When the Rev Jim Bates left Kingston's All Saints Church last April, few knew he would be the last in a line of vicars stretching back more than 800 years.

Now it has been revealed he will be replaced by a priest-in-charge', who will eventually lead a team ministry which will focus on All Saints but will also serve the Church of St John the Evangelist, which has shared the benefice for the past 30 years. Other parishes may also be added later.

Team ministry is new to Kingston but, as a diocesan spokesman explained, it is part of a Church of England policy of bringing parishes together instead of operating them as separate units under separate leadership.

The change is a result of a complex legal process that overturns centuries of tradition.

The "All Saints' living" has been temporarily curtailed, meaning there is no money for a paid vicar.

But it will be restored when the team ministry is in place and the priest in charge becomes team rector with a freehold incumbency.

The clergy serving under him or her in the combined parish will then be known as "team vicars".

The priest-in-charge post will be advertised this week and a shortlist drawn up in October. An appointment is expected to be announced in November. The newcomer will then play a key role in setting up the new ministry.

It will be a challenging task the Rev Annabel Shilson-Thomas, curate-in-charge of St John the Evangelist for the past year, is leaving next month.

And since Jim Bates' departure five months ago, responsibility for All Saints has largely fallen to the Rev Sandy Cragg, a non-stipendiary priest.

It could be seen as a contentious move at All Saints, which has been at the core of local life since Saxon times.

Civic and Crown Court services are held there, it is the Royal borough's principal concert venue and, when fully staffed, it keeps an open-door policy for town centre workers and users.

jsampson@london.newsquest.co.uk