MISSION PLAN 2022
Working with the Diocese of Ely Development Action Plan template we agreed three strategic aims that together and in our separate parishes we are committed to pursuing.
SERVING THE COMMUNITY AND USING OUR BUILDINGS
Our three churches are well-kept and the churches in Harston and Hauxton are open every day. We will serve our community, working to increase awareness of the church in each of our villages, offering a range of activities and contributing to community events. We will promote the church as a living presence as well as a historical asset. We will support one another across the Benefice when services and events are organised and held locally. The Benefice will make use of the variety of venues across the Benefice, planning to run longer events at Harston, taking advantage of the facilities there.
BUILDING UP THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH
We want to develop and offer a variety of styles of worship on Sundays and during the week to attract and make welcome all ages and sections of our communities. We will work to communicate more clearly what a worshipper may expect when they choose to come.
We must encourage worship by families. We will explore offering a Lent course and Bible study to the Benefice as a whole. We will explore how our strength in music could increase our connectivity. We will continue Benefice worship in each of our churches.
BUILDING UP A TEAM MINISTRY
We know we cannot to do this alone nor can we expect our minister to do it all. We want, therefore, to explore how a ministry team might be developed.
We have identified specific actions in each of our churches:
All Saints’ Harston
Promote the use of the church by different groups in the community.
Sustain and build on our annual programme of activities and work with the village and school wherever possible.
Re-start house group(s) and nurture our new Friends group.
St Edmund’s Hauxton
Improve the profile of the church and what it offers to the community, including advertising events and services through village channels as well as the Church notice board, reaching out afresh to Hauxton Meadows, strengthening our connection with the primary school and repeating and developing the successful 2019 Open Day. Encourage the 100 Club and restart church coffee mornings in the new village hall.
Continue to build up the spiritual life of the church; including encouraging people to see the church as an oasis, a quiet place for meditation and calm, improving our provision for children, and reinstating coffee after Sunday services.
St Margaret’s Newton
Improve access to the church for disabled people by purchasing a fold up ramp.
Continue to work closely with the Village Hall and local community groups and organisations such as 100 Club, lunch club and harvest supper.
Support the Deanery initiative to appoint a youth worker.