Clergy

From Father Michael…

Clergy

Normally at this stage in the year, we would be busy preparing for Holy Week and our Easter celebrations. The churches would have had their spring clean, printing and other preparations for the major services would all be underway or completed. This year is different. This year we have to stay apart physically rather than come together.

While this may feel like we are under siege, we can, and are, finding ways to keep in touch, stay connected, to encourage one another and find useful things to do at home; all those little jobs we have been putting off!

We would love to hear what you are doing during this time of isolation. Are those spare rooms being decorated, those cluttered corners tidied, is the garden pretty much now weed-free? Please tell us and share some photos.

One job in St Nicholas’ churchyard we are very pleased to have got done before the lockdown restrictions took effect, has been the replacement of the boundary fence on the south side of what will be the new Garden of Remembrance. Our grateful thanks to Scott and Jason.

Here are the before an after photos:

Peace be with you.

Michael

Photos from the Licensing of Revd Sarah Upchurch as Associate Vicar, March 13 2018

Clergy, Pewsheets

The next issue of the Parish Magazine will contain photographs from last night’s licensing of Revd Sarah Upchurch as Associate Vicar.  In the meantime, here are some for you to enjoy online:

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Announcement of New Rector

Clergy, News, Recruitment

Wonderful News !  It wMB1as announced in both churches on Sunday 28 May 2017 that The Reverend Michael Boag, currently of the Parish of Upper Coquetdale, Northumberland will be joining us as Rector.

Michael, who originally hails from New Zealand,  is currently Rector of Upper Coquetdale (near Newcastle) a parish of six flourishing churches in three districts covering 180 square miles of remote rural Northumberland.

Leading a team of three clergy, he is governor of two church schools, trustee of two local charities, and chair of the local neighbourhood planning development group.  He is chair of the local Royal British Legion and Police Force.

Michael has a choral background as Succentor at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, organising singers, organists, and the Royal Household and ensuring that traditional Anglican liturgy was offered to the very highest standards.

The churchwardens are happy he is right for Worth Parish and are really delighted that he accepted.  We welcome Fr Michael to our Parish and look forward to his Ministry.

Please join us at his licensing by Martin, Bishop of Chichester, on Monday 2nd October 2017 at 19.30 at St Nicholas’ Church, Worth, RH10 7RT.

Advertisement for the Post of Associate Vicar, Crawley, West Sussex

Clergy, Recruitment

Associate Vicar of St Barnabas’, Pound Hill and Forgewood within the parish of Worth, Maidenbower, Pound Hill and Forgewood.

The Bishop of Chichester seeks to appoint an Associate Vicar to this parish situated in the new town of Crawley, West Sussex. The parish has excellent rail and road links to London and Brighton and the surrounding areas.

We offer:

  • Supportive and welcoming congregation of 140 members on the electoral role, 40 adults attend the Sunday services
  • Enthusiastic hardworking congregation
  • Vicarage (4 bedrooms, near shops and station)
  • A modern church with large hall and pastoral centre attached
  • Close links with community schools

We are praying for a person who:

  • Has the ability to encourage people in their spiritual lives and develop and enable lay leadership
  • Has an inclusive approach to the pastoral needs of all age groups within the church family
  • Has a heart for outreach and mission in our growing community
  • Can oversee worship that is traditional, informal and innovative

For a full job specification, click here.

Advertisement for the Post of Rector, Crawley, West Sussex

Clergy, Recruitment

Rector, St Nicholas’ Worth and Forge Wood with the conventional district of St Barnabas’ Pound Hill and Maidenbower, in the modern town of Crawley in West Sussex.

We are a busy Parish with two churches each having their own style of worship.  St Nicholas’ Worth, is a Grade I listed Saxon building in a country setting (very popular as a wedding venue) whilst St Barnabas’ Pound Hill is a 1950s new town church with a large Hall, Pastoral Centre and other facilities located in the neighbourhood hub. Together they serve a growing population of approximately 25,000 people.  There are excellent local facilities and good road and rail connections to London and the surrounding areas.

The parish is looking for a Rector, who is an experienced Priest to work alongside the priest-in-charge of the conventional district who:

  • as a leader, inspires others with their own love of God and will enrich the spiritual life of the churches
  • is a creative thinker and strategic planner who will further develop the churches’ community engagement and mission priorities
  • has experience of leading churches into growth
  • is a creative liturgist who will honour the choral tradition of St Nicholas’ while helping us to explore new ways of worshipping across the parish
  • will motivate and nurture others in their gifts and ministries
  • will embrace the diocesan strategy and play a full part in the deanery

For a full specification of this position, click here.

From the Rural Dean…

Clergy

Following on from the Year of Mercy, the Bishop has designated 2017 ‘The Year of the Bible’. During the year, there will be all sorts of events going on to help us engage more deeply with this hugely important text for the Christian journey.  If you do not do so already, I urge you to think about getting bible reading notes.  These are available on the bible reading fellowship website http://www.biblereadingnotes.org.uk/

New Daylight is a particularly good one for those starting out on this but there is a whole selection on the website.  For those of you who are technically minded you can even download them now straight to your phone or computer!  However, if you would prefer us to order them for you please sign up on the list at the back of church and I will organise it for you.  The new notes begin in January and what better new year’s resolution could there be than to spend time with God’s word every day.

The Bishop has also recommended we pray the Bible Sunday collect as a regular inspiration to us all.

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

 

From Revd. Gordon Parry

Clergy

This Sunday we contemplate the greatest Kingdom of all, God’s Kingdom on earth and in heaven.  Yet even though God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit represents a mystery not given to us to fathom in its entirety, God the Son – God made human – was sent to enable us, with all our imperfections, to seek out truth and perfection and to use this search to make better our world for all life, now and in the future.

Clues to the nature of God’s Kingdom engage us daily with their transient beauty, symbolic of a permanent, heavenly beauty to come.  We see the life-giving presence of the sun, the incomprehensible vastness of the night sky, the glorious death of autumn leaves and their spring rebirth in dancing, fluttering green.  We move to the rhythms of the days, the seasons, and the sea. We move also to the beauty of music which often accompanies important moments in our lives.  We are bound together by love which comes from God’s love for all of us, whatever our condition or status. I am often reminded of an observation quoted by the late Cardinal Hume, “‘Yes, God is always watching you.  Because he loves you he cannot take his eyes off you.’  That is a wonderful thought.  God can’t take his eyes off me.  Wherever I am and whatever I am doing, He keeps looking at me, not to catch me out, but from love.  As lovers look for each other and then gaze at each other, so it is with God.”

It is through the – very different – kingship of Christ that we are given a supreme example of how our lives can help to bring about the Kingdom of God – on earth as it is in heaven.

 

Gordon