Whiteley was formed from the parishes of St Peter's Titchfield and St Paul's Sarisbury Green. When a group of people started meeting together for worship and a church began the Conventional District of Whiteley was born. This was a temporary measure, never intended to last forever, but it has never seemed to be quite the right time to go through the legal processes to establish the ecclesiastical Parish of Whiteley...until now! With the construction of the new school building for Cornerstone C of E Primary and the attached chapel, which will become the home of Whiteley Church, it made sense to start the process to change from the temporary conventional district to a parish in its own right. The Rev Philippa Mills and representatives from Whiteley Church along with the Rev Sandy Matheson Vicar of St Paul's Sarisbury Green and the Rev Mike Terry, as assistant to the Area Dean of Fareham, spent time carefully checking the boundary. Some adjustments were proposed to take into account the building in the North Whiteley development area and to make more sense of the north-eastern boundary. The draft scheme was overseen by the Archdeacon of the Meon and officers from the Diocese of Portsmouth and was sent to the Church Commissioners. There was an official consultation period when people were invited to respond to the draft scheme. No objections having been received the new Parish of Whiteley was created on 1st February 2021!
We are very grateful to all who have helped Whiteley Church to get to this point and we look forward to further exciting developments later in 2021.