October Meeting

Ministry on the Edge: Rural Ministry in the Urban Shadow / Urban ministry and the rural hinterland

Tuesday, 30th October 2012

NOTE:  NOW at Colden Common Vicarage - see directions below

11.30am until 3.00pm

A warm invitation to share in a Hampshire Rural Group (HRG) discussion prompted by the issues raised in Archbishop Rowan Williams' Theological Reflection on the essays in Changing Rural Life: A Christian response to key rural issues, ed Jeremy Martineau, Leslie J Francis and Peter, Francis (Canterbury Press, 2004).

The text is available to download here (pdf, 767 KB).

Previous HRG discussions have noted differences between rural and urban/suburban/town ministry. Relationships are built in different ways in suburban and rural churches. Worries in different types of churches reveal the theology being applied: the minister who acts as chaplain to the congregation may be anxious about church numbers –  such a church may become event-driven in order to generate visible growth. Many villages report an increasing influx of urban/suburban migrants, some of whom do not ‘understand village life’. But we have also recognised that people are people, and ministry is ministry in whatever setting, and there will be many common features in churches urban and rural across our county. There is individualism in every setting.

Rowan Williams urges that the rural church's insights are needed to complement and enrich those of the urban. "The most basic question that has to be addressed by the Church in the countryside is how is it equipped both to hear and to communicate good news. ... That is to say, no bit of the Church is going to know everything about the gift of God in Christ: the challenge is to manage the variety of human context and experience in the Church in such a way that it becomes a sharing of Christ with one another and so with the wider world."

All are welcome. It would be particularly good to have representatives of urban / suburban / town churches which are in mixed urban/rural economy benefices.

To get to the Vicarage at Colden Common, approaching from Twyford on B3354, passing Holy Trinity church on your left, there is the old school car park on the right, just past the church, on the other side of the road.  Please park in the old school car-park, cross the road, and enter a track that has its entrance between the telegraph pole and the bus stop.  About 20m along the track branch left into the Vicarage gate.  For sat-nav users the post code is SO21 1TL and house number 157.

Our host is:-
Rev'd Jonah Watts,Vicar of Twyford, Owslebury, Morestead and Colden Common,
The Vicarage, Main Road,Colden Common,
Winchester, HantsSO21 1TL

01962 711216

If you are coming, please let the convener know for catering purposes:
Canon Martin Coppen,   01264 738308   church@1and3.org.uk

Bring your own lunch: drinks will be provided.

Next Meeting

Rural Church and Ministry Forum
Tuesday 27th March 2012, 11.30am–3.00pm
St Mary Bourne Village Hall Club Room,
Bourne Meadow, St Mary Bourne, Andover, SP11 6BE

An Invitation to ruminate on rural matters, ministry, church and village, and chew the cud of changing life of churches in the countryside. Join in a conversation about the issues of ministry within small communities and multi-parish benefices. 

Our discussion will also set the agenda for Hampshire Rural Group meetings over the coming year. All interested in rural church issues, lay and ordained, are very welcome.

If you are coming, please let the convener know for catering purposes:
Canon Martin Coppen,   01264 738308   church@1and3.org.uk

Bring your own lunch, or buy it at the nearby Village Shop: drinks will be provided.

St Mary Bourne Village Hall Clubroom is just off the B3048 in the centre of St Mary Bourne.

View St Mary Bourne Village Centre Club Room in a larger map

Wordle Report of the Assistant Clergy Consultation

A Wordle Word Cloud: click on the Wordle to see a larger version. Read the full, though less colourful, report with the words in order here.

Assistant Clergy in Rural Areas

An Open Consultation on Assistant Clergy in Rural Areas

Friday 19th November 2010, 11.30am-3.00pm
The Sumner Room, Old Alresford Place, Alresford, SO24 9DH

One of the very welcome developments in parish ministry over recent years has been the number and spread of assistant clergy.  This has been particularly evident in rural areas and has helped to balance the decreasing number of stipendiary parochial clergy.
Assistant clergy work in a great diversity of contexts.  They may be stipendiary curates, self – supporting ministers, or house for duty Priests, associate Vicars ….  There are subtleties of relationship, role, status, how they are perceived and how they perceive themselves.  It seemed timely to offer an opportunity to share experiences and insights of those concerned and explore the issues together.
So this consultation is for all involved in rural churches.  It is for lay people, those of incumbent status, and of the rainbow variety of assistant clergy in Hampshire.  The Revd Norman Boakes, Continuing Ministerial Development Officer for the Diocese of Winchester, has kindly offered to be available to share his insights in discussion with members.
Bring your own lunch but coffee and tea will be provided.  Everyone is welcome, but it will be very helpful if you could  let the Hampshire Rural Group convener know if you intend coming: Canon Martin Coppen, revd.coppen@dsl.pipex.com 01264 738308.

Gamekeeping at Beauworth

We had a very good walk and day with Julian France, gamekeeper on the Shorley Farm estate, Beauworth. Julian talked about his work through the year, the joys of his life, and the dangers from predators human and wild, answering questions put to him by members. In the morning we walked around Powells Grove, and after lunch, Shorley Copse. The afternoon finished with prayers in St James' Parish Church.

View Full Album
 

All the photographs were taken by Michael Clarke.

Crossing the Threshold

You are invited to attend the Second National Conference focussing on a community development approach to the use of Church buildings.

July 2010 Meeting

In the relaxed life of the Hampshire Rural Group, 
an Invitation to a Ramble ...
Tuesday 6th July, 11.30am until 3.00pm, Beauworth
This is an opportunity to accompany gamekeeper Julian France as he walks and talks us around his demesne on Shorley Farm, Beauworth with its four woods and the source of the River Itchen.
This is not only about how shoots are prepared for and organised but the relationship of a gamekeeper to the land and its woods. There will be time enough to put to Julian our many questions – dialogue rather than lecture. By paying attention to how he sees and works in the countryside we may learn to appreciate the rural scene better – and our own parishes.
It will be helpful to know who is coming as we shall walk in a group and once we have started it will be difficult for latecomers to find us. Please let me know if you intend coming: Martin Coppen 01264 738308 email: revd.coppen@dsl.pipex.com . For the walk I will have my mobile on in case of need to contact: 07884 014 245.
We are very grateful for the encouragement of Dr Alexandra Clarke, the Rector of the Upper Itchen Benefice, for this visit and look forward to meeting her.
Shorley Farm is north of Beauworth village, south of the A272. At the crossroads on the A272 signed Cheriton and Beauworth, turn towards the latter. Take the first turning on the left, around the gamekeeper’s house with tall chimneys, and rendezvous outside the farm buildings on the right up the lane.

Points to note:
• The visit will go ahead whatever the weather. If necessary there will be a sheltered place near our cars to stop for lunch.
• There are no toilets on the walk – only au naturel.
• Bring your own lunch AND drink.
• We may well walk 3-4 miles in total, though not at great pace.
• It may be damp or muddy in places and certainly will be uneven.
• Meet at 11.30am at SU 579 266, on the lane to Shorley Farm. Parking is on hard-standings outside the farm buildings on the right about 300 yds from the junction with the lane to Beauworth village.
• We will drive from there to park outside Beauworth Church for the short final service finishing 3.00pm.
• New members always welcome, do invite someone you think might be interested.
• Details about Hampshire Rural Group are on http://www.hantsrural.org.uk/ .

Richard Jefferies’ first book of rural description was The Gamekeeper at Home (1878). It’s a book of essays which grew out of his own experience and observation of a gamekeeper local to Coate (now on the very edges of greater Swindon), where he grew up. The Preface, Title and Contents pages indicate how he ordered the material. It was a very successful book in its day and is still in print.

from the PREFACE

THOSE who delight in roaming about amongst the fields and lanes, or have spent any time in a country house, can hardly have failed to notice the custodian of the woods and covers, or to observe that he is often something of a ‘ character.’ 
The Gamekeeper forms, indeed, so prominent a figure in rural life as almost to demand some biographical record of his work and ways. From the man to the territories over which he bears sway—the meadows, woods, and streams —and to his subjects, their furred and feathered inhabitants, is a natural transition. 
The enemies against whom he wages incessant warfare—vermin, poachers, and trespassers—must, of course, be included in such a survey. ... The facts here collected are really entirely derived from original observation.
R. J.