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Website last updated on 6th June 2010. |
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Our Minister
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Telephone Number: 01252 544823
Email: linda.phillips@theinvernet.co.uk
Linda writes (taken from our July/August 2010 newsletter) ...
Dear Friends,
Following our Circuit Meeting on 23rd June, I felt that it might be helpful to explain some of the possible changes that are likely to be happening in our Circuit in the next couple of years, particularly as they will affect Sandhurst & Yateley Church.
Currently, as I’m sure most will be aware, I have pastoral charge of our church and Cove in Farnborough, while my colleague Rev Rachael Hawkins looks after Bagshot and Frimley Green, with shared responsibility for High Cross Camberley (with Rev David Hamblin) and The Chapel at Ash Vale (with Rev Neil Lambert). It is most likely that Rachael will be moving on next year, and so the Circuit are proposing to take this opportunity to rearrange ministers’ responsibilities in the Circuit. The plan at the moment is that I will move to have pastoral charge of Cove, Frimley Green and the Methodist share in The Chapel at Ash Vale. We then hope to appoint a new minister for September 2011 to work at Sandhurst & Yateley, High Cross and Bagshot. Fleet and Hartley Wintney will remain as they are, and North Camp and Aldershot will be cared for Rev Graham Horsley, who takes up that appointment this September. These new arrangements were agreed at the recent Circuit Meeting.
On top of this, as you may also be aware, our Circuit has been in discussion with two neighbouring Circuits (South East Berks and Farnham and Alton) for some while, about a possible amalgamation. After long discussion the current proposal is that our Circuit (Aldershot, Farnborough and Camberley) should split in two, along the line of the M3 motorway, so that S & Y, High Cross and Bagshot join with South East Berks (Bracknell, Wokingham and Crowthorne), while the rest of the Circuit joins with Farnham and Alton. The Circuit Meeting agreed this week to allow discussions to continue on this proposal, and a sub-committee will be working on it. If this proposal is eventually approved, then the changes are likely to happen in 2012.
I hope that all makes some kind of sense, and will give an idea of how the wider picture is likely to develop in the next two years. How much it will affect Sandhurst & Yateley in practical terms remains to be seen, of course, except for the fact that I shall no longer be the Minister here from September 2011.
I’m quite sad about this prospect, as I feel we are beginning to make progress together, and things are continuing to develop with our project to share with the Baptist church in a new build in the town centre. However, we still have a year together, and a lot can happen in that time.
We must remember that our main purpose here is to witness to God in Christ, and to share the Good News with others, and not allow our attention to be too deflected by what are basically administrative changes. But of course the Circuit is making these changes for the same reason, and for us all there must be the prayerful hope that they will encourage and enable our witness and work for God to go from strength to strength.
So let’s not be distracted by all this, but remember in prayer all those involved in the planning and decision making, that we might fulfil God’s purposes and glorify his name in all that we do.
With Christian greetings,
Linda