Farewells and thank you's at St Martin's

Last Sunday, St Martin-in-the-Fields said thank you to Catherine Duce and I, before Catherine starts her maternity leave and I move to become Team Rector in Wickford and Runwell. All the speeches are available to read online, click here for mine and here for Catherine's.

I began my speech by saying: "Tell about a time you had a really good experience of church. Tell about a time you made a difference to the wider church. Tell about a time you felt your gifts and ideas were understood and appreciated. Tell about the time you spent seven years at St Martin-in-the-Fields."

Below is a photo with my leaving gifts, two prints by artist Kelly Latimore. Kelly Latimore wants Iconography to be a creative process, meditation, and practice that brings about new self knowledge for the viewer and himself. He asks the question, "Who are the saints that are among us here and now?"

He writes: "I feel the need for new images. In some icons I wish to embrace the traditional forms and image but for many icons the image needs re-shaping, re-imagining, and re-wondering.There are icons here that people may find theologically unsound and wrong, or for others, helpful and inspiring. I think both reactions are important. My hope is that these icons do what all art can potentially do, which is, to create more dialogue."








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St Martin-in-the-Fields - Morning Song.

Team Rector in Wickford and Runwell

I have recently been offered and have accepted the role of Team Rector in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry. This will mean that I will be moving on from St Martin's after Easter. At St Martin's this morning I said the following about this exciting new role:

'I have taken this decision because I am ready for a new challenge in the role at Wickford and Runwell, the new role will work well for us as a family, and because I think the next phase of development for HeartEdge needs a different set of skills from those I bring to the role.

I have loved my time at St Martin's with you all. This is a very special community in which I have experienced great love, support and encouragement. I will find it very difficult to leave as a result. I have been excited, stimulated and stretched by the opportunity to be involved in the growth and development of HeartEdge. I am proud of the growth and development of HeartEdge and all that it has achieved as a movement for renewal to date. I hope I can make good use of the experiences I have had here in my new role. There are exciting developments for HeartEdge in Essex and the Chelmsford Diocese, so I hope to stay connected in in that way.

Wickford is a small, but growing, town in Essex, near to Basildon. There are three churches in the team and opportunities to explore how the learning and experiences I have been privileged to have in HeartEdge and St Martin's can be of use to the team and churches in Wickford and Runwell. I look forward, too, to getting to know the team and congregations over the months to come and to all that I will learn from them.

I want to take this first opportunity to thank all of you for the love, support and encouragement you have shown to me in my time here, to use the next few months to hand over my responsibilities here in ways that support the next stage in their development, and to ask your prayers for me and my family in this new phase of our life and ministry. Also for Wickford and Runwell as we look for the energy and life of God's Holy Spirit in that community so we can get involved in all that God is already doing there. Thank you.'

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Bread for the World - Epiphany.