We welcome Joe Mottram as our new priest-in-charge, following his licensing service at St Philip and St James on 5th September. Joe is married to Kirsty, and they have two children Arthur (9) and Dougie (4). He is already busy settling into his new role, but hopefully he will still have time to pursue his hobbies such as cooking family meals and supporting the England cricket team!Joe was born in Boston Lincolnshire; his dad was serving as an engineer in the RAF and this meant that his family moved home quite a lot. In his early years Joe lived in Scotland, Hong Kong and South Wales. When he was a teenager, his mum resumed her career in primary school teaching and the family settled in Fife. He went on to study Physics and Astronomy at Leeds University and completed a PhD. He continued his travels over the next ten years, as a researcher in Exeter, Leiden and Heidelberg.Joe has always been involved in church life and his grandfather was a Church of England vicar. Whilst in the Netherlands Joe joined a worship group, which expanded into leading worship and joining the PCC and Standing Committee. This is where his journey to ordination began following an inspirational visit from the Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese in Europe; his chaplain helped him to explore this calling, and he received further encouragement from a lay reader and vocation adviser whilst living in Germany.Having trained for ordination at Cranmer Hall, Durham, he then spent two and a half years as assistant curate in the Parish of Cirencester. Starting his curacy during Covid, Joe reflects positively on how this provided him with the opportunity to walk alongside people during this difficult time and to open the door to doing things differently. An advent calendar, designed by children, was displayed in the windows of a local church. A window was revealed daily and shared online, engaging people in the advent story at a time when they could not go into church.Joe spent his third-year placement with the Stroud Ministry Team. He recalls a very positive experience where he was involved in the first year of the Festival of Wonder at St Laurence Church. This included spectacular circus acts based on bible stories and brought churches and the community together in a buzzing environment to inspire hope and wonder. He was then seconded to the Thameshead Benefice in 2023, where he encouraged lay leaders and helped them to find and release their calling.Joe is looking forward to helping our church to find their identity in Christ and explore what we are now being called to do. A bible passage that particularly resonates with him is John Chapter 9: after only a brief encounter with Jesus a blind man is physically and spiritually healed and becomes a role model of discipleship and stands up in faith. This encouraging passage reminds us that although we may not be able to see Jesus physically, he is with us in spirit to guide us.We extend a very warm welcome to Joe and his family, and pray for them and our church family as we serve our local community and look forward to the plans that God has in store for us as we journey together.
Remember the film 'Chariots of Fire'? It's exactly 100 years since Eric Liddell won a medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics against all odds. Read his thrilling story here and consider what running the race of life means for you.raceofyourlife.co.uk/read
Sunday is a busy day for our churchwardens, Chris and Kevin, with an early start to open the church and set up for the services. They take responsibility for ensuring that the church services run smoothly. The congregation will often see them making sure that the sound and video system is functioning optimally, which can be quite challenging! Their role is very varied, and behind the scenes they have many duties and responsibilities to support the day-to-day functioning of the church and parish. After the Sunday services, one of Kevin’s duties is to review the activities that are taking place during the week ahead and programme the boilers in each of the church buildings so that they come on at the right time and the room temperature is comfortable. This is not an easy task with our unpredictable weather! The churchwardens must ensure that the church buildings and grounds are well maintained; this includes supporting the Parish Church Council (PCC) with the management of the current challenges that they face, such as the restoration and redecoration of the church interior and the boiler replacement programme. They also maintain the church property inventory and Terrier (a record of the church land including the garden and graveyard). This recently involved locating and counting the chairs in the various church buildings for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) fabric report! One of the more unusual situations that Chris was called in to deal with was a noisy and destructive squirrel who had taken up residence in the roof of the Youth Centre. The squirrel was successfully evicted, but it moved into the Gordon Rooms so the process had to be repeated! As churchwardens, Chris and Kevin are officers of the Bishop which carries certain responsibilities and requirements for communication with her. They have had a significant role during our clergy vacancy and have been busy ensuring that the life, worship and mission of our church continues until the new Priest in Charge is in post. They also have governance responsibilities and are required to help with the legal running of the parish, which involves supporting the Clergy, Church Administrator,Treasurer and Safeguarding Officer. They are ex-officio members of the PCC and standing committee, taking part in the decision making at the various meetings and helping to implement these decisions.Having members of our church family who are happy and willing to take on the lay volunteer role of churchwarden is key to the life of our church. Even in this brief overview we can see that there is a lot of work for them to do, and the help and support they receive from the congregation is much appreciated.
Have you made up your mind yet?For some, the answer is no. We have not decided who to vote for or indeed if we are going to vote at all. But for many ... we know where we will put our cross on election day... The bible challenges us to be involved, to play our part in building the Kingdom of justice, mercy and peace that Jesus proclaims and which those of us who seek to know and share Jesus’ love must by definition be committed.These weeks do therefore matter, whether we have made up our minds or not ... because they call us to be engaged in the great debate about what sort of society we want to be, what sort of country, as we play our part in an increasingly fragile world order. We each have our part to play, to ask questions and seek truth, to look beyond our own immediate need to the needs of others, asking as Jesus does of us, who is my neighbour, and to encourage others, especially the young who are far less likely to vote, not to give in but to play their part to vote.My prayer is first that in this diocese we will play our part, in our daily conversation, for some of different parties in campaigning itself, and for all of us in our engagement in the debate. That we will make our voice heard, speaking respectfully, and respectfully inviting the voice of others, including those who take a different perspective from ourselves. That we will be able to participate in or even hold hustings to hear from the various candidates.One small step you can do now is to sign up to Pray your Part – the Church of England’s national resource with daily reflections and the encouragement to pray.My prayer beyond these next weeks is that the government we elect may be one that reflects the vales of God’s Kingdom, in which God’s will is done on earth as in heaven and in which each will have their daily bread.It is a big prayer, but it begins with being involved.
