Minster Communities

We are now in Phase 2 of the Minster Communities process. Four Minster Communities have been identified (A. B. C. D.) and St Leonard’s is in group D which currentlyconsists of the following;

Swithland, Quorn, Barrow on Soar, Walton on the Wolds, Prestwold, Wymeswold, All Saints Loughborough, Hathern, Long Whatton, Kegworth, Diseworth, Belton and Osgathorpe.

No doubt a better name for our group than just plain old Group D will emerge.

In the weeks to come ‘Working Groups’ from each church will be meeting together to determine how the parishes in our group can best work together within our Minster Community. It is expected that this process will take around 9 months to a year. Meanwhile no hard and fast decisions have yet been taken. Nevertheless, we can be certain that members of church congregations will not be expected to travel around to other churches for their Sunday Service, although some may wish to do this from time to time. Rather the expectation is that the clergy will travel around from church to church. The current understanding is that there will be up to 4 stipendiary posts in a Minster Community, and that not all of them will be ordained. There will be an oversight minister for each Minster Community. It is anticipated that communion services will be covered by a mixture of stipendiary, self supporting and retired clergy.

We are fortunate at St. Leonard’s in that we have a retired priest, Revd. Steve Delaforce, who is providing cover for many of our services and is working alongside the worship committee to help plan future services, for which we are most grateful. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that looking ahead there will need to be greater Lay participation in leading and delivering services. Indeed opportunities to train for this are already being offered and taken up.

Please keep tuned in to this Minster Communities page for further updates as and when the information becomes available.

Minster Communities – Local Conversations