Introduction from Fr Andrew

Dear Everyone,

I am so very much looking forward to meeting you all and starting my ministry as your Parish Priest, and I thought you would like to know something about me and my family.

I was born in Worthing and started going to church at St Symphorian’s, Durrington when I was 7 years old and I actually joined the choir on my first Sunday there. Very occasionally I would come to services at St Peter’s with whom we were linked at that time, and I especially remember some meetings of our Youth Club in garden. It was at that Youth Club and in that choir that I met my wife, Alison, and we shall be joining you in our new parish, in the fortieth year of our marriage.

I attended school at St Andrew’s and then the College of Further Education in Broadwater, before setting out in a career in Local Government – working for three years at Worthing Town Hall before moving on to work at Arun District Council from 1978-1982. It was in that year that Alison and I got married and just a week after our wedding at St Symphorians’ we moved to Salisbury where I began training for the ordained ministry. We shall always be grateful to the people of our home church for the support they gave us and especially The Rev’d Stephen Pakenham who was Vicar of Durrington in those days.

I became a curate in the Ifield Team Ministry on the western side of Crawley where my training incumbent was Rev’d David Parker – who himself had been a curate at St Mary’s Broadwater. Then in 1989 I was appointed Team Vicar to the Church of the Good Shepherd in Franklands Village. I was very much the junior member of the Haywards Heath Team Ministry. This lovely wooden church holds a special place in our hearts and during my time, I headed up a building project to enlarge it. By the time we left there in 1993, we had two daughters, Emma and Megan. They are now grown up and long since moved away from home. Emma is a company secretary in London and Megan is a Deputy Headteacher. We have a grandson Luka who of course is the apple of our eyes!

Alison had worked for Lloyd’s Bank in Durrrington and continued with that career in both Amesbury and Crawley. When our children started school she embarked upon a career in school administration, which she continues to this day.

In 1993, I became Vicar of the country market town of Midhurst together with the small neighbouring church of All Hallows Woolbeding. We stayed in Midhurst for the next twelve year and these were once again happy and fulfilling times, before a move of great contrast, when in 2006, I became Vicar of the town centre parish of St Matthew’s Redhill. These too have been exciting years as we have forged all sorts of connections between the life of our church and wider community, which meant that during the pandemic our church was kept open being deemed as “ an essential community activity”. Sometimes we have not quite known what would happen next!

I was privileged to serve as Area Dean for six years and had two spells where I stood in as Acting Archdeacon. Whilst I relished the challenges of these two posts, my heart has always been in parish ministry and seeing how the church can relate to ordinary people in their daily lives.

Alison and I have a shared enjoyment of travel, and we have led several pilgrimages to the Holy Land together. We love the theatre too and whilst Alison excels in photography and flower arranging also, I love to write and to walk! I have a strong sporting passion being a life long supporter of Brighton and Hove Albion and Sussex CC and I enjoy the local football scene too, and am certainly cheering on Worthing FC towards, surely, a promotion winning season.

We are very much looking forward to coming home to Worthing after forty years away

With every blessing to you all

Andrew