A PIONEERING project has been launched to train new vicars in hard-hit former North-East coalfield communities.

Church of England-led East Durham Mission Project brings together nine parishes, in the east Durham area of the Diocese of Durham where coalfield communities lost thousands of jobs when their pits closed.

The five-year project is a joint venture between the diocese and Cranmer Hall - the Anglican Theological College and part of St John’s College of Durham University.

Cranmer Hall, which has been training clergy for more than a century, hopes it will help clergy studying for ordination better understand social problems while they live in the communities for a year.

The project covers part of the Easington Deanery, an area made famous by the hit movie Billy Elliott.

The Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Reverend Mark Bryant, said: “Easington is a district with a high level of social challenge and life is becoming more difficult for more and more people.

“As a Church we are determined to do all we can to support people, particularly those local people for whom is life getting more difficult. This will allow us to be more effective in the way we support our communities."

The East Durham Mission Project comprises parishes such as Peterlee and surrounding former mining communities of Easington Village and Colliery, Wheatley Hill, Wingate, Haswell, Shotton, Castle Eden and Blackhall with Hesleden.

The project is looking for two further parish clergy to join those already in post to make up a full team with the trainee clergymen and women (ordinands), who will work in the parishes as part of their training at Cranmer Hall.

Another key aim is to provide extra support for clergy already working in the area and explore different ways of working, including supporting worship away from traditional church settings.

The project will be led by the Reverend Dr Michael Volland, recently licensed as the part-time Missioner and project leader, a role he will fulfil while continuing his work as Director of Mission at Cranmer Hall.

He said: “The idea is to encourage and enable new growth and flourishing in the churches that are there and discern opportunities to expand.

“Hopefully, in five years we will have new congregations and the congregations that we have already will have grown numerically and spiritually.

“This kind of project is needed everywhere.”