Mission Links
Local Mission
Watermead Mission Partnership
In 2007 a new local partnership was launched, under the Diocesan ‘Shaped by God’ initiative. The aim was to develop relationships and links across our parishes on the northern edge of Leicester, the Watermead area, discerning where best to deliver ministry and ways in which we might benefit from working closer together. The Watermead Partnership has begun to develop as a significant local cluster, for the better enabling of mission. It contains 5 parishes, 9 worship centres, 6 clergy of incumbent status and 7 other clergy, 6 readers, 1 evangelist and 4 pastoral assistants, as well as all our congregations. Our linked parishes are: Birstall & Wanlip, the Parish of the Resurrection (Belgrave), Christ the King (Beaumont Leys), St Luke’s (Stocking Farm) and St Theodore’s (Rushey Mead).
Churches Together in Birstall & Wanlip
Churches Together in Birstall & Wanlip consists of our Anglican Churches of St James the Great Birstall and Our Lady & St Nicholas Wanlip, together with Birstall Methodist Church and St Theresa’s Roman Catholic Church. Our Churches Together grew out of a joint covenant which was made some years ago, expressing the intention not to do separately what we could better do together to further the mission of the kingdom of God. Regular meetings are held, and a range of joint activities are shared between our Churches. These include: Contact (our monthly joint ecumenical magazine), Christian Aid week, Children’s holiday club (in August), and a range of joint services and events. The relationship are strong, and we see ourselves as a united Christian presence in these communities.
Overseas Mission
USPG - Belize
In March 2008 Malcolm Lambert, our former Rector and his wife Ruth moved to Belize, (formerly British Honduras) a small country in Central America. Malcolm to become Director, and only member of staff at the Anglican Theological Institute, where he is responsible for training priests and lay leaders, and Ruth to be priest in charge of St Ann’s in Belmopan, the capital.
Although primary education is free and the state pays teachers salaries, all the schools are run by the various religious denominations and both Malcolm and Ruth are involved in teaching religion in the Anglican schools as well as their management. The Anglican Church is very short of priests and lay leaders and on Sundays Ruth can be involved in round trips of up to 100miles taking services in outlying villages. In addition to teaching in the Institute and taking services, Malcolm is also expected to oversee Religious Education in schools. One of his current tasks is rewriting the RE syllabus for primary children in Anglican schools. Malcolm and Ruth are sponsored by the USPG, which is one of the main Anglican missionary societies supported financially by the Parish, and also by individual members of our church and other Christian friends.
Following security issues Malcolm and Ruth are currently back in the UK on compassionate leave.
CMS Uganda
Allan and Anne are CMS mission partners in Arua, northwest Uganda, close to the borders of DR Congo and Sudan.Under the leadership of Bishop Joel Obetia, Allan is involved in training church leaders in the Diocese of Madi and West Nile. Primarily based at St Paul’s College, Ringili, he also does some outreach work in the wider diocese.
Anne teaches nursing and community health, at the same college and at Kiluva Mission Hospital.
Allan has served as an Anglican clergyman for 24 years in the ex-coalfield areas of South Yorkshire.
Anne is a qualified nurse who has worked most recently in health care education and research.
They have two children. Ben was recently married to Bethan and lives and works in London. Joanna, a medical student in Leicester, is due to qualify in 2008.
After many years in Anglican church leadership in England, they feel called to engage with the wider church overseas. They have long taken a strong interest in social justice and holistic mission, and feel drawn to work overseas partly as a result of visits to India, Nepal, Tanzania and South Africa.
Their private passions include classical music, hill walking, and the odd glass of good wine, but anticipate having to modify these slightly in the context of Uganda! However Allan hopes to find some time to write more music, whilst Anne has plans for a long-awaited book.
Allan and Anne keep a blog of their life and work in Uganda at http://allanandanne.blogspot.com/
Bethany Children's Homes
Jeel al Amal Boys’ School and Lazarus Home for Girls, Bethany (Palestine)
In March 2006 a small group from St. James’ Church, led by Revd. Sheila Skidmore, spent a fortnight in the Holy Land, visiting places familiar to us from our reading of the bible. We stayed in an Arab hotel in Jerusalem and in a Jewish one on Lake Galilee, giving us opportunity to study both cultures. Our visit to the two Christian-run children’s homes in Bethany probably made the most profound impression on us, so that we immediately and unanimously decided to do all that we could to support them financially when we returned home.
As a result of various social events, concerts and the sale of scarves etc., we have been able to send them more £5,000. Every penny raised, without any deductions, is immediately passed on to the two homes.
(Further information available from Alastair McHugh – berylmchugh@homecall.co.uk or call 0116 2674913 or )
Friends of the Diocese of Uruguay
The Parish supports the Anglican Diocese of Uruguay both prayerfully and financially through the Friends organisation. This link came about as a result of a visit to Argentina and Uruguay by one of our former Rectors, Charles Bradshaw in the 1980s. He formed a friendship with the then Bishop of Uruguay, Bill Godfrey, an Englishman from Derbyshire. The Diocese had only recently been formed and Bill was actively presiding over a revival in the Anglican Church in Uruguay which was being transformed from a church catering mainly for people of British extraction into one which is now mainly Hispanic. The Anglican Church is very active in providing for the needs of the underprivileged in the country. Among other activities it runs a refuge and soup kitchen for the homeless in the crypt of the Cathedral and a centre and workshop for those suffering with HIV/AIDS in Montevideo, the capital. The Friends have been very active in supporting these projects financially.
Members of our congregation have visited Uruguay to witness what the church is doing but a few years ago Cathy Harrison, a former member of our church, spent six months helping at a mission for deprived children in Salto; a place where children are provided with meals during the school day. Sadly Cathy died three years ago after a long fight with a debilitating illness. However she left a sum of money , in her will to build a church in Salto, next to the mission where she worked and where she is still remembered with great fondness by many of the children and their parents. It was a great joy to Cathy’s mother and father, Sheila and John Harrison, and Cathy’s sisters when they attended the consecration of the new Church of the Holy Spirit, by the present Bishop of Uruguay in March 2008.