Our prospective Single Larger Parish would consist of 9 churches (shown below)
Update – Feb 2026
We want to introduce ourselves as your Navigation Team in Sefton N&S.
- Rev Amanda Bruce, Change Lead for Sefton N&S. Amanda will be chairing both the Navigation Team and the Clergy Leadership Team. Prior to ordination in 2008 was a primary school teacher and was also Dean of Women and Diversity for Liverpool Diocese.
- Jim Stewart has extensive knowledge of the variety of church backgrounds and has managed a fresh expression community for over 30 years alongside his time at St Lukes. He has professional experience of change management as well as a passion for mission and inclusion.
- Helen Hunter worships at St Michael’s Blundellsands and has been a reader for 24 years. Has had a long connection with local churches and has experience of collaborative working and mission through the L23 Partnership.
- Paul Beardwood is Communications Officer at St Lukes Crosby and has a practical experience in the technical side of church communications such as ChurchSuite as well as experience in areas such as social media and websites and videography.
- Karen Stark worked in early years education for 27 years and is PCC secretary at St Mary’s. She is the director of her family accountancy firm and uses this experience to play an active role in the administration of church life.
- Susan Green is a member, reader and treasurer of St John and St James church and has a wide range of previous experience in education. Was part of the team that oversaw the opening of a new church building
- Laura Heywood Has a background in the civil service and education. She is an active member of St Oswalds Church serving on the PCC and as Deanery Synod representative.
- Revd Dr Louis Johnson, vicar of the parishes of St Mary’s and St Faith, has experience of collaborative team ministry and has experience setting up new worshipping communities and social justice projects in curacy.
- Laura Pilgrim, Change Facilitator Fit For Mission team, Liverpool Diocese. Background in participation and engagement teams for the visual arts and STEM subjects. Was born in Bootle and attended Northfield Church until she married and moved to Aigburth.
As we journey through the ‘acting as if’ the Navigation Team will be the engine room that gets the wheels in motion for all the different areas that need to work together in the next two years.
For example, soon we will be pulling together a process to invite you all to submit ideas for the name of our Larger Single Parish (LSP) collating those and working out how to narrow down the best ideas. It will be our job to do the admin of consulting you, narrowing down ideas and practically putting into place the decision and sharing back with you.
We would value your prayers as we seek to hear God’s plan, consider the impact of decisions on all churches and reflect on the feedback we get from other change teams and your PCC’s.
At our first two meetings we shared the following verses:
Ezekiel 47.9b “…everything will live where the river goes”
John 15.8 “by this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples”
Isaiah 43.19 “See I am doing a new thing”
Psalm 36.9 “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light”
Revelation 22. 1-3 “The angel showed me the river of water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of a great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”
We will be looking to recruit people to the various change teams soon, so please continue to pray to see if you can support us in this.
We will be bringing our church officers together so that they can share how they manage their roles in their setting.
Please send any words of encouragement, bibles verses or prayers for us to reflect on at our meetings to Laura Pilgrim laura.pilgrim@liverpool.anglican.org
Please save the date Palm Sunday, 4pm at St Faith’s, more details to follow.
Fit for Mission Update – 30/11/25:
So, the Clergy Leadership Team (CLT) have now been meeting informally for the last 4 weeks, and the relationships are growing well. It’s a great group of people to call colleagues thankfully. We have talked through a number of questions we have and the next steps of the process.
First, there is a meeting of all church officers and PSOs from the 9 churches on 1st Dec, to make sure they can meet each other and hear what the next steps are for their roles and how they can be involved in shaping those changes.
Second, the Clergy have been asked to pray about the role of Change Lead. This is the role of facilitating the change and the various teams that need to decide on how and what changes are needed and when. The Change Lead will chair the CLT and the Navigation Team.
So, the Navigation Team needs applications from both Lay and clergy to be involved in it. These are not representative positions on behalf of our church, but a group of 8-10 people who will make the strategic decisions about the changes needed alongside the finance, wardens, buildings, support teams, etc. and the systems we need in place to function as a Larger Single Parish (LSP). The Nav Team will eventually be replaced by the new PCC, but that will take time and the new PCC isn’t needed yet. All members of our church are able to apply to be on the Nav Team, which involves a weekly 2 hour meeting. The Role Description and Expression of Interest form are available at the back of church if you wish to consider this role
The Terms of Reference & Role Description can be viewed here
The Expression of Interest online form is accessed here
The closing date for this role is 16th January 2026. The appointments by the end of January will then lead to a first meeting on the 9th Feb 2026.
Along with these next steps, on Wednesday afternoon we discussed the work of the new PCC vs the local Leadership Team. Ravi asked a good question – where will the decisions for a church be made? The answer is:
The PCC will be the ones that oversee the policies and governance decisions that must be implemented in any parish. These decisions will be communicated to the relevant Church Officer/Member (Vicar, Warden, PSO, etc.) for local implementation. All other decisions, such as what we should do, where, when and how, and the resources to make that possible, will be taken by the Local Leadership Team, in light of the context and needs of the community and church. There are also various safeguards to ensure that any changes that affect a church locally must be consulted on and agreed to by the incumbent or Local Leadership team too. So no church can be, for example, closed by the LSP PCC without consultation with and the agreement of the local church.
We had a good and helpful meeting, with tea and biscuits, and Cola the dog present too! Our facilitators from the FfM team are Laura Pilgrim and Lisa Gilligan at the moment, with one of them becoming our Change Facilitator in Jan 2026.
Fit for Mission update – 16/11/25:
Following the vote across all the Sefton deaneries, Archdeacon Pete has invited us to join with others to start the process of forming a Larger Single Parish (LSP). This currently includes 9 parishes, 3 from Sefton North (St Luke’s, St Nicholas’ and St Michael’s) and 6 from Sefton South (St Faith’s, St Mary’s, Christchurch with St John, Christchurch Bootle, St John & St James and St Oswald’s) – see map below. This whole process of becoming an LSP will take around 2 years, although the timeline is not set.
Clergy from these 9 parishes have been meeting over the past few weeks in preparation for the ‘acting as if’ phase, which will start in January 2026. Together, they have been exploring hopes and working through concerns and questions. These meetings have been very positive, and a sense of excitement is building. Before January, a Change Lead from amongst the clergy and a Lay/Clergy Navigation Team (4 Lay + 4 Clergy) to steer the process of change will need to be appointed – if you think you might like to be part of the Navigation team please talk to Amanda in the first instance for more details. At some point soon, there will also be a meeting that will give all members of the churches involved the opportunity to get to know each other, find out more fully what’s happening and have a voice in the changes. The Church Officers (Churchwardens, Treasurers, PCC Secretaries and PCC Lay/Vice-Chairs) and PSOs have been invited to a meeting on Monday evening, 1st December, at Christchurch Waterloo. This will be an opportunity to find out more about the next steps of the journey and to meet other officers who will be journeying together. In the ‘Acting as if’ phase, the churches will continue to function as individual parishes, while embarking on the structural and cultural transition. By January, the Diocese will recruit an Administrator to work with the Change Lead and Navigation team and will also appoint one of 2 people to be our Change Facilitator whose role is to guide us, provide examples of practice, help us work through the possibilities and generally support us in whatever ways we need on this journey.
More information regarding Fit for Mission can be found by downloading the information booklet here or viewing it below.