In the diocese we are very fortunate that our 2 Bishops are very active and enjoy getting out and about in the parishes.Often this is for a special occasions, such as Confirmations, but every now and again they are able to join in with the everyday life in a parish and benefice, and it is to this which we are looking forward to welcoming The Rt Revd Dr Mike Harrison, Bishop of Dunwich to join and lead our Sunday Communion Service, and then afterwards to take some time to enjoy refreshments and conversations with us.Everyone is welcome to join us. Why not bring a friend!
2023 sees a slight change to the regular service pattern in Clare Church.Many in the congregation have expressed a desire for a regular Evensong/Evening Prayer service in place of one of the 11am Morning Prayer services.Thanks to the support of the Choir and others, we are pleased to advise that the 2nd Sunday of each month will now have a 4pm Evensong/Evening Prayer service, instead of the 11am Morning Prayer.Do come along and support this service, and invite friends and neighbours to come along too!
In July 2023 our leadership team will grow as Dr Karen Smith will join us as a full time Curate. Karen will then be with us for 3 years.Karen says “I’m really delighted to be joining such a beautiful and interesting Benefice as your new Curate from next July. I think that there will be many wonderful mission and pastoral opportunities to get involved in and I can’t wait to get started! I’m particularly looking forward to getting to know everyone and being part of the worshiping and wider communities. Please pray for me as I complete my final year at Westcott House, Cambridge and prepare to move to the Benefice."We are excited to welcome Karen to our Benefice and for the opportunities to learn and minister together. Karen will be ordained Deacon in St Edmundsbury Cathedral in July 2023, and will be Ordained Priest the following year.About Karen:I am from Glasgow but came ‘down south’ to study at Cambridge University in my early twenties and loved it so much, I stayed.I was an academic (neuroanatomy) and then became a management consultant for several years. I returned to academia (working at Cambridge, UCL and UEA) as a specialist in developing high value transformative research initiatives through partnerships with private, public and third sector organisations. In recent years I have been training for Ordination at Westcott House, an Anglican theological college in the heart of Cambridge.I have two grown up sons and enjoy sailing, travelling all over the world and pottering about in the garden, dojang and on the golf course. I am looking forward to lots of countryside walks in the stunning Stour Valley.
Suffolk’s most senior Church of England clergyman has spoken of his profound sadness at the death of Her Majesty the Queen - and said her decades of service are without parallel. The Rt Rev Martin Seeley, Bishop of the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocese, expressed his deep sorrow at the death of Her Majesty the Queen.Bishop Martin said: “We send our sincere condolences to her family. Her Majesty visited the Diocese on a number of occasions during her reign, and during each visit the warmth of feeling the people had for her was clear. I know she had a particular affection for Suffolk.“Through her decades of devotion to her role and to the people of the Commonwealth she has given us all remarkable focus of constancy and stability, and an example of self-giving service. She was always clear how her Christian faith was at the heart of this, and how she found in her faith strength, fortitude and hope.“She was a wonderful ambassador for Britain and an example to us all. I know people will want to pay their own personal tributes to someone who has been a part of this great country’s fabric for so many years. “Books of condolence have been opened across the churches in our Diocese. As a mark of respect for Her Majesty the Queen, flags on all churches are also being flown at half-mast.“Her family are much in our prayers, and in particular we hold His Majesty the King in our prayers as he accedes to the throne.”Arrangements have been made to enable members of the public to lay floral tributes at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.The Dean of St Edmundsbury, The Very Reverend Joe Hawes, said: “As a nation and Commonwealth we begin to come to terms today with the loss of The Queen, who has been for the vast majority of us a point of stability and fidelity throughout our lives.“As we give thanks for Her Majesty’s 70 years of love and service for her people, we commit her to the arms of the God whose love has been her mainstay, and we pledge our loyalty and service as Church and Nation to His Majesty the King.”
