Waterford, St Michael and All Angels version: 4

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

• We have completed, celebrated and begun to use our new Garden of Remembrance.
• We are reaching out to our community through the Missing You Tree, environmental policy, Christmas Star, Lent Cross and increasing number of guided visits.
• We have completed and issued a new churchyard leaflet to offer practical churchyard guidance and pastoral support. Also: ** We are making good progress in preparing the church to be open unattended for prayer. ** We continue to care for our community and parishioners. ** We are growing in fellowship through our weekly working parties.

Things seen about our local community

• Beautiful village - popular place to live with a community that is supportive of its church, e.g. flower and cleaning rotas but not attending services; a community that cares for its church building and churchyard.
• Majority of amenities gone - pub, shop, cafe; the only amenities are the church and the village hall.
• Existing housing - scarce and very expensive. There is a relatively new, gated community, the geography making it physically distinct from the village.

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

• We are beginning to engage with the community in a more conscious fashion, building on existing contacts, publicising our work and being more visible.
• We have sought to make our church and churchyard more accessible as places for quiet reflection and enjoyment for the whole community.
• We have embraced the concept of 'Caring for God's Acre'. Also: ** Lists of 10 in the monthly Parish News seek to promote understanding of Christian faith and life in accessible 'bite-sized' pieces. ** Opening the church for mid-week Morning Prayer.

Vision (for five years' time)

To be seen as a Christian Community that is growing, that worships within and serves the needs of the whole parish.

Current Situation

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

Increased our variety of services and adapted the pattern of services to meet the needs of both regular and occasional worshippers, changing one of the monthly services to a morning service so that they do not have to venture out in darkness and introducing Morning Prayer.

Priorities (for the next five years)

• To be seen as a vibrant, welcoming and generous Christian community doing our best to meet the needs of the whole parish.
• To increase both the number of attendances at and involvement in our services of worship.
• To make our building more available, including use by community groups.

Goals (for the next year)

• Continue to raise awareness of the new Garden of Remembrance and use the new churchyard leaflet to offer pastoral support and practical guidance.
• Provide resources for worship, eg. new prayer table and candle stand.
• Continue to reach out to our community through Missing You Tree, Christmas Star, Lent Cross and culture of invitation to special services.
• Continue work on increasing access to the church building and look for opportunities to make more use of the building and the churchyard, including the 'Caring for God's Acre' initiative.
• Create a vision of how the new benefice will become united. Also: ** Continue to care for ourselves, our community and our parishioners and be thankful for our work together.