Meppershall, St Mary the Virgin version: 4

What progress have you made with the Goals from your previous MAP, and what do you want to celebrate?

• Website and Facebook page have a good following.
• Rectory 'teas and getting serious' are going well. (Tuesday afternoon groups)
• Every Sunday 11am Worship established- with a new variety of services.

What Goals did you set where you saw less progress than you would have liked?

• The building, we made a roof and rainwater goods grant application which was unsuccessful.

Things seen about our local community

• The village wants village events for the village to meet and do.
• The need for socialising opportunities for older women
• The need for socialising opportunities for mothers with babies.

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

• Very successful scarecrow festival and church walks.
• Rectory 'teas and getting serious'.
• Pilot-mum and toddler event.

Vision (for five years' time)

We will be a growing church, going deeper into God together- known as followers of Jesus, spreading the good news- "with a heart for the community, at the heart of the community, making a difference in the community.

Current Situation

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

We have a growing worshipping community and there is an exciting sense of God gathering people here.

Priorities (for the next five years)

• Relationships- individual and corporate.
• Spiritual growth- growing ourselves and others.
• Our building.

Goals (for the next year)

• Relationships- develop community events and improve community communication- e.g ideas Scarecrow 2, Heavens above, Mum and toddler circuit and village advent calendar.
• Reaching out to the proposed new builds in the community. eg. Village welcome packs.
• Making confident Christians- create opportunities to explore and nurture faith. eg. Lent group, home group, prayer ministry.
• Wider world- Look outwards together- discern our common calling to tackle poverty and injustice.
• Our building- continue with major repairs-submit HLF application and engage in "Heritage" promoting activities.