Dear Parishioners

Over the past six months we have undergone our Parish Review as well as my Personal Review, both of which were organised through the Diocese and proved to be outstandingly positive.

Our Parish Review was extremely affirmative and showed that as a Parish we are succeeding in every aspect of our life together in terms of the Diocesan Healthy Church Model.   However, it was also a valuable exercise in highlighting our opportunities for improvement.  The Review also confirmed with Diocesan statistics that over the past sixteen years we have maintained steady numbers, and even achieved 3% growth in the past three years.  Importantly it showed that we are unified in terms of how we currently see our life together and how we want to move together as a parish into the future.

In terms of my personal review I would like to thank everyone who took part for their extremely positive feedback and their wonderful affirmation of me as your Priest.  After sixteen years in the parish as your Vicar I feel humbled and encouraged.  I want to acknowledge the love of many of you who have walked beside me over these past sixteen years, which has helped shape me to be the person and Priest that I am today.  To all of you, thank you.

As your Vicar I feel privileged to work among such a caring and wonderful group of people and am looking forward to working with you in the next part of our journey together as we seek to know God more deeply and make God more lovingly known within our community.

Blessings

Stephen