How the Minster works

The Minster is a community of people; it is also a parish of the Church of England, a registered charity, a building of cathedral scale to maintain, and a partnership of bodies that have grown up over the centuries to look after different parts of the work.

Who does what at the parish?

The day-to-day life of the Minster is led by the clergy team and the staff team, in partnership with the Parochial Church Council (PCC) and supported by an extraordinary number of volunteers (described in Our community of volunteers).

The clergy team is led by the Vicar — the Revd Canon Jonathan Baker — alongside a Mission Priest, a Curate, and retired clergy who assist under the Bishop’s Permission to Officiate (PTO).

Lay ministers share in the ministry too: Licensed Lay Ministers (Readers), licensed by the Bishop to preach and lead non-sacramental services, and Authorised Lay Ministers (ALMs), commissioned to share in pastoral and teaching ministry.

The staff team is small for a building of this scale and this much daily life. A Director of Operations and an Administration Manager keep the everyday running; a Director of Music leads the music; a Youth and Children’s Minister leads work with families; a Parish Accountant looks after the books; a Shop Manager runs the Minster Shop; a Parish Safeguarding Officer oversees safeguarding; and the Virgers have the day-to-day care of the building, its services and its visitors.

Churchwardens, elected annually at the APCM, are the senior lay officers, serving the Minster and the daughter churches.

For who currently holds each of these roles — with photographs — see the Minster website, or the digital display screens at the Minster, which also carry the latest news, what’s on this week, and updates from across the Minster’s life.

What does the PCC do, and what about its committees?

The Parochial Church Council is the parish’s governing body and the board of trustees that oversees the church’s charitable works and finances. It has around twenty-five members, of whom most are elected lay members serving staggered three-year terms, with the clergy and the churchwardens of the Minster and its associated churches making up the rest, together with any co-opted members. Its key duties, set down in law, are to co-operate with the Vicar in promoting the mission of the Church in the parish, and to be responsible for the parish’s finances and the care and maintenance of the church fabric.

The PCC meets six times a year and does much of its detailed work through committees that report to it.

• The Standing Committee handles urgent business between PCC meetings.
• The Finance Committee manages the parish finances, oversees the budget, and prepares accounts for the PCC and the APCM.
• The Capital Works Board coordinates major works on the building — bringing together the Minster, the Friends, the Old Fund and Two Churches One Town with the relevant funders — so that capital projects proceed in a co-ordinated way.
• The Enterprise Committee helps raise funds by hiring the Minster out for concerts and events, and by managing the building’s wider commercial activity.

The APCM (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) is held each May, when the wardens are elected, the previous year’s accounts are presented, and members of the parish raise matters with the PCC. Approved PCC minutes are publicly displayed at the Minster and published on the Minster website, so anyone can see what was decided and why.

What is the electoral roll, and should I join it?

The electoral roll is the parish’s formal membership list — and joining it is the simplest formal way of saying “I belong here”. Being on the roll entitles you to vote at the APCM and to stand for election to the PCC; numbers on the roll also help determine how the parish is represented in the wider Church. You qualify if you are baptised, aged sixteen or over, and either live in the parish or have worshipped here regularly for six months. Joining is a short form — ask at the Parish Centre, or look out for the invitation when the roll is revised each spring. It costs nothing, and commits you to nothing beyond what you already give.

The wider Church: the Minster’s place in it

Beverley Minster sits inside a structure that widens, step by step, as you move outwards from the parish on your doorstep to the diocese and the whole Church of England. The ladder below shows the layers in order, each one containing the one before it.

The parish — the smallest unit

The parish of Beverley Minster — the parish of Saint John and Saint Martin — covers Beverley itself and includes our three associated churches at Molescroft (St Leonard’s), Tickton (St Paul’s) and Woodmansey (St Peter’s). The PCC is the parish’s governing body.

The benefice

A group of parishes that share clergy. Beverley Minster’s benefice includes our parish plus the linked parish of All Saints’, Routh, which has been linked to the Minster since the 1960s and shares our Vicar without being part of our parish. The benefice is the working unit of clergy ministry.

The deanery

A small group of parishes and benefices in a local area, led by an Area Dean and a Lay Dean, with a Deanery Synod. The deanery is the layer at which parishes share resources, plan together and look out for one another. Beverley sits within the Beverley Deanery in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The archdeaconry

A larger group of deaneries, led by an Archdeacon. The Diocese of York has three archdeaconries: York, Cleveland and the East Riding. Beverley sits within the Archdeaconry of the East Riding.

The Diocese

The regional unit of the Church of England, led by the Archbishop of York and supported by the Bishops of Hull, Selby and Whitby and a body of diocesan staff. The Diocese of York covers the City of York, the eastern part of North Yorkshire, and most of the East Riding. There are 442 parishes and 579 churches across the diocese. The diocesan vision strategy — Living Christ’s Story — sets the framework within which the Minster’s own vision strategy, Minster 28, has been developed; both stress missional discipleship, becoming more like Christ, reaching those we currently don’t, and transforming structures and finances. Minster 28 focuses on discipleship, youth and children, the place of music in mission and ministry, and the next phase of conservation work on the building. Wydale Hall, near Brompton-by-Sawdon on the edge of the North York Moors, is the diocesan retreat house.

The Minster’s own charities and partnerships

Beverley Minster also has, around the parish, several charities and partnerships of its own. They are not part of the diocesan structure above; they exist specifically to support this place.

The Friends of Beverley Minster is a registered charity founded in 1936 with around four hundred and thirty members from across the country and beyond. The Friends have funded restoration, music, scholarship and improvements to the building over nearly ninety years; recent contributions include the Steinway grand piano, the Choral Foundation’s music lessons for choristers, organ work, and a steady stream of conservation and interpretation projects.

The Beverley Minster Old Fund (BMOF) is the historic charity whose endowment was established in 1579, when Queen Elizabeth I re-endowed the Minster with some of the funds confiscated at the suppression of the Collegiate Church. The Old Fund is an independent charity with its own constitution, responsible for maintaining the fabric of the Minster under authority delegated to it each year by the PCC — which retains ultimate legal responsibility for the building — and it works with the Friends on capital projects.

Two Churches One Town is the partnership between Beverley Minster and St Mary’s, the other historic parish church in the centre of the town. It co-ordinates major fundraising between the two churches so that they are not in competition with one another, and is a partner in the current Destinations Project.

The Destinations Project is the Minster’s most ambitious undertaking for many years. See Saint John of Beverley and a brief history for the fuller account.

Section 24 of 26 in the Companion