Circuit Welcome

Our Circuit is towards the northern end of the Northampton District and is one of three circuits that serve the City of Leicester and surrounding communities in the County.

Our Circuit comprises two rural, two suburban and three city churches encompassed within a radius of 3 miles centred on Birstall. We currently have two full time presbyters. In addition there is one supernumerary minister and one minister outside direct control of the church.

Our Superintendent, Rev Rachel Parkinson, who has been in office since September 2008, has pastoral responsibility for Birstall and The city centre churches. Our other presbyter, is the Rev Dave Warnock, who pastoral responsibility for the other churches in district.
The Circuit Action Plan, 2007 – 2011, detailed the appointment of two paid workers. Firstly, Mrs Laurie Rowell was appointed as Circuit Administrator in November 2008. Her key role is to ease the paperwork load on Circuit staff and she works 20 hours per week. Secondly, Mrs Jane Williams was appointed as a Childrens’ Worker in September 2009. She works for the Grace Project and her key role is to develop new links in Thurmaston through work with the children there – a “fresh expression” of church. She works in our Circuit each Thursday and on the third Sunday of each month.
The part of the City within our Circuit is an area of several faiths; Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity are all active and take their place alongside each other. Efforts have been made to establish dialogue with neighbouring mosques and temples but these have not led to any close relationship or cooperation. Our Circuit has supported many of the initiatives of the ecumenical inner city work (such as the Street Pastor Scheme), based at Bishop Street Methodist Church. We have benefited significantly through the other two Leicester Circuits offering Local Preachers to preach regularly in our churches.
There are ecumenical partnerships in various parts of the Circuit; where appropriate, reference is made to these in some of the separate church details. In addition, there is a Churches Together Group in Belgrave and Rushey Mead; this includes three Anglican Churches, one Roman Catholic Church, two Non-Conformist Churches and our three Methodist Churches. There is a high degree of friendship between the congregations, with good attendance at events in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Our Circuit mission statement is “Deepening Discipleship; Making More Disciples” and as such the key priorities for our Circuit are to increase membership, maintain and encourage existing members and build strong Junior Churches.