Our purpose is as follows:

• To oversee the ‘Kairos Research Phase’ within our parish and apply the findings, and to
• Plan for the improved utilisation of the Church and its properties.

In a nutshell – obey Jesus’ command to love our neighbour as ourselves. To do this we are asking our neighbour what does s/he most need and then look at ourselves and see what we are in a position to respond to. Of course our specific gifts are spiritual but we have other resources.

The process takes place across a ‘Cluster’ of parishes (we are clustered with Emsworth and Hayling Island). So on 13^th July 2004 reps and clergy from the cluster met to kick the process off.  The cluster group has two main tasks:

• To conduct an internal Audit of our parishes, which in turn includes audits of:
  • Buildings and finances
  • Spirituality
  • People and Ministry
• To conduct a Community audit which includes examining the community’s needs by interviewing members of the following professions:
  • Health
  • Education
  • The Law
  • Council
  • Councillors
  • Local Authority/Social Services

Once these consultations have taken place we can put the findings together and share it with the other community ‘players’. These findings will then inform the plans we need to make in order to carry out the missionary work of Jesus and so develop our properties accordingly.

The parish of Havant has begun its participation in Kairos. Fortnightly meetings of the ‘Cluster’ group began in July 2004 when we joined others from the parishes of St Mary, St Andrew and St Peter, Hayling Island, St James, Emsworth and St Thomas, Warblington.

 Our first priority is to undertake an internal audit. This consists of:

• The Buildings Questionnaire (see analysis below)
• A Property and Finance Audit (see below)
• A SWOT analysis of all our buildings (SWOT means Strengths/Weakness/Opportunities/Threats) (see below)
• A Spirituality audit (see below)
• An audit of People and Ministry (see below)
• A Community Audit (see below)

All have been completed. 

The purpose of gathering this information is to enable us to assess our strengths as a community and to recognise our potential as well as our needs.

In the second and largest part of the Kairos Research process we will examine the needs of the Community.

Analysis of the buildings questionnaire is now complete – 31 parishioners completed the form. It shows that there is strong agreement about priorities with the exception of wealth creation and accommodation for the clergy.

The priorities from the completed questionnaires are:

1. Worship.   2. Sunday Club.   3. Youth Club.   4. Preservation of Buildings.   5. Outreach

6. Community Service.   7. Public Service.

The priorities of Wealth and Clergy Accommodation from the questionnaires are less clear. Wealth could be priority 4 or 7 and Clergy Accommodation is either priority 2 or 6.

There is a strong desire to see the buildings preserved, although feelings about changing the building are also fairly high.

A Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats (SWOT) analysis of St. Faith’s buildings has been carried out under the Kairos process as follows:

Excellent location: central focus of Havant

Grade II* listing

Medieval building of historical & architectural interest

Reasonably well maintained

Affectionately valued by the community

Improve facilities for church and community use

Re-landscape churchyard to north and west to increase accessibility

Possible extension to west: coffee shop, offices, ‘drop-in-centre’

Community resource: ‘drop-in-centre’, concerts

Possible children’s play area as part of  churchyard

Incorporate children’s & Young people’s provision into the body of the church: crèche, Sunday Club, youth work and adults integrated

Example and stimulus to the community, which may benefit other initiatives in the Town

No space for Sunday Club

Lighting, visibility and sound system poor

Organ in need of overhaul

Poor facilities – toilet/offices/storage

High cost of maintenance

Inflexibility of space internally

Not very welcoming: dark and cold

Disability requirements not met

To do nothing is to die

Fear of change

Our development fails to meet the anticipated community need

A summary of the completed questionnaires (25 were returned) is shown below:

When charities are targeted, e.g., for Christian aid, more people get involved.

There is a fairly wide range of charities people are involved with, such as, Oxfam, Cancer Research UK, Abbyfield House Committee, RNLI, Victim Support, Bereavement Visitor, Pension Visitor, YMCA, Havant Stroke Club, Animal Welfare and the Red Cross.

An overwhelming number of individuals feel their prayers have been answered.

A high percentage feel they are able to live out their faith in their daily life.

The highest number of people involved in community service is those targeted for the young, old and the charities. The lowest number of people involved is for refugees, addicts and the homeless.

There is no active involvement in working for peace and justice and almost no responses about wanting to know more about these things.

A high percentage want to know more about how much it costs to keep the church functioning, but would not find a monthly balance sheet helpful.

The Congregation at St Nicholas - There is only one service a month – 8:00am on First Sunday.

Kairos - Community Audit.  A community audit, interviewing people from the Police, Social Services, Education, Health, Local Government and Community Services was carried out.

By meeting with various community leaders we will establish the ways in which we may be able to respond to the community’s needs. This in turn informs the way we organize ourselves in order to most effectively meet those identified needs for which we are uniquely able to respond.

We began this phase on 18^th June 2004 with an evening event in St Francis, Leigh Park introduced by David Willetts, MP. It was a highly effective introduction to the process of the community audit and minutes of the evening have been circulated to all in attendance. The meeting made it clear that there is certainly good will for the church and appreciation of its efforts to support the community, but delegates wondered how far those efforts represented the church’s mission or attempts at survival. David Willetts challenged us to be bold and radical in redefining our identity in the community. So the next part of the process is for the cluster group to arrange a series of interviews with community leaders.