Hitchin, St Faith (LEP) version: 2

Things seen about our local community

• There is a good sense of community but some people are unaware that St Faith's is their parish church. By contrast, families who have lived in this district for generations come to St Faith's for baptism and funerals and regard it as their church.
• Our local primary schools are an excellent point of contact with young families.
• The demands on young families are considerable, especially at week-ends.

How have you begun to engage with these concerns / needs / issues?

• We have established a group for pre-school children and their carers - Small Talk - which meets on Thursdays in term-time and will invite all families where their has been a baptism in the last three years to our Mothering Sunday service
• We are working on our relationship with local schools.

Vision (for five years' time)

A lively and flourishing church with a heart for the community it serves

Current Situation

From our Parish Statistics for Mission, we see that we are / have...

a relatively small church, but our congregation is stable and growing slowly, and the numbers attending Christmas services have increased.

Priorities (for the next five years)

• to encourage growth, spiritual and numerical, across the generations
• to work to develop the potential of our buildings
• to communicate effectively with the district we serve

Goals (for the next year)

• to establish study groups
• to work on how we can best nurture our children and young people
• Re-establish a pastoral ministry team
• to plan for improvement to Side Rooms, kitchen and toilets, and improve energy efficiency
• to review our fund-raising in the light of 4, in ways which are imaginative and attractive to the wider community