The Revd Dick Johnson, Industrial Missioner and Team Vicar at Holy Trinity in Redditch has been appointed Rural Dean of Bromsgrove. The deanery includes the towns of Redditch and Bromsgrove, and the surrounding countryside in NE Worcestershire, and has a population of 130,000. There are 9 parishes, including several teams, with 17 main congregations.

The Rural Dean role is one of pastoral care and co-ordination. Dick will hold regular meetings with the clergy in the area and will work with them to ensure everything is running smoothly. He will also represent the deanery at regular meetings with the Bishop and pass information back to the parishes.

Of his appointment, Dick said: “The role is all about offering leadership, care and encouragement. Reaching out to the local community is most effective in a local parish, but it can be hard work and isolating and clergy and congregations need people who can provide support. I think the deanery can be a real resource for parishes and during my time as Rural Dean I hope that I can build on the sense of fellowship and teamwork already established.”

Dick’s appointment is unusual as he is not a parish priest, but a full-time Industrial Missioner with Faith at Work in Worcestershire. In this role he works with churches across the county helping them engage with the realities of work and the economy. However, Dick is attached as a team vicar to the Holy Trinity Team in Redditch. “It is important to connect all the different facets of the work of the Church and I am looking forward to building teamwork in new ways,” said Dick. “There may even be advantages in not having responsibility for any one particular parish or congregation”.

Dick will be commissioned as Rural Dean on Thursday 4 December, 7.30pm at St. Peter’s Church in Ipsley and his appointment will be for an initial three years. He replaces the Revd Tricia Allsopp who has recently retired as Vicar of St. Godwald Church in Finstall.

ENDS.

The Diocese of Worcester is one of 44 dioceses in the Church of England. It covers an area of 671 square miles and includes parishes in the County of Worcestershire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, and a few parishes in northern Gloucestershire, south east Wolverhampton and Sandwell.