August Newsletter

An update of the Vacant Rector’s Post

The Parish of the Deverills and Horningsham has now been without a priest since October 2023 and we will remain ‘In Vacancy’ for the foreseeable future. The post has been advertised twice in the last year and there have been no applicants. After the most recent advert, which closed in June, and following discussions with the Diocese and the Archdeacon we are pausing recruitment, to review the post, job specification and Parish Profile. We hope to be able to readvertise the vacancy in the autumn.

Meanwhile, with the help of a number of retired priests from Warminster and with my role as a Licensed Lay Minister we continue to conduct the usual pattern of services, as listed on pages 8 and 9 of this magazine. Additionally, we have started a monthly Compline service (short reflective evening worship) at Brixton Deverill and continue weekly Morning Prayer at Kingston Deverill. We have had a number of baptisms in our churches this year and in August there will be two weddings.

In the autumn we will have services to be taken by Andrew, Bishop of Ramsbury, on Sunday 19th October at Kingston and Louise, the new Archdeacon of Wilts, on Sunday 30th November at Horningsham.

We continue to maintain our four Grade 2 listed churches in the parish, which have a number of major repairs looming and we also pay our parish Share. ‘Share’ is the set contribution levied on each parish by the Salisbury Diocese to pay for clergy, stipend, training, housing and pension. The contribution from our parish is £3,500 per month. With an average weekly congregation of less than 25 people who contribute to the church finances and monthly outgoings for electricity, insurance, repairs and the Share our monthly expenditure exceeds our income and we are now using our reserves, this is not sustainable and we will need to review our position. In the parish we remain legally responsible for the upkeep of the churches, for which there is some external funding from Friends of the Deverill Churches and the Thynne Trust and the 50/50 Club BUT we also need to pay monthly utility bills, insurance and the Share to show that we have the resources to support a priest.

Robert Shuler - Licenced Lay Minister