Newsletter - December 2022

Parish Priest’s Message

Dear all,

Well, it is finally happening! Next month, a moving van will arrive to take Mother Jo and I to our new home in Batley, and a new start for me as priest-in-charge of four churches: All Saints’ Batley, St Thomas’ Batley, St Andrew’s Purlwell and St Paul’s Hanging Heaton. It will be a big change and a big challenge. We have been blessed to get to know so many people in our six years in Outwood and Wrenthorpe. You have welcomed us into your homes and shared your lives with us, and we have been so grateful for the love and hospitality you have shown us.

There are two things that I think make for a healthy church: taking what we do seriously and also being serious about the people we do it for. I believe in a welcoming church which expects and plans for people of all ages and backgrounds to come along, as well as in a church which is faithful to the traditions that have shaped us as Christians and which we hope to pass on to the next generation. That is the kind of ministry I have tried to have in St Mary Magdalene’s, St Anne’s and the wider North Wakefield Team, and which I hope to carry to Batley. The challenge is a big one: all four of my new churches are small, with an average of only around 80 or 90 people going to church across the team. The team covers a diverse area, with many families who trace their roots to India and Pakistan, but there are healthy interfaith links and lots of community work going on.

One of the things which encourages me most about the North Wakefield Team as I leave it is that there is so much good which has been done in the last year, and a great deal of it has been led by the people of our churches, rather than the clergy. Whether its the Youth Drop in at St Anne’s, the Drop-In and Lunch Club in St Mary Magdalene’s, the reopened Ark in St Peter’s or the Warm Spaces initiative in St Paul’s, there is so much going on which comes about because of the hard work of parishioners. I hope and pray all these things carry on and grow in the coming years - it was very encouraging to discover the Gardening Club in St Mary Magdalene’s had been awarded a large grant from the Bishops’ Development Fund to continue its work.

Of course, the clergy DO have a role to play, and I shall miss the company and fellowship of Glenn, David and Stuart, as well as all the lay ministers. I have learned a lot in my time with you all and I wish you all every blessing in the months and years to come.

So it’s farewell from me, good luck for the future, and the blessing of God almighty go always with us.

Every blessing,

Fr Jonathan