Team Clergy
There are five clergy licensed to the team:
Team Rector – Rev’d Claire Lording
Claire has lived in the diocese since 1986 and was ordained in 1999. She was a curate in the Ledbury Team before moving to Tenbury as Team Vicar in 2002. She became Rector in 2008. One of Claire’s main areas of interest in the development of Local Ministry.
Team Vicar – Rev’d Judith Dunkling
Before ordination, Judith was a Funeral Director/Embalmer in Cambridgeshire. She was a curate in Holbeach, East Anglia and moved to Tenbury in 2008.
Team Assistant Minister – Rev’d Dr Sue Foster
Sue is a former GP and is Chaplain at the Kemp Hospice in Kidderminster, where she spends most of her week. She teaches on the West of England Ministerial Course (WEMTC), specialising in the Old Testament.
Team Curate – Rev’d Dr Chris Moore
Chris was a Chartered Surveyor, then minister of a Baptist church before teaching for a number of years at Bristol Baptist College, in their Centre for Youth Ministry. He returned to his Anglican roots in 2008 whilst taking time out to complete his PhD and was ordained in 2009. He also teaches at WEMTC.
Team Curate – Rev’d Hilary Morgan
Hilary teaches at a school near Bromyard, and regularly helps at the Deaf Church in Hereford. She was ordained in 2009.
Local Ministry Team
The Tenbury Team Ministry was the first Team Ministry to be formed in the Hereford Diocese in the late seventies. Since its formation it has grown and now includes ten parishes and twelve churches.
Hereford Diocese has a very clear strategy of Local Ministry, which has been encouraged and developed across the parishes of the diocese. The laity and clergy share in leadership together, responding to the priorities set by the parishes and enabling everybody in the local community to share and grow in the Church’s mission and ministry.
Tenbury Team has embraced this and, following teaching on local ministry and proper consultation, a Local Ministry Team was called out in 2003. The five licensed clergy members are joined by six lay members, Gordon Bailey (St Mary’s, Tenbury), Kath Bills (Whitton), Jane Britton (St Mary’s, Tenbury), Beth Knight (St Mary’s, Tenbury), Peter Mason (St Michael’s, Tenbury), Judith Smout (Boraston). Although each lay member comes from their own parish there is a very real sense in which they, like the clergy, function across the whole Team Ministry.
The Local Ministry Team meets on the first and third Mondays of every month. At the meetings they have developed the pattern of discussing the Gospel for the following Sunday. They also spend time making shared decisions about the Team as a whole and seeing where there are new possibilities for mission and ministry, remembering at all times that their task is not to do everything but to enable others to grow in their ministry. The lay members of the LMT also lead and share in public worship across the Team Ministry, so time is also set aside for training and the sharing of ideas and resources.