Parish profile

Repton is a village of about two and a half thousand people.   It is served by two churches, St Wystan's and the United Reformed Church.   Repton School has its own chapel.   The parish includes the villages of Milton, Foremarke, Ingleby and Newton Solney.   Milton, Foremarke and Ingleby share St Saviour's Church at Foremarke, where there are two services a month.   St Mary's Church serves Newton Solney, which has a population of 500.

The vicar is the Rev'd Peter Paine.   For the last few years we have been fortunate to have the help of the Rev'd Stanley Morris, who retired here from Alrewas.   We have two readers, Ruth Atwood and Steve Longden.   Newton Solney also has a Reader, June Scott.   The United Reformed Church has an energetic church secretary, Gerald Gibbs, and a minister, Rev'd Brian Norris, who covers several 'parishes'.

The origins of St Wystan's church lie in the early eighth century when the crypt was built as a mausoleum.   The Saxon church was built above the crypt and extended, mainly in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries.   The long tradition of worship here contributes to our own worship today.   The congregation is quite traditional and this, together with the building itself, influences our patterns of worship.

We have a regular but varied programme of services through the month.   Numbers at the 8 am Communion service range typically between 10 and 15.   At the 10 am service, numbers vary from about 60 during the main holiday periods to 150 or more on special occasions such as Remembrance Day or when there is a baptism (which normally takes place as part of Morning Worship).   Christmas always sees large congregations, particularly on Christmas morning. Attendance at evening services is generally small.   Morning prayer is said throughout the working week at 8 am, and there is also a 10 am Communion Service on Wednesdays.

A strength of St Wystan's is its involvement in the wider village, particularly through the Parish Magazine, which is a means for sharing community information as well as church news and is distributed to every household.   There is also a neighbourhood care scheme in which members of the church have taken a lead, which includes a regular lunch club for the elderly, lifts to hospital, hospital visiting etc.   However, we recognise that we are not touching the majority of the village with the Gospel message, and in particular, fewer children and young people attend church.   Those who do usually act as servers or attend Sunday Club, which takes place during the 10 am service.   When we organise special one-off events, such as the Easter Workshop (held on Good Friday), we can see up to 100 children.   Events such as the Millennium Procession and joint services with the U.R.C. also show that people are interested in the church or, more importantly, in the Christian message at times of special significance.

In 2000, we decided as a church to take stock of where we are and where we plan to go.   After considerable preparation, in Lent 2001 about 100 people, including some who rarely attended church and others who attended churches outside the parish, met in small groups to discuss many of the issues.   The process itself was helpful for the life of the church as it brought people together and encouraged all to become involved.   The main findings were drawn together to produce recommendations and an action plan.   It was possible to make some immediate changes while others, particularly those involving the buildings, are taking much too long.

The main points highlighted for attention included:

• Improving the facilities in the church building.   We have no church hall and, while we are able to book the village hall for social events, we need better facilities in church, particularly toilets, a kitchen area, a meeting area and better heating and lighting.   A small group has looked round a number of other churches and a possible scheme is now with the architects.
• Making our services more welcome to newcomers.   Morning Worship services in particular focus on this, but we are also looking at other ways to improve.   We are trying to involve more people in taking part in the services.
• Developing the Church's sense of community through social events and opportunities for fellowship, and more systematic visiting and welcoming of newcomers.   We have a social committee which arranges an excellent programme of social events to which we can try to invite non-church people, and which also arranges coffee after the services.
• Outreach to children and young people, improving the way in which we follow up existing baptism contacts, build on what is already done and try to include children and young people more fully in the church, as well as trying to find ways of outreach into the community.   We particularly invite young families to special services.
• Developing our pastoral care network by seeing if there are more ways we could serve the needs of our own congregation and the local community.
• Developing teaching and nurture with groups and short courses, such as Bible study, prayer groups, workshop sessions on particular topics and Lent courses.

St Wystan's has a very committed core congregation and there are many positive things happening.   There is the dedicated group of bellringers, a small choir which is augmented by the Wystan Singers for choral evensong and festivals, a children's orchestra and a number of other groups.   But we are concerned for the future and want to discover the Lord's way for us to move forward and to be a light in our community.