Our mission

St Leonard’s Church, Sandridge 2017 Mission Action Plan

Each year the Bishop of St Albans asks each parish to produce a Mission Action Plan (MAP) setting out its aims and objectives for the coming year. The plan below was agreed at our annual meeting of parishioners on April 23rd 2017.

Our Looking

Three things we have seen about our parish and our world

1. St Leonard’s is a village landmark with a history of worship that continues today. The church is valued by many people who do not regularly worship at the church and there is an increasing sense of ownership by the local community.

2. St Leonard’s has good local connections, especially to the primary school and elderly people’s homes, with church members involved in and supporting many local organisations.

3. The parish is changing with Heartwood Forest now expecting to attract 185,000 visitors each year, tearooms due to be opened during 2017 close to the church, and increased housing being built around St Albans.

Three things we have seen about our church

1. Whenever the church doors are open, people want to come in and look around. People value the ‘open church.’

2. We need to prioritize our activities to make the fullest use of our resources (time, energy, money, abilities).

3. Local people value and like to attend ‘special’ events and services e.g. at Easter, the Flower Festival, Remembrance and Christmas.

Our Discerning

How we want to be described in five years’ time.

St Leonard's is a church integrated into its local community. It is an outward-looking, growing and prayerful Christian community that welcomes and adapts to all ages.

Our three key priorities for the next five years.

1. Making the church (services, activities and building) more accessible to all.

2. Prioritizing activities that build our connections with the local community

3. Stewarding our resources (time, energy, money, abilities) for maximum effectiveness, so as to grow a vibrant church for all.

Our five key goals for the next year or more

Review the welcome given by the church, at services and events and also when open during the week. Identify and implement ways that this could be improved including exploring the setting up of a welcome team, and undertaking training in providing a welcome to all.

Further develop the church’s contact with all ages, including pre-school children and the local school.

Continue to develop the parish magazine and further take forward the church’s use of social media.

Explore the possibility of creating a pastoral team to serve older people and others in the parish.

Continue to give support to the Friends of St Leonard’s in its early stages.