Archdeacon of Lindsey and Stow visits Market Rasen Rotarians

Eleanor Robertshaw, Archdeacon for Lindsey and Stow and Eleanor paid a visit to Market Rasen Rotarians to speak about her work.
Eleanor moved to Market Rasen from Yorkshire this January, and whilst she attended the club's showcase meeting, it was only a brief visit as she had to leave to attend a dress rehearsal for her new job as Archdeacon for Lindsey and Stow.  She returned to tell members about her new role in Lincolnshire after moving down from Yorkshire.

Eleanor used to be a secondary school teacher, but now as Archdeacon, which is a senior clergy member who helps keeping the church running smoothly, works behind the scenes overseeing parishes, supporting clergy and occasionally fixing more than just spiritual plumbing. The Archdeacon is in equal parts, administrator, advisor and pastoral guide and balances tradition and leadership with a steady hand and has a busy calendar.

Three weeks after her appointment when her colleague fell ill, Eleanor is now looking after parishes for the whole of Lincolnshire.  Her own archdeaconry starts at the Isle of Axholme, Grimsby down to Skegness then over to above Lincoln, Saxilby and Gainsborough.  The other Archdeaconry goes down as far as Stamford and Deeping St. James.
She is the person people turn to when they find tricky things are happening. These may be people in dispute with the church or there are complaints to deal with. Graveyard discussions can be difficult where you have bereaved people who want certain things but that there are rules that have to be followed.  Eleanor also has to oversee all the buildings in her archdeaconry – there are 364 open churches in the Archdeaconry of Lindsey and Stow and most of them are listed as Grade 1, Grade 2 or Grade 2*.  Many of these churches are in parishes with very few members who struggle to find the money to carry out repairs and maintenance, but some parishes are really thriving. When masonry falls off churches the Archdeacon gets involved because she has to oversee the legal process - the church has its own planning regulations.  She gets questions about blocked drains, toilets, guttering, etc. and some of these are quite regular occurrences.

However, the heart of her role is focussed on the people.  The church is the people, not the buildings.  She supports the shrinking number of clergy in their parishes, who are looking after more and more parishes and this brings its own set of challenges.  A lot of lay people do a huge amount of work to keep these churches going as well.  The role of the Archdeacon is to try and support all these people wherever they are and to give the best advice and help in whatever situation they have.

Eleanor visits different churches in her patch, sometimes covering their services and she likes to see all the brilliant things that are happening.  This also gives her the ability to support and to be a chaplain to those that are looking after that church – both to the clergy and the lay people.
Eleanor’s immediate superior is the Bishop of Grimsby and beyond it would be the Bishop of Lincoln.  She said she is called to where she is meant to be and she is very happy as Archdeacon.  In theory the progression would be Bishop then Archbishop, but it is incredibly difficult to get selected for one of these positions.
Questions were asked where she thought the church was going, as salaries are increasing, costs are rising, the church seems to be employing more people yet congregations seem to be getting smaller and smaller.  In one local parish with seven inhabitants their church is still solvent and dues are paid, unlike some churches that were unable to pay any dues.  Where was the church heading? 

Eleanor thought the church in 20 years’ time will be very different to what we have now.  The church is facing a crisis in the next ten years or so because many of the people that care for the churches and look after the governance are getting elderly and there doesn’t seem to be much input from younger generations. She would like to pray and hope for a revival in the church and people to see the church in a different light.  However, we have a population that is not particularly religious and there are a lot of buildings that are very expensive to maintain and volunteers to help are not coming forward.  Unfortunately, she predicted, a lot will have to close and there will be a much smaller Church of England.

There is a question - what do they do with redundant church buildings, because often they are listed and have difficulty in finding another use, especially surrounded by a graveyard. 

The Church Commissioners take care of the historic funds that the church was gifted – Queen Ann’s Bounty for instance.  They deal with investments but they do fund the Ministry through grants. What they don’t fund are the churches, the buildings themselves.  There is thus a standoff between the Commissioners and the State.  Many people think that there should be some form of national funding for the churches as they are part of our heritage – but she says that while the Church Commissioners are sitting on a lot of money, State assistance is a "non-starter".
The Rotary meeting was being held in the New Life Church – a church which seems to be thriving and one that does not have the organisation, bureaucracy and administration overheads that the Church of England has. Eleanor agreed the Evangelical movements are popular and seem to provide a sense of certainty which people in these stressful times seem to want.  The Church of England has always been a church of the middle way, and its theology can be interpreted in different ways.  When people are needing certainty the Evangelical movements can be more attractive.  There must be a place for all types of religion, and it just so happens that now people are craving certainty, but this can change.

Since her appointment, Eleanor has been learning about Lincolnshire.  She soon found that driving around the county on foggy, misty nights in winter is not a good idea.  She, like many, thought she would find it to be flat but this is not true at all, and she says it is incredibly beautiful – one of England’s well-hidden gems.  She has also learnt just how diverse the county is – from gritty industrial towns to the seaside, then there are the Wolds which compete with the Cotswolds for beauty.  With all this diversity, she says Lincolnshire is a county that never bores you, but the local dialect takes some getting used to!  Pronunciation of place names is a challenge as these often bear little resemblance to the way they are spelt. Eleanor stated that it is a brilliant privilege to be part, in a little way, of this wonderful county and to be able to interact with such a brilliant bunch of people.