Burchetts Green Parish Profile‘Seeking to know Jesus, to share his love and make him known in

word and action’

Detailed descriptions of our churches may be found here

Welcome

We are looking for a new Vicar to lead us as we seek to develop our Mission and Vision for the Parish. We offer an opportunity which we hope you will find both exciting and challenging, as we launch our new facility for families, bring the parish closer together and look for new ways of being Church.

Situated close to Maidenhead, we are one parish with three churches, each with its own distinctive congregation and team of enthusiastic volunteers. You will have the help and co-operation of a small Ministry team, creative and committed Lay leaders and an active and supportive PCC.

We look forward to meeting you.

Burchetts Green parish is part of Maidenhead and Windsor Deanery in Berkshire Archdeaconry, in the Diocese of Oxford. A word from our Archdeacon, Ven. Stephen Pullin:

Thank you for considering the role of vicar of Burchetts Green. I trust that the information in this profile will help you in your initial discernment.

I have been encouraged to see that there are very good opportunities for rural mission in the villages. The churches, which are located at the heart of their communities, have a good understanding of contextually appropriate mission. Creative ideas are being explored to engage with the post-lockdown communities and the new vicar will help to shape and deliver this refreshed thinking. There is also an opportunity to consider how best to allocate resources within the benefice to maximise this missional potential.

The deanery is well-led and well-resourced. You will find yourself amongst mission-minded colleagues who will provide support and encouragement. If you would like to discuss this post, please contact Alison Taylor to arrange a conversation with me. Her email is alison.taylor@oxford.anglican.org .

With prayers and best wishes

Stephen PullinArchdeacon of Berkshire

We are at the heart of the community

Burchetts Green parish is a semi-rural community of the villages of Burchetts Green, Hurley and Littlewick Green, the hamlet of Stubbings, the scattered village of Pinkneys Green and a residential area on the western fringes of Maidenhead.

There is recent new housing in Littlewick Green and a diverse population across the parish from commuters to caravan owners, large gated houses to social housing. The area contains many open spaces, notably the riverside in Hurley, and large areas of National Trust land at Maidenhead Thicket and PinkneysGreen are within the parish.

There are good connections via the M4 and M40, and many people commute by regular fast trains to London from nearby Maidenhead, where there is also the promise of Crossrail.

We have lots of young families involved who regularly attend family worship but the electoral roll of the parish consists largely of retired members of the community .

It is a prosperous area with access to the Thames Valley business parks and many excellent schools.

Welcome to Burchetts Green

Stubbings

St James the Less, StubbingsWe treasure the traditional BCP 8am service and the quiet beauty

of Stubbings as a sacred space to pray

Find out more about St James the less here

St James the Less, Stubbings

The Church of St James the Less, which sits in the small hamlet of Stubbings, was built in 1850 to serve as a chapel of ease for StubbingsHouse, Maidenhead Thicket. Although there are only a few houses near the church, the scattered village of Pinkneys Green lies within walking distance and there is a large, well-established residential district on the western outskirts of Maidenhead.

The church is surrounded by a delightful country churchyard which is open. This is popular with many people who walk through, often with their dogs, both to enjoy its beauty and calm, and to access the National Trust lands at Maidenhead Thicket and a little further on at Pinkneys Green. We are planning to create a labyrinth in the churchyard in the hope of leading walkers to an understanding of God and to provide a quiet space for meditation and prayer.

The church has been a Prayer Book church and the main focus of worship is BCP. By long-standing tradition people from outside the Parish worship at Stubbings for this reason. Some regular worshippers attend BCP services as their parents and grandparents have done in the past and this connection of the generations through the years is strongly felt. When the church is open a surprising number of people quietly come to sit and reflect on their family life events, marriages, baptisms and burials, which have taken place at Stubbings, sometimes many years ago. The visitors' book reflects this spiritual connection with the church.

The Soltau Centre is situated behind the church in a quiet and beautiful environment and is used for a variety of parish and community activities. It is hired to many local groups ranging from yoga classes, local choirs and the Maidenhead and Windsor group for adults with learning difficulties. The Parish Office is located within the centre.

St Mary the Virgin, Hurley

Our church has been a place of contemplative prayer for over 1000 years…can you help us to reimagine what this means for our lively village community going forward?

Find out more about Hurley here

St Mary the Virgin, Hurley

Hurley with a population of about 1,000, is a picturesque village on the south bank of the Thames mid-way between London and Oxford and convenient to M4, M40 and Maidenhead train station.

The population is diverse, with families, retired people, commuters, some living in large houses, some in assisted housing, some in caravans. There is a strong sense of community and the many activities in the village are well supported. This is a lively community with a strong Village Association. Much activity takes place by the river and Hurley Lock.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, consecrated in 1086, is at the centre of the village. The income received from Hurley Church Estates is invaluable in maintaining the historic fabric of this ancient church.

There is a Village Shop with visiting post office, a Village Hall and two pubs: The Olde Bell and The Rising Sun. There is a cricket pitch and 2 tennis courts. With its attractive village green, riverside and may ancient buildings, Hurley is often used as a film location.

The community gathers for Church and Village activities which include church festival services and the Fete, the Regatta, a Village Quiz, and Carols on the Green. Breakfast in Hurley, held on 4 Sundays a year before church services, welcomes newcomers, church goers, villagers and passing walkers and cyclists. In the Priory Room, which adjoins the church, groups gather for the Hurley Ukelele Group, The Community Choir, Pebbles toddler group, Cameo tea for older people, Oasis prayer group, Harvest Supper and other church events and study groups.

St John the Evangelist Littlewick Green

We are growing as a village church offering a warm welcome for all

Find out more about Littlewick Green here

St.John the Evangelist, Littlewick Green

The village of Littlewick Green is set off the Bath Road, two miles west of Maidenhead. It is a quintessential English village with the earliest cottage dating from the 16th century. There is a mix of Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses as well as those built in the last 30 years.

The Village pub, The Cricketers, overlooks the green and is the social heart of village life.

The Village Hall was built in 1911 and is well used by the Cricket team and many of the village groups. We also use it for church social events run by The Friends of Littlewick Church, who raise funds for the maintenance and preservation of St John’s.

There has been cricket on the upper green for over 200 years and the present teams are doing well in their various leagues. The Colts are the junior side of the club and more recently the club has established a girls’ side as well as sessions for the very young. The club is well supported by the village.

•The Littlewick Green Society was formed in the 1960’s to encourage and promote the preservation, maintenance and improvement of the character and beauty of the village. It is an active society and arranges many social events, including an annual Party on the Green. The society also links with St John’s at Christmas by running a ‘Kick off to Christmas’ lunch. After lunch, the children walk to church for the Christingle service, finding questions to answer on the way.

The village, houses, hall , pub and church have been used as locations for many episodes of Midsomer Murders. They spent a month filming in March 2021 including 5 days at St John’s.

One of our more famous residents was Ivor Novello, who lived for many years in what is now Redroofs Drama school . His bust is in the church.

The Lychgate entrance to St John’s, can be found in the North-East corner of the upper Greens.

What do people like about us?

What do people say about our worship?

How do we see ourselves and our mission?

Providing Providing fellowship and hospitality at times of joy and distress

Offering Offering an inclusive, open welcome to all

Loving Loving our neighbours, near and far

Enabling Enabling our communities to come together

How do we see ourselves and our mission? Details and examples

Loving our neighbourWe provide pastoral support, love, fellowship and friendship to our neighbours in difficulty or distress and we celebrate with them at times of joy. A good example of this is our response to lockdown: we have pulled together at this time, looking after each other, keeping in touch and supporting the isolated. Each church has set up a regular email connection to parishioners, including news and information, and short obituaries of those who have sadly died and for whom there has been limited funeral numbers. These include prayer and links to online services. They have been warmly received by the wider communities. We continue to support our mission partners.

Curating a sacred spaceWe are developing spaces that open the possibility of an experience of God ratherthan an experience of church. Our churches are all in beautiful settings. Plans torecreate a labyrinth in the churchyard at Stubbings are underway. We understandthat different people are drawn and respond in different ways, and so areexperimenting with different approaches that draw on the strengths of each ofour churches; traditional worship at Stubbings; intentionally family friendlyservices at Littlewick Green and a contemplative approach at Hurley, using theriverside location and ancient place of prayer to enable people to seek God intheir own way.We are using the new Contemplative tool kit in all age services in Littlewick and a lay led ‘God in quiet’ services in Hurley. And in our recent lent ‘Come and See’ group. Several people across the parish also have Personal Discipleship Plans and are actively growing in their everyday faith.

We see ourselves increasingly in the centre of our communities.We offer an inclusive, loving welcome to everyone, enabling our communities to come together. There are many people from the parish and beyond, who do not worship regularly with us, but who nevertheless feel a connection with our churches, who fill the pews at festivals. We are well connected and active within our communities and would like to build on these foundations. We are increasingly meeting people wherever they are in our community and getting involved. This is shown in the carol singing in local pubs, and Hurley village breakfast.

Where might God be leading us?

What’s important right now? Where might you, our new incumbent, have your focus?

Where might God be leading us?

During the past six months we have come together as a parish and have a growing recognition that change is valuable, necessary and exciting! We have discovered that good things can come out of difficulties and we know that we must be open to change to make growth more likely. A key element of this will be the greater role played by lay people in participation and lay leadership. We have rediscovered our creativity during lockdown.

We seek to be a church for all ages. We would like to build on what we already have for children (Pebbles for pre-schoolers, Explorers and Adventurers for older ones) and engage young families through the setting up of a vibrant Sunday School. We would like to retain our younger, middle-aged, congregants who, due to the pressures of modern life, only attend church sporadically, but who are seeking to know God in their own way. We want to build on the service of our more traditional members, who have worshipped and served God faithfully for many years.

We want to build on the strengths that can come from being a three-church parish. Each church has its own USP and we can share different forms of worship across the parish, from lively family services, to traditional forms of worship, to quiet 'sacred spaces' and more. To get the best out of these strengths we need to continue to collaborate well, enjoying time spent together and supporting and praying for each-other.

We value the importance of house groups. We regularly have lent groups and have had some very rewarding groups for different ages meeting in the past, and they would give an opportunity to support people wherever they are on their spiritual journey. We would like to encourage and develop these at all levels: they are often lay-led with support and guidance.

We have a track record of embracing technology and we are looking to upgrade and install wi-fi in all churches with Ultra-fast broadband to enable live multi-church transmissions. All our churches have screens and good sound systems.

We believe that under your leadership it is important to address these areas well:

Is God calling you to Come and See us?

Colleagues

Revd Dilys Woodmore“I was appointed as a self-supporting associatepriest to the parish of Burchetts Green in 2004.Over the years I have supported two incumbentsby being available for various aspects of ministrybut mainly in taking occasional offices andleading Eucharistic services plus pastoralcare.Since reaching retirement age I now hold aBishop's PTO licence to the BerkshireArchdeaconry and can offer 1 Sunday eachmonth plus help for festivals and pastoral care. Ilook forward to working with a new incumbentand am happy to assist when I can if asked tocover illness/holidays.”

Revd Tina Molyneux has lived in the parish for over twenty years. She served her curacy here as a self-supporting minister after being ordained in 2010. Tina has triplets who are now at University and she works full time as the Head of Discipleship and Social Justice for the Diocese of Oxford. She has supported the introduction of Personal Discipleship Plans to the parish and is actively mentoring several members of our parish. She provides occasional leadership of services, mainly during festivals.

Rob Harris, Headteacher, Burchetts Green Infants SchoolOur school's vision, Living life in all its fullness - an opportunity to flourish, is at the heart of everything we do; boosting the quality of our curriculum and informing our school values. It provides an environment which prepares pupils for life as confident, happy citizens. We are very proud of the strong links we have with the church. The previous incumbent regularly led Collective Worship in school as well as seasonal church services. The post of parish vicar is an ex-officio role on our Local Governing Body and we enjoy the benefit this brings the school.We very much look forward to welcoming the new vicar to our corner of the

parish and hope they will play an active role in the spiritual development ofour school community.

Gilly Miall is our experienced Parish Administrator, she is employed for 15 hours per week and based in the parish office in the Soltau Centre, Stubbings.

The vicarage • a modern 4 bedroomed detached house situated in the heart of the parish in the village of BurchettsGreen. It comprises 2 bathrooms, kitchen, utility room, breakfast room, cloakroom, sitting room, and dining room. The study, with its own cloakroom, has access from within the house and from outside. There is a garage, ample parking and a compact garden.