I had the privilege of visiting Rachel Knight this week at Ripon Cuddesdon, Oxford, where she trained. She moves to Clifton this week with her husband Alan, and will then return to finish the term in college. She will be ordained on Sunday 21 June at 10.45am at Derby Cathedral and will serve with us in the Ashbourne Group of Churches.
Welcoming a new curate into the parish is an important and joyful occasion. She will bring a wealth of previous life experience, fresh energy, new ideas, and a willingness to serve God and the local community. At the same time, moving into a new parish can be challenging. She is leaving family, friends, and support networks built up over years in Warwickshire to move to join us in the Ashbourne Group of Churches. A warm welcome (offering friendship, encouragement, and prayer) will help Rachel feel supported and valued as she begins her ministry.
It serves as a reminder of the vocation we all share. I’m very grateful to the large team of people leading and serving in different capacities in the Ashbourne Group of Churches. Please know you are all deeply valued. Please also know her arrival does not imply that everything you do should stop. She is another caring and loving person being added into the mix of already gifted and dedicated people serving in our churches. But take a moment to ask: could this be a time to explore if there is something in you suggesting you are called to serve in different and new ways? Within our churches? Within the wider community? Might you be called to be a Lay Licensed Minister (Reader) or perhaps to ordained ministry?
Allow me to end with a short prayer from St Teresa of Avila:
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours;
yours are the eyes through which to look at Christ’s compassion to the world,
yours are the feet with which God is to go about doing good,
and yours are the hands, with which God is to bless us now.
Amen.
Blessings
Dwayne