MMU - Mission and Ministry Units
What are they?
Why do we need them?
Will we cease to exist as St. Andrew’s?
Your questions answered here:
The Church needs to grow and to be sustained, but this is not always possible. No individual church or parish is an island, it is part of a deanery, part of a diocese, part of the fellowship of Christianity.
It has been decided that the way forward to help this needed growth is to form MMUs. This isn’t an attempt to close church buildings or communities. It is a chance for each member church of the MMU to share some resources, to share ideas, to learn from one another and, where needed, to offer support to one another. It will also be of help to clergy, preventing possible isolation.
• in each deanery there will probably be at least two units, and the largest deaneries may have more
• each unit will be a defined geographic area containing several churches
• in each church there will be ordained and lay ministers – and where more are needed the deanery will have plans for how this ministry will be grown
• each unit will have at least two stipendiary priests and plans to have more as circumstances change and the church grows
• each unit will have an identified unit leader or co-ordinator with agreed responsibilities. This will probably be a priest, it may be a self-supporting priest and in some cases it could be a lay person
• each unit will have identified mission priority areas and some sort of plan for how this ministry will be developed
We, here at St. Andrew’s, will be part of a three-unit MMU that will include St. Edmund’s Chingford and St. Anne’s Chingford. Each individual church will still be itself we will not be assimilated or amalgamated but will be co-operating and sharing with one another for the benefit of us all.
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We all met at St. Edmund’s on Sunday 13th October 2019 at 10am for the MMU Commissioning Service; Bishop Peter the Bishop of Barking, presided.
Our Junior Church sang a selection of songs during communion, which was well-received by all. During Bishop Peter's address to the children, he helped Isabelle to celebrate her 5th birthday!
St. Edmund’s kindly invited everyone to a buffet lunch after the service.
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On the afternoon of Sunday 26th January, our three churches gathered together at St Andrew's for a 'nosey'!
Our minister, Stella, led our visitors on a short walk around our immediate vicinity to give them a 'feel' for our community.
After tea and pastries, Stella spoke about our church and Kate gave a 'potted history' of our Partnership. Everyone then went for a tour of our building.
A friendly, informative, 'get to know you' afternoon.
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On Saturday 15th February we all gathered at St Anne's Church for a forum regarding Eco-Church and how we can step up and start trying to save God's creation.
We had a guest speaker from the Diocese who was previously involved with St Andrew's Church, Rugby, the first church to gain a gold award from the organisation A Rocha for being as eco-friendly as possible.
One of our young people from St Andrew's, Olivia, was in attendance. She has a great interest in things ecological and took notes throughout. She then wrote an article about the day for our magazine, The Link. (see below)
At the end of the morning, the great team at St Anne's laid on a lovely lunch for us all.
Olivia's article:
MMU AWAY DAY FEBRUARY 2020
On the 15th of February, eleven of us attended an MMU away day at St Anne’s church about the environment and our churches. It is hoped that all 3 Churches will gain a bronze award from A ROCHA. People spoke about how humans are affecting the planet and how we as Christians can make a difference.
The planet needs our help. We are heating it with overconsuming and creating too many greenhouse gasses. This is causing habitats to be destroyed, animals dying and species becoming extinct. We as Christians need to make a difference.
People were saying we should start with worship and teaching to spread the word. This includes doing things for Lent and Harvest and talking about this in our magazines. People talked about sharing tips on how to create less of a carbon footprint and doing more for the environment. Also engaging children with different ways of worship such as outside church or involving the environment with worship. We could also take better care of our garden and plant more flowers. Children across the world have shown that they will lead the way to a better future so listen and let them make a change.
With the church building we could install better lighting and heating. It is important to remember we should do what we can and don’t worry about what we can’t do. We could partner with local communities and do things like eco fares and other events to help recycling, encouraging people to consume less animal products, reducing waste and helping the planet. If everyone on the planet did one small thing that adds up to 7.8 billion small things across the planet to help. Everything makes a difference. We need to make a difference. We need to save our planet.
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