I've always looked forward to June, partly because it's my birthday month, but also because the weather's often kind and it's when our garden usually looks its best. This year there's more to be excited about than usual, as we regain our social freedoms - although at the time of writing we still don't know how smooth will be the 'roadmap' to recovery. Nonetheless we enter a time of anticipation. We hope to resume old pleasures without all the restrictions, and perhaps develop further those new interests and diversions which sprung from our enforced solitude.
In our Benefice – our group of seven parishes – there's more to be excited about, as we recently appointed a successor to our Rector, Rev Richard Rendall, who retired in January. The post attracted significant interest, with a large field of applicants being condensed down to a short-list of four, who were carefully interviewed by representatives from our seven parishes, together with Diocesan staff and the historic Patrons of our churches. In a full day of interviews, candidates enjoyed a visit to Bledington school, a tour of the villages and the Rectory, and a 'working lunch' with the staff team as well as a formal interview. At the end of the day the unanimous decision was made to appoint Rev Oliver Strange to be Priest-in-Charge of our seven parishes. Oliver will start with us later in the summer - you can read more about him elsewhere in these pages.
Throughout this appointments process, we were reminded several times that we were not just recruiting a vicar - but rather, discerning who God wanted in this post. Does that not boil down to the same thing, you ask? Perhaps. But if we believe in a God who is active and working in our midst, it's right to assume he'll have an opinion on who should be appointed. And the experience of all involved in the selection was that his hand was firmly on the process. And if that was the case, then we have high hopes indeed that he will continue to be active and working in our villages as Oliver takes up the post.
Rev Dr Stephen Blake, Associate Minister