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Rural Matters
The Revd Dr John Reader is part-time Rural Officer and also priest-in-charge of Chelford and Lower Withington (Knutsford Deanery).
John took up the post in April 2007 having inherited a rich and varied role from his predecessor Canon Donald Marr. This work includes visiting and supporting those clergy who are new to rural ministry especially in their early stages in a new environment. He is also responsible for the Rural Ministry Group which meets 3 times a year. This enables open discussion of matters of shared concern for all those involved in rural ministry such as how to cope with small congregations, ministry to rural schools, lack of affordable housing, etc.
He works closely with the Churches Together in Cheshire Agricultural Chaplain, Keith Ineson who takes the lead in responding to the needs of the farming community and is a key part of the Farm Crisis Network and Christian Farmers Together in Cheshire. Together they attend local agricultural events and regional rural officers meetings.
The Rural Officer is also the link between the National Rural Network based at the Arthur Rank Centre at Stoneleigh and passes on briefings and documents relating to rural ministry and information about resources and training courses. There is a developing role linking to the secular agencies engaged with rural matters across the County such as the Community Council, County Council and District Councils and John is always grateful for contacts and networks that enable this aspect of the post and invitations to visit and preach.
He comes to this post with a long and varied experience of both deep rural and more suburban rural ministry having worked in the Dioceses of Ely, Carlisle, Hereford and Worcester, on each occasion serving in a multi-parish context. While in the Hereford Diocese he took part in their Second Rural Consultation and contributed to the subsequent publication "The People, the Land and the Church". He has also taught on a number of ordination training courses as well as having been Director of Pastoral Theology at a Theological College with the particular brief of helping the college respond to the "Faith in the Countryside Report" of 1989 by setting up a 6 week rural placement. His last post in Worcester Diocese was as priest-in-charge of 4 churches shared with a Diocesan responsibility. The Foot and Mouth outbreak of 2001 hit the parishes and led to close cooperation with the Diocesan Chaplain for Agriculture and Rural Life in pastoral support for local farmers. One of his early books "Local Theology" (SPCK 1994) was the working out of a contextual theology in a rural setting. Current external involvements related to the rural work include being a tutor for the Christian Rural Environmental Studies Course (CRES, www.cres.org.uk), a research associate (rural) with the William Temple Foundation in Manchester (www.wtf.org.uk) and an honorary research fellow with both Manchester and Bangor Universities (www.bangor.ac.uk/rs/pt/research/reader.php)
He can be contacted at:
The Vicarage, Chelford, Macclesfield. SK11 9AH.
01625 861231
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