Message from Archdeacon Peter Hooper (18.11.2022)

Across the Archdeaconry of France we are currently holding some 14 vacancies for new Chaplains to come and join us to offer leadership to our congregations. We are successfully moving ahead with our recruitment programme in 2023 with four appointments already made, (Fontainebleau included) and another eight pending as we move through the familiar stages of advertising, review of applications, longlisting, Zoom interviews, shortlisting and interviewing. I very much hope that by the time Christmas arrives, the eight pending ones will also have an appointment made to them.

However, as we know at St Lukes, it can take a considerable amount of time between making an appointment and actually having the new Priest licenced into post. Driven by the need to give notice to their existing roles coupled with the uncertainty for some of the work visa system with the French authorities, this can extend the interregnum / vacancy period quite significantly. Not all of the French based worshipping communities are blessed with a ministry team as at St Lukes and as such the only way to assure a continuation of regular worship is via the stand-in priest route. Father Grant has been a key individual in supporting you over the last 18 months in this way and for which I am very grateful.

However, with the ‘end in sight’ of your vacancy and with a flourishing ministry team that is growing in both size and confidence, I really would like to be able to use Grant elsewhere and as he has himself recognised, “There seem to be a great many places needing priestly cover at the moment, so I will do my best to help out where possible” In some respects the proximity of Paris to Fontainebleau has worked well for both the Chaplaincy and Grant in that he has been able to come and go each Sunday. In the longer gaps when he has been deployed elsewhere, the local ministry team has been able to have the space and place for development and growth, which now sets you well for the next few months before Donald arrives.

I very much hope that you have an enjoyable potluck lunch on Sunday and that this will be a suitable way to thank Grant for his time with you. I am excited about the next phase of ministry that is coming to Fonatinebleau in the form of your new Chaplain Donald, I am also excited about being able to use Grant more extensively within the French Archdeaconry and providing some much needed help to some of the other Chaplaincies that are in vacancy and which are not as well blessed as you are, either with a ministry team or indeed an appointment.