Category: Letters

I am so excited to be joining you as your new Vicar in May. It’s been a long wait but finally the time has come to make preparations for leaving East Sussex to join you up in Alnwick. I have thoroughly enjoyed my nine years of ministry in the Diocese of Chichester, but have felt for some time now that God is calling me to something new. After leaving Cuddesdon Theological College in 2014, I served my curacy in Uckfield before moving to Heathfield in 2017 to take up my first incumbency. Heathfield is a small market town, roughly equidistant between Eastbourne and Tunbridge Wells, in the beautiful Wealden countryside. Until last year, we were two parishes with three church buildings, but in 2022 we united to become a single parish with a shared vision for mission across the town and local villages. I had the privilege of having a training a curate which I thoroughly enjoyed and was an ex-officio governor of the local Church of England Primary School. I am thrilled to be coming to a parish with such strong ties to its local Church School, and am really looking forward to getting stuck in and becoming a familiar face in the school.

Before ordination I studied at Agricultural College where I met my wife, Vicky. Soon after graduating, I moved up to Liverpool to take up the role of Assistant Operations Manager at Aintree Racecourse, before moving to Newmarket Racecourse as Operations Manager. During this time I oversaw various construction projects at a number of Racecourses across the country, and in 2008 I moved to Lingfield Park Racecourse in Surrey where I managed a major redevelopment of the racecourse. My last job before heading off to Theological College was to project manage the delivery of catering for two of the venues for London 2012!

I have been married to Vicky for 25 years in October, and we have two boys, Hugh and Charlie. Vicky is a Land Agent specialising in Estate Management which she loves. Hugh is reading Music at the University of York and Charlie is in the middle of taking his GCSEs this summer. Vicky and Charlie will be joining me in Alnwick once his exams are over. We have a small, rather scruffy and very loud dog called Pepper. Visitors to the Vicarage will definitely hear her before they see her!

Originally from the Isle of Wight, I love walking in the countryside and being near the sea, both of which I find essential for staying sane and staying closer to God. I am really looking forward to exploring the beautiful Northumbrian hills and coastline and I am hoping to start running again! We are a family of avid Formula One fans, though we don’t all support the same team which makes the races lively events in our house!

I am so grateful to the team at St Michael’s for making me so welcome and for being so patient in waiting for me to join you all. Huge thanks to all who have carried the extra burdens throughout the vacancy, and especially to the team of clergy who have helped to ‘keep the show on road’.

I can’t wait to meet you all!

Every blessing,

Mitch

We are looking forward to welcoming our new Vicar, Revd. Mitch, to St Michael’s Church in May. Mitch will be welcomed to the parish in a special service led by Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley on Saturday, 13th May at 4.00pm.

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
February 2022

Sunday 9th January 2022 seemed a very long way off when I announced my retirement in early October last year – but it seemed to arrive with great haste!

My last Sunday leading worship as Vicar of Alnwick was, indeed, a memorable one and both Jane and I were overwhelmed with the warmth and appreciation which was expressed by many folks on that day.

As Churchwardens, Pat and Anne spoke movingly about the last ten years pointing out, amongst other things, that in 2012 St Michael’s received a bachelor Vicar but were now saying farewell to a Grandpa!

The generosity of your farewell gift was quite astounding and I know we will put it to good use. Top of the list, at the moment, is a new shed and a small greenhouse.

Much has happened over the decade which we have shared together as it has been my privilege to minister in this place. Through good times and not so good times we have had a great deal of fun and, I am convinced, become a more welcoming, loving, and supportive community as, together, we have tried to ensure that “All are welcome in this place”. Equally, we have attempted to make our ministry more outward-looking not only to the community of Alnwick but also further afield – and for this ‘thanks be to God’.

As the time draws near for Jane and me to leave for pastures new and to learn a new way of being – how to be retired together – we give thanks for all that has been and wish you every blessing for all that lies ahead.

With our love and prayers,     Paul & Jane.

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
January 2022

Paul & Jane would like to send a huge ‘thank you’ for the splendid send-off last Sunday.

It is difficult to find the right words to express how we feel. The warmth of the goodbyes, the generosity of your leaving gift, the lovely buffet lunch, the cards, the flowers for Jane and the memorable words from our Churchwardens Pat and Anne all combined to make a most memorable occasion. As we prepare to take our leave, we will take with us a great host of happy memories and assure you that Alnwick – and the people of St Michael’s in particular – will always have a very special place in our hearts.

God bless you all.

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
December 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

Having a two-month edition of ‘Gateway’ for December and January means that it covers so much activity in church and in the wider world.

In the church calendar Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and the Baptism of Christ will all take place before our next edition is published.

In the secular world, commercialism (even if lots of it is ‘online’) will witness millions of pounds being spent, people will travel to be with family, and New Year celebrations are expected to be much greater than those of 2021 — always supposing the Covid-19 conditions allow.

As the Church marks the life-changing effects the birth of Christ had on the whole of humanity, the ‘world’ largely celebrates in a way that, seemingly, takes little notice of God’s gift of love.

We can reac in one of two ways to this fact. Either, we can moan and complain that people have ‘taken the Christ out of Christmas’ or, we can continue to do the same thing Christ himself embodied when he walked this earth: love with all our hearts.

It is that gift of God’s great love, demonstrated most fully in the coming of Christ at Christmas, which we must allow into our hearts, lives and actions and which can continue to help others think (even if only for the most fleeting of moments) what it is that compels us to follow the baby in the manger from Bethlehem to the cross and resurrection — events which changed the world for ever.

As Jane and I prepare to leave Alnwick in the New Year my hope is that you will continue to demonstrate God’s love in Christ in all the ways you have done in recent years: faithful in worship; caring for one another; supporting those in need whether locally, nationally or internationally; being accepting of others’ points of view and extending welcome to all who find themselves crossing the threshold of St Michael’s.

Along with a greater care for one another, it is in this latter ministry which I feel we have made real progress — and which we might dare to hope would warm the heart of God as much as it warms the hearts of those who receive that welcome.

After almost ten years as your Vicar it will not surprise you that I want to include some words from a hymn! As Christmas draws near we will inevitably sing ‘O come to my heart Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. From serving you over the last decade I also know that there is more than enough room in your hearts for the love of God to be active in all that you might be called to do in the months and years ahead.

With every blessing,

Paul

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
November 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

My lips curled up into a gentle smile last Sunday morning as the organ played before the service and I heard that lovely melody from Mendelssohn ‘s oratorio ‘Elijah’:
‘O rest in the Lord’.

Was it, I wondered, a ‘nod’ to the fact that I had announced my retirement the previous week!

The words come from Psalm 37 which, in the Book of Common Prayer version, read as follows:
“Delight thou in the Lord and he shall give thee thy heart’s desire. Commit thy way unto the Lord and put thy trust in him and he shall bring it to pass.”

Those words have meant a great deal to me all through my ministry as I vividly remember reciting them at Evening Prayer in Cuddesdon Parish Church on my very first day of training. They seemed significant then — just as they do now — and indeed have in the years between.

Whether we ‘rest’ in the Lord or ‘delight’ in the Lord (and I understand, more and more, that we can do both) surely it is the calling of each and every one of us.

God’s promises, made perfect as they are in the sending his Son, involve trust and commitment — but the reward is the fulfilment of our heart’s desire.

So, it seems to me, that whatever stage we might be at in our journey of faith resting and delighting in the Lord are thoroughly worthwhile pursuits!

Jane’s greatest concern for me as I approach retirement in that I have no hobbies. She wonders what on earth I will do to occupy my time when I lay down my current responsibilities.

A few things come to mind. I would be fascinated to trace my family tree; I might join a choir; time to have some gentle but regular exercise…. On the other hand, completely unexpected areas of interest might arise.

So many of those who are already retired tell me that they can’t understand how they found the time to go to work!

And so, although there are still over two months to go before the next adventure begins, whatever my retirement might have in store, it is my hope that I may learn more and more how to ‘rest’ and ‘delight’ in the Lord. And I hope that you will too.

With every blessing,

Paul

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
October 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

Have you noticed how the evenings are already getting darker? We’ve not yet put the clocks back and yet dusk is with us by late afternoon.

Turning out in the dark for meetings or activities is something we have got out of the habit of doing since the first lockdown began but it is heartening to know that social activities in the evening are slowly beginning to take off once again. It’s lovely, for instance, to know that our indoor bowlers at St Michael’s are back in the Parish Hall each Tuesday evening.

Of course, for some, it’s equally good to be able to draw the curtains, put another log on the fire and enjoy the cosiness of an evening at home as the weather turns darker and colder.

In church on Sunday evenings we’ve revised our pattern of worship. We hope that, before too long, we might be able to reform our choir but, at least until then, it is quite a challenge to have a weekly sung Evensong without the lead of our choristers.

Our new pattern leaves Evensong on the first Sunday of the month but this is followed by an Iona-style service, the lovely evening office of Compline and then a Taizé-style service on the second, third and fourth Sundays of the month respectively.

So far this pattern has met with the approval of our Sunday evening congregation and, indeed, we have found that it has attracted others who might not otherwise have been evening worshippers.

Each of these lovely forms of worship have particularly engaging and memorable prayers within them. At Evensong the comforting ‘Lighten our darkness we beseech thee, O Lord and, from Compline, ‘Visit, Lord, we pray, this place and drive far from it all the snares of the enemy. Let your holy angels dwell here to keep us in peace ‘

By the time you read this we will have celebrated once again St Michael, chief of the angels and the co-patron of our parish along with St Paul.

Perhaps we should have greater regard for the angels not only as messengers but also as protectors. I, for one, particularly bring them to mind as evening draws on. Perhaps that is from training in a theological college which sung Compline every evening — or maybe it comes from even further back

I suspect I was not the only child of earlier years who regularly sang at the end of the school day:

‘Lord, keep us safe this night, secure from all our fears.
May angels guard us while we sleep,
’til morning light appears. ‘

May you know Michael and all the angels watching over you both day and night.

With every blessing,

Paul

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
September 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

The front cover of this edition of our magazine shows Mark, Bishop of Berwick, at the wonderful service of blessing for our ten bells on 9th August before they were transported into the tower over the following two days and then given a ‘test run’ on the evening of 12th August.

What a joy it was to hear the bells pealing out over the town — and expertly rung by a team of ringers from all over Northumberland as well as Newcastle and South Shields.

As I write, the work of ensuring efficient sound control is taking place and within the next few days the refurbished clock face will be returned and attached to the carefully re-sited clock mechanism. Soon the scaffolding will begin to be dismantled and we will once again be able to see the sturdy tower which, if it could speak, would have such tales to tell as it has watched over Alnwick for so many centuries.

These days are, without doubt, an historical time for our church and our town as we look forward to the dedication service at 7.00pm on St, Michael’s Day, 29th September. How privileged we are to witness these happenings.

Soon this amazing set of bells will draw the faithful to worship week by week, ring out joyfully for weddings and mark significant occasions for our town and nation. For all of this, thanks be to God.

Like bells, we to can draw others to worship and show them a better way not by making a noise but by the manner of our lives and the way in which we deal with others.

By living Godly lives — not, however, being over-pious — and by doing that which is right, just and honest we can become recognised as people of faith and integrity and so draw others into our fellowship.

In a hymn which is becoming increasingly popular there is a refrain at the end of each verse:

‘All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

Let us all strive to supplement the call of our new bells by doing what is right in God’s eyes and ensuring a welcome for all who are drawn across the threshold of St. Michael’s.

With every blessing,
Paul

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
August 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

I want to begin by thanking many of you for your cards, good wishes and the assurance of prayers during my recent, somewhat unexpected, bout of chickenpox. How I wish I’d experienced this illness as a child rather than at this stage in my life. To be certain, it takes much more effort (and a deal of patience) to recover for those of us who fall into the category ‘of riper years’.

Being laid low did, however, help me to realise how much of our lives we take for granted; perhaps, even, assume as our right. Chief of these must be our health.

My morning routine has always been to get out of bed, jump into the shower, get shaved and dressed and then be ready for what the day brings. Just at the moment, by the time I get to the end of those simple tasks I’m quite exhausted. I know, of course, that each day will see me getting a little stronger and that my supplies of energy will increase but I have resolved to try and be more thankful for such simple yet profound good fortune.

Thankfulness really does need to pervade every aspect of our being. We have a roof over our heads; there is food in our stomachs; we know love and companionship from family and friends; as lockdown eases, we are increasingly free to go where we want and see whom we will.

Equally, in our lives of faith, we have untold freedom to worship without hindrance: a right which is still denied to many across our world. So let’s not take that wonderful freedom for granted either. Rather, let us be thankful for all that is good and, more importantly, to actively seek out and enumerate each day the good fortune that is ours.

I worry that a perfunctory ‘nod’ to God that ‘all is well’ each day has been my attitude for far too long and am increasingly convinced that a real acceptance of his goodness and his bounty should feature much more in my prayers.

In sickness and in health we can, I am convinced, train ourselves to accentuate the positive.

With Jane, I used to visit a former parishioner of hers who, bent double with arthritis, had been bedridden for many years. In a residential home, with a brick wall for a view, that dear lady gave thanks each day for the tree behind the wall as she watched the buds appear in springtime, then the blossom and then the glorious colours of autumn.

And so I lay before you, too, the suggestion that we should actively look for reasons to be thankful and praise God for our good fortune.

With every blessing,

Paul

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
July 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

Many of us had hoped that, by the time you were reading this, we would have been released from ‘lockdown’ and things might have been returning to normal — whatever that might mean.

The truth of the matter is, of course, that following the trauma of the last fifteen months, a new normal will need to be established in so many facets of life. The world — including our little part of it here in Alnwick — has changed and we need to reassess all sorts of ways of life that we previously took for granted.

And so I want to take the opportunity of using this letter to talk particularly about how we may best ‘be Church’ here in St. Michael’s in our new, postpandemic, life and especially with regard to Sunday worship.

Those who have been counting will know that in the last year we have seen the deaths of eleven of our most committed members: people who were in church faithfully, week by week, and whose presence and fellowship we miss greatly. This loss represents approximately 10% of our worshipping community.

And added to this, there are still those amongst our number who do not yet feel ready to return to church and who, along with a good number of others, are maintaining their connection through YouTube and Zoom.

All of this has led to much prayer and reflection — particularly on the pattern of Sunday worship now that more settled times are on the horizon.

After a fair degree of consultation and with the agreement of the Parochial Church Council we hope to begin, from July, a new pattern of worship which will be reviewed after a six month period.

Our aim has always been to offer, within the scope of our abilities, worship which caters for the broad spectrum of those who have made St. Michael’s their spiritual home. Over the years this has evolved from the days when Early Communion, Matins and Evensong were the ‘staple diet’ of Sundays to the pattern we had of four services each Sunday until we were hit by Coronavirus.

Later Morning Worship at 11.15am has become increasingly challenging to sustain each week as people have died, become infirm or moved away. Of course, over the years, it has been of special significance to considerable numbers of folk who have felt particularly valued, nurtured and able to give of themselves because of the informal nature of a smaller gathering.

It is important that we give thanks for the real blessings that many have received from that worship (not least, in recent years, the leadership of Sue Allen) as we launch out in faith into a new way of being.

Details of our new pattern of worship are given on the front inside cover and, as we try to pick up the pieces of our new normal, I would ask that you keep all of this in your prayers.

With every blessing,

Paul

St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
June 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

As I write this letter the Prime Minister has just officially informed the nation that we can proceed to the next stage on the roadmap to recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic – freeing us up to begin to put back together the pieces of our lives. This is thanks, in no small measure, to the amazing rollout of the vaccination programme and, before we do anything else, we should give profound thanks for our National Health Service – still the envy of the world.

However slowly we begin our individual routes back to a less restrictive way of being there is so much to be thankful for. We are being freed up to socialise in a limited way once again, to hug – and be hugged, perhaps even to stay with friends and family if they don’t live too far away.

I am reminded of the line in the hymn “my chains fell off, my heart was free …”

And, at the rate time seems to be flying by, it won’t be too long until the next date in June and further restrictions are lifted. Further chains can fall off and, hopefully, much anxiety can be cast aside.

Being freed up to be who we are is critical to our general wellbeing – and the world is beginning to realise this. We now have Mental Health Awareness Week – a concept that was simply unheard of just a short while ago. Increasingly, people in the public eye (those who seem to have ‘everything’) are prepared to share with others that their seemingly enviable lives have often been fraught with problems and difficulties. These brave souls have released themselves from the veneer of perfection and admitted that they are scarred and vulnerable.

In his book ‘Simply Free’ Fr. Gerald O’Mahony says: “I’m free to grow because I am free to be less than perfect”.

As we make our way into our new unrestricted, post-pandemic life and allow our chains to fall off let’s not try too hard to strive for perfection. Rather, let us aim to grow – in contentment, in faith, in hope and in love.

None of these areas of growth require perfection – simply a willingness to allow God to work in us and for us to strive to be the best we can.

In the book of the prophet Micah (Chapter 6, verse 8) we read: “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

If we can do this and, at the same time, acknowledge that we are less than perfect we may know a freedom equal – or greater – than the falling off of chains.

     With every blessing,

Paul

St Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
May 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

As we continue to journey along our roadmap out of lockdown it had been really good to see so many people returning to church. Last Sunday, at the 10.00am service, there were sixty-nine people in the building (all well socially-distanced) and a further fifty-four ‘hits’ on our YouTube channel. Several of the ‘hits’ were from homes where more than one person was watching.

The decision about whether to come back to church or to worship from home is, of course, entirely individual and we recognise fully the fact that some are either unable to come or simply not yet ready to return. As the second vaccines are administered and time goes by we hope that more will feel able to return but, in the meantime, we should be very grateful for the technology (and the very talented operators of the equipment) which allows us to be the body of Christ in this place — whether physically or virtually.

Whether presiding or preaching, I really do feel that those who are watching from a distance are very much part of the worshipping community and my hope is that they, too, feel ‘in touch’ with what is going on.

Technical expertise in the parish also allows us to have our monthly ‘Sunday Plus’ services on a Sunday afternoon as well as our weekly Zoom coffee sessions, Thursday evening service of Compline and a book Group! We were also able to take part in a most inspiring Lent Course via Zoom.

So, even those of us (including me, the chief of Luddites) who are uncertain — or even dismissive — of technology have benefited from changes in church life which have allowed us to stay in touch.

For many, one of the most difficult aspects of the current regulations has been our inability to take part in congregational singing. We remain grateful that we can reflect quietly on the words of hymns as the organ is played but we all recognise, I think, that it’s not quite the same as offering the praise of our lips as our voices blend together. This, of course, is where those who ‘worship from afar’ have the advantage: they can sing as lustily (and as out of tune) as they wish!

My point in writing all of this is:

• To give thanks for what we have;
• To help us realise we can still be the body of Christ;
• To accept that our pattern of worship might never be quite what it was;
• To recognise that this might be a way of prompting us to think afresh what it is that honours God most.

However you feel happiest at the moment, please never lose sight that God receives our worship and hears our prayers.

Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship our spirit finds is like to that above.

Before our Father’s throne, we pour our ardent prayers; our fears, our hopes, our aims are one— our comforts and our cares.

With every blessing,

Paul

St Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
April 2021

Dear People of Alnwick,

As I write this we are preparing, as a church, to take part in the National Day of Reflection marking a full year since our country first went into lockdown in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

What a year it has been. We have, of necessity, learned a new way to be and to do. Our lives have been restricted in ways that, even for those who can recall wartime, we could never have imagined. We have been separated from family and friends; we have been unable to mark occasions of celebration and sadness as we would have wanted; travel has been more of less impossible and, in the media in the last few days, we have heard that many people are declaring that they fear they have lost the art of socialising.

Our ‘normal’ church life has been completely disrupted but, at the same time, we have learned new ways to worship and to show Christian friendship and love in this place. Thanks to the technical skills of a very few talented people we have managed to stream worship into your homes, to hold regular ‘Zoom’ coffee times and enjoy a fascinating Lent course almost as if we were in the same room.

In addition I have been greatly heartened at the way in which people have cared for each other through regular telephone contact or socially distanced visits.

And in our town generally I have felt an air of caring and recognition in the way people have watched out for one another.

Perhaps most of all we should be thankful for the way in which the vaccine process has been rolled out. Many of us are now receiving their second dose and the courtesy and efficiency with which this has been carried out is a cause for much gratitude.

So, as we follow the roadmap to recovery with important landmark dates in place between now and June we give thanks and pray that mutual respect and common sense will continue to prevail as we are give a fresh chance to consider a way forward in a changed world.

Easter, of course, gives us a roadmap to recovery too. Recovery from the darkness of Good Friday to the glory and celebration of Easter Day and Jesus risen from the dead.

In the sadness and the rejoicing of those three days (and all that it means for our future) we see love. We see God’s love demonstrated to us to in the way we have seen people cope with the difficult circumstances of the last year – not least in the way in which we have helped one another simply get through the difficult days.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous song from ‘Aspects of Love’ springs to mind: ‘Love, love changes everything.’ Indeed it does!

In a new publication from the Iona Community are the following words:

Everything dies.
Life dies.
Death dies.
Everything is done.

Except love.

Only love is not done.
Only love will not die.
Everything is finished except love.

Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.

At some point everything will be done.
Except love.
Love is never done.

With every blessing for Easter and as you journey on.

Paul