"If it works well, it's wonderful and liberating - if not it could be a straitjacket" - that was how the Rev. Guli Francis-Dehqani described Team Ministry.

Guli is curate in the Mortlake with East Sheen Team, the subject of this month's 'different' parish profile - 'different' because with the growth of team ministries across the C of E, and at least one team in this diocese splitting up, the aim was to try to discover what makes an apparently successful team 'tick'.

To do that we need to look at two factors - the place and the people.

For starters, perhaps unlike many team ministries, Mortlake with East Sheen isn't a manufactured alliance - it has always been one parish.

Mortlake, and the presence of a church there, is mentioned in the Domesday Book, part of a manor held by the Archbishop of Canterbury stretching from Putney to Wimbledon. There was an Archbishop's residence on the site now occupied by the brewery and a church apparently stood in the grounds. In the 16th century, Henry VIII took over the manor and moved the church to its present site, outside the grounds. Built in 1543, just nine years after the break with Rome, St Mary's was probably one of the first churches built by the newly independent Church of England. The church was put at the end of a path (now Church Path) linking Mortlake to East Sheen where most of the wealthier residents lived, surrounded by a Royal Park and market gardens and away from the smell and damp of the river. Over the following centuries St Mary's has been 'modernised' several times so that today only the tower remains of Henry's Tudor church.

In the 17th and 18th centuries East Sheen grew. The park was enclosed and on the land around large and impressive houses were built. 1840 saw the railway arrive and even more houses and in 1860 St Mary's bit the bullet and planted a daughter church.

Christ Church, was built with a £100 subsidy from Queen Victoria who had a residence nearby at White Lodge. The royal patronage didn't stop the tower falling down and having to be rebuilt just before the dedication! There was a Royal Seat to be used should the Queen have called in - although there is no record that she ever did!

The continuing growth of East Sheen into the early 20th century led to a second church plant. All Saints was consecrated in 1929 - with a further royal connection. HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who then lived at the White Lodge laid the foundation stone. All Saints looks much newer because it was totally rebuilt in the 1960s following a major fire.

Today the parish is one of considerable contrasts - according to a set of 1999 statistics, pockets of poverty make Mortlake the most deprived ward in the Borough of Richmond, whereas East Sheen is the least deprived, including, for example, a six year difference in average life expectancy between the two halves of this single parish.

Physical barriers split the parish into 3 parts. The railway crosses east west, with just three road crossings - two of which, even in the 21st century - are level crossings with all the traffic snarl ups they bring! The South Circular Road forms a second hurdle for anyone travelling north-south!

East Sheen, south of the South Circular, is 'comfortable' middle-class, suburbia with, from a survey done recently, a high proportion of 'professionals' - accountants, solicitors etc. And today, even in Mortlake - whilst there are Council blocks - many of the terraced streets are occupied by young professionals, on their way 'up' (or should it be south), since people tend to stay locally all their lives, often moving to East Sheen as their income grows!

So that's 'the place' - now what about 'the Team'!

Until 1974, the three churches (and for some years a mission church) were looked after by the Rector and several curates from St Mary's. But as the East Sheen congregations grew, clearly at some stage the question arose whether to form separate parishes. Instead the decision was taken to form a Team Ministry, which would enable the diocese to raise the status (and stipends) of the East Sheen clergy to 'incumbent' level as Team Vicars, led by a Team Rector based at the mother church, St Mary, Mortlake. However, none has the freehold as there is no freehold. The Team Rector (legally the incumbent of the parish) and the Team Vicars are licensed for seven years, with an option to renew for a further seven years.

Peggy, Paul, Guli & Edmund

The Team today consists of four stipendiary clergy - the Team Rector, Peggy Jackson (St Mary's), Team Vicars, Paul Kennington (All Saints) and Edmund Lee (Christ Church) and curate Dr Gulnar (Guli) Francis-Dehquani. In addition there is a Minister in Secular Employment (MSE) the Rev. Peter King, four Readers and a SPA, who is currently training for the Ordained Local Ministry. There are also a Reader and a SPA in training.

Each of the clergy is based at a particular church, but each also has a parish wide sector responsibility. The Readers and SPA are deployed across the three churches. There is one Parochial Church Council, two Parish Wardens (legally the churchwardens for the parish) and one budget. However each of the three churches has its Consultative Council with some delegated powers and an advisory role for the PCC and each elects two 'churchwardens' to take the day to day role.

I met the four stipendiary clergy at one of their weekly meetings - they usually meet for a couple of hours but four times a year they have an 'away-day'. I asked two questions - 'how does Team Ministry work?' and 'does it work'?

Peggy Jackson was quite clear that "Team Ministry isn't about being an easy way to reduce numbers of stipendiary clergy. The Team has four full timers for three churches - although Guli may now go part-time when her maternity leave ends. Nor did it mean stipendiary clergy trying to be 'all things to all people'.

"Each church has a specific parish priest with whom it can identify, but there is always a familiar face to cover holidays, sickness etc. On the other hand the team is able to use the particular talents, experience and interests of individual members to specialise in sector ministries - such as adult education and lay training, work with children and young people and mission - which are carried out across the whole parish."

There are also joint services on a regular basis - including a monthly parish evening worship which rotates around the three churches, giving people from each church the opportunity of experience a different kind of worship to their own.

Paul Kennington told me "We have the best of both worlds. The three churches are encouraged and enabled to lead independent lives. Each has developed its own pattern and style of worship. Each has its own social and community life. But in addition we all have responsibilities and opportunities as part of the team."

Edmund Lee agreed "I have quite a free hand when it comes to how Christ Church is run. But being part of the team is enormously strengthening. Parish ministry can be a very lonely job, but as part of a team you have back up and colleagues who speak the same language."

Being able to draw on the resources of three churches also enables the parish to do things on a 'larger scale' both within the parish and to help other parishes. For example, Mortlake's SPA Olwen Williamson cropped up in an earlier Parish Profile, because she helps out at Christ Church Brixton and now a number of people help out with time and money on a regular basis. The parish also supports the refugee centre in Twickenham. And it gives more than œ24,000 a year to charities of one form or another.

"Collaborative ministry is a mindset" said Peggy "and it involves the whole body of Christ. We meet regularly with those in lay ministry. The churchwardens all meet together regularly. It enables us to address issues, needs, opportunities and allocate our resources better than we could as individual churches". So are there any drawbacks?

"Getting decisions can sometimes feel cumbersome, with any proposal having to go through various layers before any decision is made" said Guli. This is specially the case where there are competing demands from the three churches on the single budget.

"There is also a tendency to limit individuality" said Edmund Lee. "Having to bear in mind the styles of all the clergy in the team could feel restricting, if one of our churches wanted to branch out into new worship forms, for example."

Mutual respect for each other's style and tradition is one of the keys to successful team working - said Peggy.

"There are established variations in style and every team member fits in with the style of the church he or she is visiting."

There are fortunately no huge differences in style between the three - St Mary's is perhaps the 'lowest' and All Saints the 'highest', but the gap isn't wide. And there are no huge theological differences between the stipendiary clergy - although the parish is living with the effects of the Act of Synod following the ordination of women priests. The MSE, Peter King does not accept women priests and it is a tribute to the good relations within the team that he is encouraged to pursue his own area of responsibility and is able take part in the ministry rota alongside Peggy Jackson - albeit that he will not receive communion from her.

So does Team Ministry work in Mortlake with East Sheen?

A survey of views from the pews prepared by Olwen Williamson as part of her OLM training said 'Yes' and a quick 'vox-pop' at one of the three churches, one Sunday morning seemed to be confirm that view - both among those involved in church 'management' or Parish-wide activities and just as importantly those who value that church's continued individuality and 'independence'!

Perhaps getting that balance right is the secret.