Diocese of Hereford

Ludlow Team Ministry

The Parishes of Ludlow
St Laurence with St John
St Giles, Ludford

St Mary the Virgin, Bromfield
All Saints, Culmington
St Michael and All Angels, Onibury
St Peter, Stanton Lacy

St Andrew, Ashford Bowdler
St Mary Magdalene, Ashford Carbonel
St Mary, Caynham
St Paul, Knowbury
All Saints, Richards Castle

IN THE LUDLOW TEAM MINISTRY WE VALUE

• Our opportunities for worship, and the diversity of churchmanship and services among the churches.
• The fostering of lay as well as ordained ministries, expressed in 2000 in the Commissioning of a Local Ministry Team in the Ludlow Six Parishes.
• The ministry of women, within the priesthood and otherwise.
• The opportunities for both rural and town-based ministries.
• The opportunity in town, villages and countryside for close community involvement.
• Our broad involvement in education, primary and secondary, and with young people's organisations.
• Our involvement in ecumenical chaplaincy in Ludlow Community Hospital, and relationship with other providers of care.
• Our ecumenical covenant, in Churches Together Around Ludlow, which provides a frame for much of our ministry.
• Our place in Ludlow Deanery and Hereford Diocese, for the support we receive and contribution we can make.
• A church partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Langwasser, Nuremberg, Germany.

THE PLACE AND THE PARISHES
South Shropshire and the town of Ludlow are beautiful, and good places to live. They also have many challenges, in the rural setting and the town, as these communities and the local economy face development and change.
Each parish, small or big, is very distinctive, and we greatly value such individuality - with the distinctly rural communities, and the particular diversity in the town.

The villages are communities traditionally dependent upon agriculture, and struggling to adapt.

Ludlow is a vibrant town, servicing the villages around it in many ways - as a market town and centre of local government, for health care and other services, and with the one local (CE) Secondary School and Ludlow College. Ludlow is the base for many statutory and voluntary agencies. There are excellent facilities for sport and the arts, and town and district have many social, sporting and cultural activities.

Ludlow is also the geographical centre of Hereford Diocese. It is the location of the Bishop Mascall Centre, a diocesan resource for training and education. The Centre, which has residential facilities, is used by both church and community groups, and provides a rich and stimulating programme.

POPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Traditionally employment in South Shropshire has centred around agriculture, but this has been declining for years and now represents around 12%.
There are many farms in the village parishes, and some rural industry, but there is a growing need for people to travel to work to Ludlow and other neighbouring towns.

In Ludlow itself patterns of employment have been changing with the closure of industrial plant (eg textiles) and the establishment of new, but generally small-scale employers. A high proportion of young people leave the district for higher education and employment.

At the same time, Ludlow and the area around is attractive to newcomers, who are either commuters or people recently retired.

Tourism is also growing and provides much needed income in Ludlow and the countryside.

OUR TEAM'S PRAYER FOR LOCAL MINISTRY