October 2011 letter from the Vicarage
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Dear friends No sooner had I recovered from being told the proposal about this Parish and St Mary’s being joined together in the future, than I was struck by a further highly unexpected, but by no means unwelcome, request by the Diocese. We’ve been keeping this under wraps for the past month until we were sure it was all going ahead, but I can tell you the exciting news that we’ve been asked to take on the training of a new Priest as from next summer, who will work as “Assistant Curate” here at COGS. After meeting her we were really delighted to say ‘Yes please’ to the request, and she agreed also that this would be a great place for her to come and train. She and I are just in the process of writing the formal letters of offer and acceptance, following the PCC’s approval of this last week, Helen Rose is currently training for ordination on a three year course which has enabled her to carry on working as a Teaching Assistant at a Primary School in Hove. She will complete her training next summer 2012 and, all being well with her final reports, will be ordained Deacon on 30th June at the Cathedral. At that point she will join us in full-time ministry, though, because she will still be in training, it is the Diocese that meets her stipend and the rent on the house in Colvill Avenue where she will be living (close to St Nicolas church). We are expected to pay her Council Tax and Water Rates and, of course, to meet her day-to-day expenses like travel and telephone. Helen will spend a year as a Deacon, when she can preach and lead services, conduct baptisms and funerals and do plenty of other things like youth work, pastoral work, etc etc. and will, I know, very swiftly become an integral and important part of the Parish team. After one year as a Deacon she will be ordained Priest (again, all being well, of course) the following summer. After that, she will be able to preside at the Eucharist and conduct marriages. She will serve what is called her “Title Curacy” here with us for four years, after which she will probably be looking for a post in charge of a Parish herself, just as I did to move here after my Curacy in West Wickham. This will mean that she will span some of the time it is proposed that the Parish will be starting to combine with St Mary’s, and will also outlast me here by about six months. I think this will be really helpful for the Parish. We know that initially Helen’s training needs will take up quite a bit of my time, but I am very confident, knowing the intelligent person she is, and with the range of experience she has behind her, that she will soon be contributing far more to our Parish’s life than she is taking out. She is in her 40’s, and has two teenage children, one of whom has left school, and the other just starting 6th Form, and has lived in Hove for many years, though hailing from the North originally. Throughout her working life she has been in teaching in some shape or form. I won’t tell you any more about her personally because in next month’s Shore Line we will be including a Letter of Introduction from her so she can tell you all about herself in the way she wants to do it. Later on, as the time gets closer for her to join us, we hope to have some photos of her and the family to put up, so that by the time she gets here you will all feel she is a familiar friend. We also hope that early in 2012 she will come along to church one Sunday for a proper formal introduction and of course we’ll publicise that well beforehand. So please pray for Helen and her daughter Lily and son James over the coming months, just as I hope you will continue to pray for us all as we face the possibility of changes in the future. Change is never easy – but these developments could just be fantastic opportunities waiting to be grasped by us, and God is waiting to help us make the most of them. May His blessing be upon each of you at this time. With love – Gail |
