Working as a Benefice
One benefice, five churches, working as one
Much work has gone into bringing our five parishes together into a benefice that works well and provides mutual support. Every parish is committed to making the benefice work, and to the benefits of sharing services and activities across our congregations. Here’s how that looks in practice.
How that looks in practice
- Shared administration We share a part-time administrator, based at the Vicarage, who assists the Rector with benefice administration, arranging services, completing returns and producing our newsletters.
- Benefice worship Every Sunday, congregations come together for a shared Benefice Communion service, rotated around the churches. Alongside this are lay-led services: monthly Breakfast Church, Café Church and Forest Church, plus a three-monthly Celebration Service and Evensong.
- Midweek Communion A weekly Benefice Said Holy Communion service is held at 10am on Wednesdays at Little Harrowden.
- Shared festivals We hold shared benefice services to celebrate special occasions such as Ascension Day, Ash Wednesday and Advent, and Orlingbury holds an annual Pet Service.
- Bible study Faith Explorers meets monthly via Zoom, and each year Lent groups run study sessions through the season.
- Courses The benefice runs courses as needed, including Alpha, Marriage Preparation, Christianity Explored, and Confirmation classes.
- Youth group Our benefice youth group meets on the second Friday of the month, 5–6.30pm.
- Mothers’ Union The benefice Mothers’ Union meets monthly in one of the churches, and plays an important role supporting families preparing for baptism.
- Men’s Breakfast St Mary’s Little Harrowden hosts a monthly benefice Men’s Breakfast for discussion and a “full English”.
- Churchwardens The churchwardens of the five parishes meet four to five times a year with the Rector, to discuss the administration of the benefice and share ideas and issues.
- Shared policies The benefice has shared policies for Safeguarding, Baptism and Health and Safety.
- This website We share a benefice website at 5churches.com, linking all five churches and providing shared information about the parishes.
- Connect 5 Our shared monthly newsletter, Connect 5, is delivered free to every household in the benefice and includes church and community news.
- Social and fundraising Every church runs its own social and fundraising events, and each supports the others in turn.
Curious about the vision behind all this?
These are the everyday, practical ways we live out our shared commitments as a benefice.
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