Battersea Parish Church A Snapshot of St Mary s Church & Parish in Autumn 2014 Parish Profile and Questions Arising Context The first phase of Mission Planning work is focused on establishing a shared picture of Where We Are. Newsletter readers have the chance to find out through this document some background information about St Mary s Church and its local parish area. The information included in this document was prepared for the Church Council meeting on 11 th November, together with a number of questions (in Section C) arising from it. The information it contains may help you to think about what matters to you about St Mary s ministry and mission and may also help you think about your own contribution to the forthcoming sessions when you have the chance to give your own input. A. The Church and Parish in 2014 Mission Action Planning Steering Group Debbie Apostolides Simon Butler Philip Krinks Evalyn Lee Peter Wintgens Introduction In order to prepare a Mission Action Plan, the PCC and others need to have some picture of the current state of play in respect of the church and the parish. This document is prepared to provide a reasonable amount of information, without overloading us, so that we can do that work. St Mary s Church in 2014 Membership Electoral Roll 2014: 238 (78 male; 160 female) 2:1 Female:Male ER residents in/around geographical parish: 142 (60%) ER living at a distance: 96 (40%) Usual Sunday Attendance 2014: 135 Estimated Members : A large number of people reckon St Mary s to be their church, many of whom rarely, if ever, worship here. However, a cautious estimate might be that around 250-300 people might call themselves members in a way that means something more than nominal allegiance.
Electoral Roll (Children Added) Age Profile (Estimated) Age Range St Mary s Census 90+ 1 <1%.5% 80-89 9 3% 1% 70-79 26 9% 8% 60-69 45 16% 7% 50-59 40 14% 14% 40-49 47 17% 17% 30-39 40 14% 12% 25-29 15 5% 12% 18-25 9 3% 9% 14-18 3 1% 3% 8-13 12 4% 6% 5-8 9 3% 4% 0-5 24 8% 6% Clergy, Ministry Team & Employed Staff 1 Vicar (Stipendiary) 1 Assistant Curate (Stipendiary) 1 Honorary Assistant Curate (Non-Stipendiary) 2 Southwark Pastoral Auxiliaries 1 Families & Children s Minister (Full-time) 1 Director of Music (Part-Time) 1 Parish Administrator (Half-Time) Governance Parochial Church Council 25 members (8 male; 17 female) 2:1 Female:Male PCC Working Groups Finance Group (4 members, 3 PCC) Fabric Group (7 members, 4 PCC) Financial Stewardship & Development (4 members, 3 PCC) Congregational Life/Social (9 members, all PCC) Children & Families (3 members, 2 PCC) Mission Giving (3 members, 2 PCC) Lay Leadership 2 church wardens. Three lay members serve on the Ministry Team Finance (2013 figures) 2013 Income 194,346 2013 Expenditure 213,870 (Fairer Shares Contribution: 116,818) 2013 Deficit 14, 432 2014 Deficit (Projected) 26,000 2013 Congregational Giving 101,748 Number of Regular Givers 114 Individuals plus 23 Couples = 160 in total % Tax Efficient Giving 96%
Use of Building in a typical week (Hours per week as a percentage of 98 total hours Monday-Sunday 8am-10pm) Church 31* Crypt 41^ Office 23 (20 hours office open + up to 6 hours for Sunny s German Church work) ^Thomas s Kindergarten use the crypt 35 hours per week *Church not completely available for use while Thomas s Kindergarten use crypt Activities & Work A table of church activities is provided in a separate document, together with an assessment of each activity s current strength. St Mary s Parish: Facts & Figures Note: Some information is available on a Parish basis, others on a Ward basis. Unless otherwise indicated, figures quoted relate to the Ecclesiastical Parish. Population: Increase of 20.4% Population by Age: See above Ethnicity 27% of Parish is Minority Ethnic 21% of St Mary s ER is Minority Ethnic (All Ethnicities) UK Residency 20% of population have lived in the UK for under 10 years. 18% of the population have English as a second or additional language Religious Affiliation 58% identify as Christian, a 12% decline in 10 years; the next biggest religion is Muslims (10%) Housing Almost a quarter of residents live in social housing; just over a quarter rent. Household Comparison 37% of residents live alone; only one quarter of these are of retirement age Over one third of households with children are single-parent households Relationship Status Just over a quarter of residents are married or in a civil partnership; 10% cohabit 44% of residents are single, and have never married/entered a civil partnership Employment & Education Half of residents are employed in managerial/professional roles 1 in 20 have never worked One quarter of residents work over 49 hours per week Over half of residents have a degree to Bachelor level or above; Wandsworth Borough has the highest level of graduates in the UK
Health Residents of the parish have generally good health and low levels of long term problems. However, the neigbouring Wards of Latchmere and Queenstown show significantly higher levels of long term health problems. Deprivation Both the parish and Ward show average levels of deprivation compared to the whole of London, but significantly lower levels of deprivation compared to neighbouring Wards. Areas of deprivation which have been identified in the parish statistics are: Female life expectancy (highest 10%) Lone Parent Households (highest 10%) Quality of Outdoor Living Environment/Geographical barriers (10%) Income deprivation affecting older people and children Crime The parish experiences significantly low levels of crime and is in the 50% least deprived parishes by this index. The diocese as a whole is the 50% most deprived. The only crime which scores higher than the borough average is burglary, but only marginally. Key Institutions & Strength of Link with Church Note: This list does not include shops, restaurants or most entertainment venues. Institution Type Formal Link? Meadbank Care Centre Health Strong Bridge Lane Surgery Health None Somerset Nursery Education: Early Years Established Westbridge School Education: Local Authority Strong Thomas s Battersea Education: Private Prep Strong Thomas s Kindergarten Education: Private Kind. Strong L Ecole de Battersea Education: Private Prep None Royal College of Art Education: Higher None Royal Academy of Dance Education: Arts None John Bosco College Education: Local Authority Not Yet Opened Peace Pagoda Religious: Buddhist Weak Assemblies of First Born Religious: Pentecostal Established Sacred Heart Church Religious: Roman Catholic Established Battersea Mission Religious: Methodist Established Iglesia na Cristo Religious: Filipino Protestant None Battersea Park Recreation: Local Authority Established Woodman PH Recreation: Social Established Candlemaker PH Recreation: Social None Prince Albert PH Recreation: Social None Draft House PH Recreation: Social None Duke of Cambridge PH Recreation: Social None The Lanterns Recreation: Arts None Caius House Community: Youth Established Katherine Low Settlement Community: Various Strong Randall Close Day Centre Community: Disability Strong
Institution Type Formal Link? Hotel Rafayel Accommodation: Hotel None Dimson Lodge Accommodation: Housing Established Joan Bartlett/Mary Court Accommodation: Care Established Community Space Available other than St Mary s A number of other organisations in the list above have community space available either for hire or free of charge, depending on the nature of the usage. These include: Battersea Mission, Sacred Heart Church, Caius House and the Katherine Low Settlement. State schools are also usually required to make space available to the community. B. St Mary s Current Activity See Separate Landscape format Document Format: n. Statement Evidence Questions C. Steering Group Observations on Where We Are Observations from Church and Parish in 2014 1. The sense of belonging to St Mary s goes much wider than coming to church/being on the Electoral Roll. 2. We are attracting a relatively small proportion of our geographic parish into membership/attendance. Our parish has ~5,000 people who describe themselves as Christian in the Census. There are probably ~500-1,500 people in Battersea who see St Mary s as their church. Our Electoral Roll is ~240 and our Usual Sunday Attendance is ~135. Why is the sense of belonging so widespread? What about St Mary s is attracting people into membership/attendance at present? And what is getting in the way? 3. We largely focus on using the building for public worship, but we recognise that it has a broader significance, and we work to meet that need to an extent. Our building is a landmark locally and across London. The sense of belonging is partly focused on the building, and it is also a place of pilgrimage for visitors. We do not invest paid resources in keeping the building open except at service times. We open it on Sunday afternoons through volunteers. Have we come to this balance by accident, or is it a deliberate choice?
4. St Mary s is one of the few institutions in Battersea where a diversity of people meet and work together. (If it was ever true that St Mary s is a white upper middle class church, that does not seem to be true now.) Our level of Minority Ethnic membership (~21%) is broadly in line with the area (~27%) and we have members from a full range of roads and blocks within our parish, from the Surrey Lane estate to the Sisters to Montevetro. What does this tell us about ourselves? Are we conscious of having taken to a journey to our current position and if so what have we learnt from it? 5. Many of our members have made a choice to be here (explicitly or implicitly). St Mary s is one of many churches within walking distance for many of our parishioners, and one of several Anglican churches. What is distinctive about St Mary s at the moment, compared to other churches? 6. We have relatively few 20-somethings attending. 20-somethings make up ~19% of the local population but ~7% of our membership Where do we see 20-somethings at St Mary s? What is attracting them? 7. To flourish we need to engage people quickly in church life (from ministries such as Junior Church leading, to pastoral relationships, to planned giving) - rather than them being new people for 1 or 2 years. Many people live in the area for 2-5 years and then move away, often to the south or west, so that the turnover in our population is high. How good are we at this currently? 8. We are offering something which attracts people to travel to church. 40% of our membership is gathered, some from a fair distance, many of whom are in key leadership roles. Many people stay as St Mary s members even when they move away from Battersea. What is that we are offering now which creates this attraction? Does having a 40% gathered congregation have implications for our church life? For example, is it making it harder to engage with highly local issues? Harder to run weekday events? 9. Either, the congregation has not yet been convinced that the current St Mary s activity set is worth them funding. Or, they are convinced, but are nonetheless not enabled to provide the funding Our level of congregational giving is relatively low (~ 8 per ER member per week) and insufficient to fund our activities. Which is it, and why might that be? 10. In our generation we are in effect making a choice to spend part of our endowment The gap between our giving and the costs of our activities is being met by slowly consuming our endowments (of the order of ~ 1.5m in property and other investments). Is this a deliberate choice, or again have we come to that by accident?
Observations from Current Activity list 11. Our model is that most activities are led either by clergy, another Ministry Team member or one of a group of ~15 other lay leaders We have many activities, and most appear to have good leadership at the moment. Is this model sustainable? Are we in a position to find successors for lay leadership roles when current leaders rotate out of them? 12. Our approach to Social Mission is to engage broadly but lightly so that we are connected with a relatively wide range of local groups and charities (as opposed to having a single landmark project for example) In the area of Social Mission we have multiple activities and make a light commitment to each of them (i.e. generally one or a few people are involved). Have we come to this model by accident or deliberate choice? How well is it serving us? 13. We have a fairly focused range of communication channels, for example we do not send Notices in email Our Communications activities comprise the e-newsletter and FaceBook page, plus Service Sheets and Flyers in church, and Notices given in Services. Again, have we come to this model by accident or deliberate choice? How well is it serving us? D. Having Your Say Between now and 7 th December, you can have your say by attending any of the services at which our SEITE ordinands are present. Details of those are in the article entitled Mission Action Planning: Meet the SEITE Team.