I’m really looking forward to coming to be with you at St Edmund’s in September. Ian Godson has asked me to give you some background of where I have been before coming to you, but I hope we will get to talk in person in the coming months and make it more of a two way conversation.
I have always loved singing and enjoyed being both a treble and tenor in the Birmingham Cathedral choir. Over many years I also joined in the ministry of the New English Orchestra and Singers, singing both at home and abroad, which was a great privilege.
I was lucky enough to get to study both Classics and then Medicine at Cambridge University, continuing my clinical studies in medicine in London at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. I love travel, and it was during my gap year in Israel that I met Kristine. A few years later we got engaged while I did my medical elective in South Africa.
We got married after medical finals, and over the coming years moved around a lot, as I specialized first in medicine, and then in anaesthesia. I worked in various hospitals in London and East Anglia and later as a registrar on the Birmingham rotation, which included a year in Perth in Western Australia.
In 2005, we moved to West Bridgford when I took up a consultant post in anaesthesia at the QMC taking a lead in training, and anaesthesia for emergencies and hepato-biliary surgery. We quickly felt at home here, getting to know lots of people as our four daughters went to the local school and as we worshipped at St Giles’ church. They are now all teenagers and our eldest is presently studying at Edinburgh University.
In recent years, we sensed that God was moving us to something new and it led to us putting ourselves forward for ordination in the church. I was ordained priest in September 2020 and Kristine will be ordained as a deacon in summer 2022.
I am looking forward to joining you every month at services in St Edmund’s, encouraging your vision, services and ministry, together with other clergy and readers in the diocese.
The post that I have accepted is described as a ‘transformational post’, and my main focus for the next 3-5 years will necessarily be to grow a new worshipping community in Lady Bay. My hope is that across the two churches, there will be a sense of partnership in the gospel, valuing and supporting one another’s distinct ministries wherever possible.
Until the summer I will be working full time at St Luke’s and Edwalton, so especially during lockdown there will be limited opportunities for meeting up in person. But in the coming months we will be thinking, praying, dreaming, and starting a conversation of what the future may look like.
<span style="font-size: 1rem;">Please be assured that you are all very much in our prayers at this difficult time. Do also pray for us as we prepare for the time ahead.</span>
Rev’d Dr Jonathan and Kristine Mole
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Tuesday 7<sup>th</sup> September 2021– Service at All Hallows, Lady Bay
7.30 pm The Collation, Induction and Licensing of <span style="font-size: 1rem;">The Revd Dr Jonathan Mole as Vicar of the Benefice of Lady Bay and Holme Pierrepont</span>