previous Associate Priest, Father Andrew Greany, and our Development Steering Committee. Plans for the interior of the church - including removing some of the pews and pew platforms, and providing servery facilities within the church - and improvements to the Parish Room have already been approved. The core of the project is to remodel the churchyard into a community garden, for the use of anybody living, working, visiting or shopping in the city of Worcester. It is to be a haven of peace in the heart of the city. Plans for the garden have been drawn up by students at Pershore College of Horticulture, and funding has already been granted for plants and shrubs. Worcestershire County Council is currently remodelling the Cornmarket outside the church, and this opens up exciting opportunities for our relationship with the city. Plans for remodelling the courtyard entrance, including new railings, gates and paving, are currently being drawn up. Our fundraiser has been successful in attracting several grants and we are hoping to see the fruits of our planning come to fruition in the near future. THE BELLS PROJECT The bells project, which is in its final stages, has been led by Mark Regan, the tower captain at Worcester Cathedral, and has furnished St. Martin in the Cornmarket with a new light peal of ten bells. The bells are regularly rung and form a key resource for the teaching of new bell-ringers by the Worcester Cathedral Guild of Bell-ringers. Hanging above these ten new bells, in the same chamber, are the original six. Five of them pre-date the present Church, the earliest having been cast in 1320 and carries the inscription, Sancte Martine Hora pro Nobis. The Saint Martin s chime, which once more rings the quarter hours and resounds over the city, is absolutely unique and so distinctive. Our seventeenth century clock is due to be recommissioned and re-positioned in a niche in the bell-ringing chamber.

4 THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH Dedicated members of the congregation provide high standards of care of the internal fabric of the church. Others using the Parish Room are committed to the outreach activities of weekly community lunches and sponsorship of community activities. Cards for Good Causes use our church for eight weeks before Christmas, generating a large number of visitors. Fund-raising is at the heart of our activities aimed at the Development Project. During 2014, these included providing the teas in Cripplegate Park on summer Sunday afternoons, participating in the Worcester Festival and the Victorian Christmas Fayre with displays, stalls and refreshments, carol singing at the local Asda store and holding an Arts Festival. We have an Events Committee, which organises many social events, including talks, organ recitals and performances by musical groups, which are generally well attended. The church is in demand for holding concerts and musical workshops, and it has fine acoustics. The Battle of Worcester Society holds its annual service at our church, and currently the Serbian Orthodox church is holding a monthly service.

5 We participate in all the Worcester Festivals. In recent years we have held exhibitions of, for example, vestments, flowers and icons, and these always draw many visitors to the church. Many are heard to say that they did not realise there was such a beautiful church in the centre of the city. Once the removal of some of the pew platforms has taken place later this year, the church will be much better suited to holding exhibitions, gatherings and meetings, especially when servery facilities are provided the following year. A small number of parishioners make an annual pilgrimage to Walsingham. The previous Associate Priest started holding a parish away-day every year. Whilst this tradition has fallen away whilst we are in interregnum, it is hoped that the new Priest in Charge will encourage similar initiatives, and we are open to all suggestions. THE PARISH ROOM The church has a Parish Room on-site, which is in need of major repair as part of the Development Project. It is used to serve coffee on Sundays and Wednesdays after Mass, for the Monday Friendship Group, the Tuesday Parish Art Group, for the Friday Parish Lunch, as well as for meetings, including the PCC and the Development Steering Group.

6 HISTORY The church of St. Martin in the Cornmarket, dedicated to St. Martin of Tours, was established on its site by the end of the eleventh century. The present building, which dates from 1772, has a Bewdley blue brick exterior with stone features and a beautiful Georgian interior. It is a Grade II* listed building standing in a Conservation Area. This has been re-ordered for modern Catholic ceremonial. The church is of considerable regional importance and significance. It is the only city church which is kept open for short periods nearly every day, with the celebration of Holy Communion throughout the week. It houses an unrivalled collection of priceless vestments of around seventy items, and along with veils, burses, maniples and stoles takes the tally to well over one hundred and fifty. It also has some fine stained glass windows by John Hardman and Frederick Preedy of the Gothic Revival period. It has become the repository of some important and rare Oxford Movement acquisitions, including candlesticks, statues, crucifixes and furnishing; in particular, a fine painted high altar of Arts & Crafts design, installed in the 1860s. There are almost forty items of silver, the earliest dating from the 17th century, and a further fifty items of brass, mainly Victorian. The current building is the third to stand on this site, and was built by Anthony Keck to the designs of Harry Keene, showing the influence of the earlier St. Martin in the Fields, London. A porch was added to the south door in Since 1984, much stonework has been replaced, the windows have been restored, the roof re-slated, the interior decorated and the fine Nicholson organ rebuilt. The church seats about 200 people. The church is one of a handful of churches that has a claim to be where William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were married in November 1582.

7 MINISTRY OF THE PARISH The ministry of our parish has an important role in the spiritual life of a busy city centre. However, the congregation is drawn from a much wider area and also includes those who work or shop in the city centre, or who are visiting Worcester. Time is given to ministering to those who worship in our church and, as our parishioners live in all parts of the city and beyond, a car or bike is required for parish visiting. Hospital visits are carried out by the clergy, should anyone require it. Communion of the sick is currently taken by retired priests. When these do occur, families are visited before and after the service and suitable preparation given. In common with many churches, our congregation is finding it difficult to attract new people at a rate sufficient to compensate for natural losses through illness, death and moving away. A recent influx of new families, predominantly from Angola and Portugal, has given new hope for our church and children are given activities when the sermon is being preached. The population of the parish is, however, increasing, as older buildings are converted to apartments of students lets and new blocks are built. Reaching these new residents is a big challenge for the future as our present congregation is predominantly an elderly one. Very few of the occasional offices of the Church, baptisms, weddings and funerals, are currently carried out in our parish. A number of elderly people live in almshouses or in sheltered housing schemes within the parish. Communion services are held weekly, on Thursdays, at the local Laslett s Almshouses. The average Sunday attendance is around forty people, with more attending for the Choral Mass on the second Sunday of the month. Any number from two or three to twenty people attend the weekday and Saturday services. The Wednesday service is the best attended weekday service. There are 55 people on the Electoral Roll.

8 LASLETT S ALMSHOUSES AND HOUSE FOR DUTY The previous Associate Priest lived in the Chaplain s house at Laslett s Almshouses, and carried out the services there. Whilst this formal link to St Martin s in the Cornmarket is no longer in place, we hope there will still be a more informal link, particularly as the new house for duty is leased from the Laslett s trustees, and overlooks the garden and chapel. The house is in Union Street, in the heart of the city, near to the Cathedral, the Commandery, the shops and all the other amenities. It is a modern three-storey town-house with two bedrooms, a study, a courtyard garden, balconies on each floor and a garage. It has been newly redecorated and re-carpeted. It is the house at the end of the terrace in these photos.

9 ST SWITHUN S INSTITUTE The Institute was developed by the Rector and opened in It is located in the road next to the church, and is administered by a body of trustees as an independent registered charity. The Rector and Churchwardens of St. Martin in the Cornmarket are ex-officio trustees. The Institute provides a large hall which is used for parish and community purposes, as well as commercial lettings, the Parish Office, and additional office accommodation which is rented to several city organisations and small businesses. The Parish Office is located in two rooms and provides desk space for the Administrator plus occasional use by other church officers and a large table for committees etc. Full office facilities are provided here. THE STAFF TEAM AND PCC The staff team comprises of the Priest in charge - to be appointed - and a part-time Parish Administrator, Brian Askew, who also acts as Secretary to the PCC. There is a Sacristan, Lucy-Anne Cranmore, and an Honorary Treasurer, Sue Wright. The church benefits from the support of retired priests who take a number of services - in particular Canons Paul Tongue and Graham Lyall. The PCC has ten members excluding ex-officio posts, such as the two Churchwardens, Pat Davidge and Malcolm Wright. Meetings are held every two months and there is a high attendance record. The priorities of the individual members of the PCC cover the full Anglican spectrum - from those who would focus exclusively on mission to those who would seek to nurture the traditional church.

10 FINANCIAL AND STRUCTURAL SITUATION Whilst the congregation is generous in its level of giving, the amount received is not sufficient to meet current annual expenditure. The majority of parishioners are elderly and on fixed incomes. We are only able to pay our Parish Share in full by drawing investment income from endowed funds. We are seeking to realise some of the endowed funds for the Development Project in the future, so this will reduce the level of investment income available. This means that the mission to grow the church is given even more impetus. The church gives 7.5% of its annual income for mission giving, of which of which 75% is for UK based causes, and 25% overseas. The next quinquennial survey is due this year and we are praying that the repairs we have made in the last five years, together with the plans for the development project, will enable us to minimise any further expenditure. The church is generally in a good state of repair, and works planned through the project will tackle the worst aspects of amenity provision, such as the poor state of the Parish Room and lavatory. MISSION St. Martin in the Cornmarket is a parish which stands firmly in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England. Here you can expect to find dignity, order and structure in worship, orthodox theology and faithfulness to apostolic order. The Mass is at the centre of our life, both for us as individual Christians and as a congregation. The new Priest in Charge will have many challenges ahead as we seek to apply our Anglo-Catholic tradition to worship and outreach in the 21st century. Reaffirming the spiritual life of the church and building up our congregation. Exploring the riches of our traditions and to offer intercessions through a prayer group. Leading the Development Project, improving the church facilities and connecting with the local community. Providing pastoral care for our congregation, which includes many elderly people. Maintaining our close links with the Cathedral, the Worcester East Deanery and churches of other faiths.

11 WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR AT ST. MARTIN IN THE CORMARKET? - Person specification We require our new Priest in Charge to be:- firmly rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England. committed to outreach within the local community. both a good listener and an excellent communicator. flexible, as the development project starts its work schedule. aware of the financial aspects of leading a development project. approachable and encouraging, sensitive to the varied opinions (particularly with respect to women priests) and gifts of individuals. able to inspire and unite the congregation. able to build on and strengthen our pastoral care network. a clear and effective communicator of the teachings of the Bible. willing to nurture and promote the musical traditions of our church. able to link ministry and mission across Worcester city centre. WHAT ARE OUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES? Strengths Anglo-Catholic tradition - unique in the area. Family atmosphere amongst the long-standing and loyal congregation. Choral traditions and excellent organ. Fine church building in a good state of repair. Bell-ringing with training opportunities. Development Plan in operation, also with Council involvement. Close links with the Cathedral. Social events leading to good relationships and fund raising. Stable financial position with endowed funds. Many retired priests attend our services and are available for support. Weaknesses Ageing and declining congregation, many on fixed incomes. Wide differences of opinions with respect to women priests and women preachers. Insufficient income from the congregation. Lack of capacity for taking on responsibilities - reliance on the same people. Dilapidated state of the Parish Room and lavatory.

12 LOCATION The Parish Church of St. Martin in the Cornmarket lies in the south-east quadrant of Worcester city centre, on the east-west axis between the newly-opened St. Martin s Quarter shopping area and the much older area of Mealcheapen Street, New Street, Queen Street, The Shambles and The Trinity, which are mainly retail, though with an increasing residential population. Formerly, St. Martin s dominated the Cornmarket, near to the St. Martin s Gate in the City Wall, at the very centre of the commercial and manufacturing heart of the city. The area immediately surrounding the church was a densely-populated and closely-knit community of family businesses and working people. Today, the church looks out onto a the Cornmarket car park. The County and City Councils are currently planning to upgrade the Cornmarket town square, pedestrianising the road adjacent to the church, which will improve the aspect. Thousands of people, every day, walk within a few yards of the Church, as they make their way from car parks to shops, and back again, up and down Mealcheapen Street, crossing the road where the ancient St. Martin s Gate stood. Both Foregate Streeet and Shrub Hill railway stations are within easy walking distance of the church, as well as the city bus station. The M5 motorway runs close to the east of the city. Using the excellent motorway system, it takes around two and a half hours to drive to London, Manchester or Liverpool, an hour to Bristol and forty minutes to Birmingham. The house for duty is about four hundred yards from the church. OUR OFFER - an exciting opportunity We are seeking a priest who is experienced in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England, who will respect and take account of the differing views of all members of the congregation. They must embrace and take forward the Development Project, bringing it to a conclusion within five years. They must grow the mission and outreach of the church, with a view to growing the congregation. In return, they will have the loyalty, hard work and enthusiasm of a long-standing congregation at an important Church in the heart of a beautiful Cathedral City. The post is sponsored by a diocesan trust, time limited to 31st March 2020.

13 The church as viewed from The Cornmarket Palm Sunday procession with Bishop John Christmas crib Remembrance Detail from a vestment Stained glass window

14 THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER The Diocese of Worcester covers an area of 671 square miles and includes parishes in Worcestershire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, and a few parishes in northern Gloucestershire, south-east Wolverhampton and Sandwell. Founded about 679 by Theodore of Canterbury, today it has 175 parishes, 280 churches, around 120 stipendiary and 30 non-stipendiary clergy and 170 Licensed Lay Ministers (Readers). There is also a growing number of Authorised Lay Ministers (ALMs) being trained to support and resource ministry in their own localities. There are 100 church schools, 97 primary and 3 secondary. The diocese is divided into the Archdeaconry of Worcester, with six deaneries, and the Archdeaconry of Dudley, with seven deaneries. THE COUNTY OF WORCESTERSHIRE Worcestershire comprises six districts: Bromsgrove, Malvern Hills, Redditch, Worcester City, Wychavon and Wyre Forest. It has a combined population of 557,400, with a larger number of older people than the regional and national average. The county has an outstanding and rich natural environment and is home to spectacular features such as the Malvern Hills. A large part of the county consists of a combination of fields, orchards, woodlands, meadow, ancient forest and rivers. Agricultural land and open countryside dominate the landscape, but 64% of the total population live in urban areas. Agriculture, horticulture and food processing are still significant elements of the local economy, but manufacturing, local government services, financial services and tourism are important factors, providing employment and income. Worcester University is one of the fastest growing of the new universities in the country. The county is adjacent to the West Midlands conurbation and has generally good road access to and from the national transport network. Many who live in rural areas experience difficulty accessing services. The perception of Worcestershire is that it is affluent, free from social disadvantage and an attractive place in which to live. In reality there are pockets of deprivation and some very specific, and sometimes

15 conflicting, challenges that the diverse nature of the county poses. The 2007 Indices of Deprivation highlights seven areas that are in the top 10% most deprived areas in England and Wales, with education deprivation, income deprivation and crime of particular concern. DIOCESAN MINISTRY AND MISSION As a diocese we are committed to mission in every aspect, seeking to bring the good news of God's love in Jesus to all who live in our cities, towns and villages, and to make the gospel relevant to their everyday lives. We are developing creative new patterns of ministry in these changing times: though there are fewer stipendiary clergy than in the recent past, there are now more people offering licensed and authorised lay ministry than ever before. Differences in churchmanship are not divisive in this diocese which has a genuine family feel to it. We are implementing, after much reflection and consultation, an imaginative Kingdom People vision and resource which seeks to help churches become better at their core task of proclaiming the Kingdom. As Kingdom People, our vision is for a Church which enables its people to be: deeply rooted in prayer and study of the scriptures. renewed and transformed by regular worship. equipped to witness to the gospel of love, compassion, justice and freedom. dedicated to helping children, young people and young adults to belong and be nurtured in faith. devoted to growing deeply in discipleship, offering our time and talents and money to God. resourced and released to minister to others. ready to engage with and serve our community. committed to making our buildings fit for purpose as a spiritual and community resource. The Bishop looks to appoint those who will work collegially with clergy and lay people in the deanery to encourage and sustain the wider mission and ministry of the church. It is normal for a priest to have a ministerial interest wider than the benefice itself that takes something in the region of 10% of their working time.