interregnum
I now live and worship in a rural parish that has recently undergone significant reorganisation, after a prolonged interregnum, which resulted in me leading a service when there was no minister to attend.
When our priest retired, I was one of the church wardens and our interregnum started, During that time I was one of a team who, after much prayer and deliberation, changed the orientation of the parish from one which could not accept the ministry of women to a church which welcomed them.
We did not realise then that the interregnum would last 5 years and it took a team of several of us to keep everything going.
I am a Church Warden and Reader in the local church (which is growing even in interregnum), Deanery Treasurer and member of the Diocesan Synod.
The requirement to have an interregnum can create a difficult time for parishioners in these parishes.
Currently vice-chair. ▪ Experience as a Churchwarden before ordination including during a difficult interregnum. ▪ Leadership experience in secular work where I managed a large team of staff in the UK and Europe. ▪ Someone who can listen and reason but also has clear ideas of my own based on a good knowledge of the Church.
However, all the time I was working and helping to bring up our four children, I was heavily involved in my local church, variously as homegroup leader, youth group leader, PCC secretary, PCC vice-chair, churchwarden, and leading the church through an interregnum concluding in a church graft.
I have served on PCCs for many years and including as Treasurer, PCC secretary, Electoral Roll officer and currently Vice chair (during our interregnum).
Our very long interregnum (2018 — 2026) recently ended and we are now blessed with the ministry of a new priest. |am a member of Forward in Faith and our church is affiliated to The Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda and a member of the Richborough group of parishes.
Over those last six years we have journeyed through a 14-month long interregnum and experienced subsequent gradual steady growth not only in numbers but also in the deepening of people’s faith.
I was licensed as a Recognised Parish Assistant four years ago and have been an Authorised Lay Minister for three years, focusing on ministry across our benefice of six churches and leading services during a two-year interregnum.
However, it is also important to find ways to share resources across churches so that there are not churches left in interregnum for years while others have multiple priests and many other resources.
Whilst closure was averted and a smaller benefice was achieved, the interregnum lasted over a year, leading to a decline in attendance.
Secretary, Churchwarden during an interregnum and for 8 further years; Deanery and Diocesan Synod and General Synod for a period of 3 years following a by-election in
Diocesan and inter-parish support to another large church in interregnum at the request of the then, Archdeacon.
As more churches go into vacancy/interregnum, and the number of churches in a benefice increases, any help from an incumbent is likely to reduce if not disappear.
I have led and supported children's ministry, served on parochial church councils and spent six years as churchwarden at Holy Trinity, including during an interregnum.
Ten years in Yorkshire, in a rural multi-village benefice, part of a Bishop’s Mission Order, with a complicated interregnum.
Our Rector Rev. George Frost joined us 3 years ago after a 3-year interregnum when I took services if clergy unavailable.
I have been involved through a major church re-ordering project, many faculty processes, as well as an interregnum and recruitment of staff over those years.
When our parish was amalgamated with four others under a single vicar, the workload wore him out and he left, since then we have had two further priests and three interregnums which has told the same story; a congregation recovering under a resident, visible priest, then dwindling again through the interregnum that follows, from over 200 at their peak down to as few as 5 on an ordinary Sunday.
In that time I have: helped to steer the parish through an interregnum; overseen the replacement of a large part of the Church roof (with non-traditional material) including obtaining a Faculty and planning permission, and helped to commission and fund (by grant and subscription) a life-size sculpture of Saint Andrew for our Churchyard (again including obtaining a Faculty and planning permission).
My experience of dealing with the diocese during the interregnum brought home to me the threat to the future of small parishes (some with large parish share requirements): the possible future imposition of a part-time rather than a full-time priest; being made part of an expanded benefice and so on.