St Peter’s Didcot is a housing estate parish in a rapidly growing town. The church building dates from the 1970s, and the congregation reflects the diverse backgrounds and ages of the population in general.

St Peter’s has its own priest-in-charge, the Revd Edward Carter, but since 2005 it has also had a Ministry Team. This comprises all of the Licensed Lay Ministers and two other people who were selected just over a year ago for specific roles.

They were selected after the whole congregation were given prayer cards on Advent Sunday, asking them to pray about who should be selected for those roles. People could then suggest names privately to a third party and the suggestions were then followed up in a series of conversations.

On Easter Day last year an announcement was made as to who had been chosen.

As the Team has grown, and as time has passed, so trust has been built and collaboration made possible. The members have different skills and different amounts of time to give, but monthly Sunday afternoon meetings and an annual away day have allowed a number of new developments in the life of St Peter’s to be discussed and planned. A Key Supporters initiative is being launched which has identified all the co-ordinator or leadership roles at St Peter’s. It is ensuring that proper support is in place for the volunteers.

Mr Carter said: ‘In some areas of our life as a church we’ve already been able to clarify expectations and improve support structures.

‘I’m excited to see confidence growing on the part of our key players, and we’ve also uncovered a few areas where we’d like a role to be filled. Beforehand we didn’t quite realise there was a gap.’

He added: ‘Although much of the fruit arising out of today’s ministry at St Peter’s will only be known well into the future, the congregation size has grown significantly over the past few years and the church is also more financially secure. Confident, collaborative ministry, built on the foundations of the past, is contributing to a healthy life in the present.’