Vacancy & Recruitment

It’s an exciting time in the Ross parishes as we seek to recruit three new people to the team. These are:

A new Rector
A House for Duty Priest (Walford)
A LifeLink Chaplain

Rector

Sean’s consecration as Bishop on 24th May also marks the official end of his time as Rector of the Ross Parishes. Our Parishes are now in a period of vacancy. When that happens a parish is run jointly by the Rural Dean and the Churchwardens. This group, with Matthew Osbeldiston-Hawkes representing Brampton Abbotts is now meeting regularly as the Vacancy Management Group (VMG).

Most of the important dates for the recruitment process for our new Rector are now in place. Many people, particularly the PCCs of the three parishes and the VMG, but there are a few occasions when all members of the community are asked to contribute. They are in bold here:

What	When & where?	Who?	Why?
Pre-vacancy meeting	Wednesday 12^th June, 7.30pm Walford Church	Members of the PCCs of all three churches	The Archdeacon will brief all members of the PCCs on the vacancy process.
Consultation Meeting	Saturday 22^nd June, 10.00am St Mary’s	Any member of the church and town community. The Archdeacon of Hereford will lead the meeting	Begin the process of deciding what we would like of our next Rector.
Consultation Meeting 2	Sunday 7^th July, 11.15am St Mary’s Hall	As above, but led by our own Vacancy Management Group rather than the Archdeacon	As above We are particularly keen to capture the thoughts and wishes of our young people and their families. This time may work better for them.
Draw up Job description, Parish Profile etc	7^th – 30^th July Several meetings and much hard work.	VMGCaroline PascoeHelp from PCCs	To advertise the post and attract candidates
Vacancy Meeting (“Section 11” meeting)	Wednesday 31^st July, 7.00pm St Mary’s Hall	Members of the 3 PCCs,Chaired by lay vice chair (Peter Reynolds)attended by Rural Dean and / or Archdeacon.	Formerly agree the Parish ProfileAppoint 2 representatives from each parish (total of 6) for the selection processConfirm the timetable for the rest of the process and a few other legal things.
Advertising	Church Times 6^th Sept, 13^th, 20^th, 27^th Sept & Diocesan Website	Hereford Diocese – closing date for applications: 29/09/2024
Short listing	?	ArchdeaconParish representativesRural DeanBishop?
Interviews	28^th & 29^th October 2024 Ross Parishes / Hereford	6 Parish representativesBishop of HerefordArchdeaconRural Dean
New Rector in place	Early 2025	Indeed! How exciting!

House for Duty Priest (Walford)

This post of part-time Associate Minister (two and half days plus Sundays) would suit a creative, mission-hearted, energetic and prayerful priest who enjoys working collaboratively and has a passion for intergenerational mission and ministry in a rural setting.

It is potentially a very flexible post and the person appointed could combine this role with childcare or other caring responsibilities, with further study, work in secular employment or another church role, or it might be attractive to someone about to retire or recently retired. And because we’re recruiting to two other posts, we are open to further flexibility depending of the circumstances of applicants.

ross-parishes-draft-assoc-priest-profile-and-role-summer-2024

LifeLink Chaplain

There has long been a vision in the Ross and Archenfield Deanery to build on excellent church work with primary schools as students move up into our one Deanery secondary school – John Kyrle High School. We can now see a way to fulfil this vision.

We are looking to appointing an adult, in sympathy with the Church of England who will work with young people and their families, especially of secondary school age, from across the Ross and Archenfield Deanery (South Herefordshire).

This person will be based for a part of their week at John Kyrle High School and will work with young people, and crucially their families, where they are: in school, in society and in church.

More detail here