Bishop John will be nominating Revd Canon Chris Daniel as the first Team Rector of the new Team Ministry for Church St Helens. The text of the announcement is below.
An announcement about our Team Rector-designate
This announcement is a bit longer than usual and comes in three parts.
Firstly, with our deanery plan in place to create the new parish for Church St Helens, the next step was to identify the first Team Rector when the new parish comes into being in 2024. This week a panel interviewed potential candidates for this role. The panel included members of our Shadow PCC representing the lay people of the new parish, a representative of our clergy team, and members of our future patronage board. The panel has recommended to the Bishop that Chris Daniel should be the first Team Rector of the new parish.
Bishop John says “I am delighted that Chris has agreed to be the first Team Rector in this new and exciting time for Church St Helens. With our love and support she will continue to help you move onward prayerfully and courageously.”
Secondly, a message from Chris, who says, “I am delighted to be continuing this journey with Church St Helens as Team Rector Designate. We are steadily making progress to fulfil our four priorities: sharing Jesus, deepening discipleship, developing leaders and seeing more justice. Undoubtedly we have challenges ahead to face, but we have come so far already by taking small steps forward and with God we will continue to make progress together.”
Thirdly, a bit more about what this means. The Team Rector-designate will have a particular role in leading and facilitating the mission and ministry of the whole team, and in this role Chris will build on the work she has already been doing as team leader in the Fit for Mission process.
Your local vicar will remain the incumbent of your church now and will continue to be the local leader for your church. All the current incumbents of the Fit for Mission churches will be written into the new parish scheme along with Chris so that everybody has security as we transition into the new parish.
Please keep Chris in your prayers, along with everybody in Church St Helens, as we take this next step on our journey