Arrangements during the Vacancy
If you need to contact a Priest for any reason during the vacancy, please telephone the Area Dean, the Revd Dr Rob Kelsey, who is Vicar of Norham and living at The Vicarage, Norham, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland TD15 2LF
01289 382325 e-mail Robert@josephkelsey.fsnet.co.uk
For all other Church enquiries, please contact one of the Churchwardens:
Maggie Bates on 01289 302755
Atie Curry 01289 332845
Peter Middlemiss 01289 308553
Stephen Lowdon 01289 302954
Following completion of the Pipe Organ Restoration Project, we have now embarked upon a major restoration and wire mesh protection of our historic stained glass windows. The work is estimated to take up to two years and cost in the region of £80,000 ...if you would like to donate to this vital work, then please contact one of the churchwardens.
Report of the CONGREGATIONAL MEETING held on March 23rd
Canon Peter Middlemiss, Lay Chair of the PCC, reported that the Archdeacon of Lindisfarne had attended the PCC meeting on the previous Tuesday to formally inform them that the Vacancy had started. The four Churchwardens had already met the Bishop of Newcastle at the end of last year.
During the Vacancy the four Churchwardens and the Area Dean, Rob Kelsey, are the sequestrators and they have been asked by the Bishop to make the parish run smoothly until a new Priest comes. the immediate task of the PCC is to produce a profile of the parish and its needs so that, based on a "job specification", the Diocese can produce a "person specification". If the PCC can do its work by mid-May, they can meet the Archdeacon in June. With interviews in early autumn, you then add on five months before a new Vicar is in post so March 2014 might be the time when he would be installed.
During the Vacancy, the Diocese has let out the Vicarage. The Vicarage telephone number will be retained but the calls will be diverted. The Churchwardens have been helped by the Area Dean and Archdeacon to get things done.
The other task of the PCC is to so order Parish Life that the living is seen to be an attractive proposition when the parish welcomes prospective clergy and, in time, the new Incumbent.
The Archdeacon told the PCC that a Vacancy is often a time of new life. Members of the Congregation were asked to pray for the Diocese and the PCC as they look for a new Priest.