Dear People of St John’s

The time has come …

Having thought and prayed about it for some months, and taken advice from our Bishop, I have decided that the time has come for me to retire as Vicar of St John’s later this year. I made the announcement of this decision to the congregation on Sunday 8 May.

After discussion with the Church Wardens, we agreed that my final service as Vicar will be Sunday 16 October, the day of our Dedication Festival. This seems a highly appropriate day to draw my time here to a close, because it is a day when we thank God for all that St John’s means to us, and I certainly have much for which to be thankful for the six years that I will have been with you.

On our Dedication Festival, as we look back and thank God for all who have contributed to the life of this Parish, it is also a time to dedicate ourselves afresh to continue God’s work here. All that has been achieved during the last six years is a tribute to the faith, goodwill and energy of all of you – God’s people here.

As tenth Vicar of St John’s, in a line of priests going back to 1904, it has been my privilege to build on all that had gone before. And whoever follows me will be coming into a Parish and Church community that is in very good heart. We are blessed with a very effective team of people on the PCC, led by our energetic and experienced Church Wardens.

As each member of the PCC is now responsible for a particular ‘portfolio’, the day to day life of the Parish will be in capable hands.

Bishop Peter intends to begin the process of looking for a new Incumbent as soon as possible, and to that end he is meeting with the Wardens in early June to discuss what needs to be done over the next few months.

With five months to go before we say goodbye, there is much to be getting on with: plans for the Summer Fête are well in hand; preparation for the new planting programme of our church grounds gets underway; work on our buildings continues; interviews for a new Director of Music are being arranged.

Priests come and go, but the life of a Parish goes on. Most important of all we do is our daily and weekly round of worship, building up the body of Christ in this place. May God keep us all faithful in that task.
God bless and keep us all

Fr John