Governance
Trinity is a registered charity and part of the Church of England in the Diocese of Gloucester.
We recognise the awesome responsibility of leadership and commit to stewarding our church family with prayer, integrity, and transparency, as together we share God’s transforming mission in our community and beyond.
Governance Structure
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The Lead Pastor (the ‘Team Rector’), our other Church of England ministers and two ‘churchwardens’ elected at our Annual Church Meeting, Liz Lang and John McLean, are all approved and formally licensed by the Bishop of Gloucester to serve at Trinity. They each have specific responsibilities to ensure that everything at Trinity is in-line with best practice and legal requirements.
Twelve other church members are also elected at the Annual Church Meeting to serve with them as our PCC (Parochial Church Council). Acting as our Trustees, the PCC is the guardian for the integrity of church life, formally approves strategic plans in line with our vision and ensures that all necessary resources, policies and proper checks and balances are in place for financial, safe-guarding, staffing and health & safety matters.
The PCC has specific working groups responsible for oversight of Finance and Resources and also Safeguarding.
A number of members of the church staff team attend meetings of the PCC to ensure appropriate information is being provided. Anyone who is on our Church Electoral Roll can request to see the approved minutes of the PCC meetings. Please contact us if you wish to see them.
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In consultation with the Churchwardens and the PCC, the Lead Pastor forms a small group to serve as Trinity’s Senior Leadership Team (and Standing Committee of the PCC). The role of the SLT is to seek and share God’s vision for the church and to develop our strategic mission and ministry plans.
In consultation with the PCC, the SLT communicates vision and acting as the ‘standing committee’ of the PCC, oversees the implementation of our mission and ministry activities. The SLT supervises our staff team and the many volunteer leaders of ministries, managing budgets and policies and ensures proper reporting back to the PCC and wider church family.
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Our church family relies on many different people being led by the Holy Spirit to share their time, gifts and experience in a wider variety of voluntary and paid roles. If you think God might be calling you to serve in one of the below roles ahead of May 2025, please see the information sheet below which helps to explain the responsibilities and commitments involved. An informal chat with one of our Pastors on a Sunday is another good way to find out more.
Churchwardens
Our two Churchwardens act as a key link between the church family and the Senior Leadership Team.
PCC
The members of the PCC (Parochial Church Council) appoint and support our staff team to ensure good governance and wise management of church life in line with God’s vision for us.
Deanery Synod
4 members of our PCC will be representing our church at the local Deanery Synod. Deanery Synods are formal meetings, which are mainly for information and discussion about mission and ministry in the area, under the leadership of a Dean.
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We know that sometimes things do go wrong and people can make mistakes. In line with our beliefs as Christians and best practice, we encourage anyone with a complaint to try and first resolve the matter by directly contacting the person they have been dealing with.
If this does not work or you feel unable to speak to the person by yourself, we encourage you to be in touch with another more senior member of our ministry team to ask them to support you in trying to resolve the situation in this way.
If you feel unable to do this or if the complaint is of a serious nature, then we follow the formal process set out in this policy.
Statements
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We are a member of the evangelical alliance and we affirm the following statement of faith.
We believe in:
The one true God who lives eternally in three persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.
The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God-fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
The dignity of all people, made male and female in God's image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
The incarnation of God's eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ - born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.
The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
The bodily resurrection of Christ, the first fruits of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers - given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit's gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.
The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.
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A statement of where Trinity stands on questions about human sexuality, marriage & Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF):
We are all on a journey to understand God’s will for our lives and how we are called to share the love of Jesus with everyone whatever their identity and circumstances. We need to recognise that we have not always welcomed and embraced people in the way that Jesus teaches us.
We know it is a blessing to have people in the Church family who identify as LGBT+ and/or same-sex attracted and also many hetero-sexual people who are single, married or in other forms of personal relationship. It is a privilege to share life together and we want to do everything we can to fully support everyone personally and in their journey of growing in faith and Christlikeness.
However, as a team we have always tried to be completely open in sharing our continuing understanding of the Bible and Jesus’ teaching about human identity and sexuality to mean that sex itself is intended only for marriage; and we adhere to the current Church of England doctrine that marriage is between a man and a woman. We have therefore said that this means Trinity won’t be offering the (PLF) blessing prayers for same-sex couples which some Anglican churches are hoping to use. We respect that not everyone in the Trinity church family agrees with this stance and want to again make clear that we remain fully committed to welcoming and loving all, regardless of personal beliefs.
(The Church of England’s doctrine defines marriage as a lifelong, exclusive, heterosexual union between one man and one woman, established for the procreation and nurture of children, the mutual society, help and comfort of the partners and the expression of God’s grace. This definition is based on Christ’s teaching and is maintained in the Church’s Canon B30, which also states that sexual intimacy is appropriately expressed only within this marriage)
The Annual Meeting
Our 2026 Annual Meeting took place on Monday 18 May 2026. Church Wardens, PCC and Deanery Synod Reps were elected and our Impact Report 2025 was presented. Church members elected to PCC are Nick Eden, Mike Fuller, Clare Benton, Richard Coton and Josh Leighton. Church members elected to Deanery Synod are Pete Hils, Iona Hay, Patrick Olaniyi and Jay Norris.
Electoral Roll FAQs
Electoral Roll
We don’t have members as such, but as we are part of the Church of England, the Electoral Roll is the Church of England’s official register of who worships with us. If you’re a part of this, it enables you to vote together for those who stand to make decisions on our behalf on our PCC, Deanery Synod and in the specific roles of Churchwarden.
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It is your parish church register of electors. It is the list of those qualified to attend and to vote at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting where the elections take place for the Parochial Church Council and the parish’s representatives on the Deanery Synod.
Any person entitled to attend the Annual Church Parochial Meeting may raise any question of parochial or general church interest.
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You can join the electoral roll online right here.
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By enrolling you become a voting member of the Church of England and so help to ensure that all the synodical councils of the Church – the Parochial Church Council, the Deanery Synod, the Diocesan Synod, and the General Synod – are fully representative of its members.
Synodical government gives an opportunity for partnership between bishops, clergy, and laity in the life of the Church.
First, the system is intended to enable church people at every level to be in touch with the Church as a whole and to play their part in decision-making.
Secondly, the system is intended to ensure that the laity have their place in every aspect of church life, including its doctrine and service.
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You can use the Church of England’s Parish Finder to determine whether your home address falls within Trinity’s parish boundaries or not.
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Voting happens on the night of the Annual Meeting. If you are on the electoral roll and in attendance you can have your say!
If you are not able to attend the meeting, you can register your interest in voting via post! Please complete an application form by clicking here and submit your form to the church office by 13th May 2026. You will then receive a voting slip after the annual meeting in the case where the number of applicants exceeds the number of vacancies in any of the elections.
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The Electoral Roll online is made up of two parts. The first part is the application form you fill in, and a note on your ChurchSuite details is the counterpart of your application.
ChurchSuite then helps us keep a log of who from Trinity is on the Electoral Roll, and makes sure we have the right contact information for you.
Want to get hold of us? Find out more? We’d love to hear from you!
Get in touch
Julia Thomson
Administrator - Operations
Email Julia
