About Us
The Rev'd Vivienne Starkie
Our Team Associate Minister and Safeguarding and Inclusion Lead
01889 - 271046
I was ordained as deacon in 2017 and appointed as Curate here. I have been ordained as priest in July 2018. I married Ian, and have two grown up daughters and two grandsons. I never imagined when I was 33 that I would be ordained as a minister when I was 63. I was then a Prosecuting Solicitor with the Crown Prosecution Service with two small children. I only began teaching Sunday School to avoid the embarrassment of chasing around church after a toddler!
As the years passed, I increasingly felt I should be doing more. Out of the blue, I decided to take early retirement. Still reeling from this unexpected change of direction, I suddenly realised that God was calling me to ministry and that my professional skills in advocacy, my passion for justice, my concerns for victims of hate crime and domestic violence, were all just preparation for a vocation in ministry. I still resisted: I was just not 'holy' enough!
I decided to take a Pathways Course and finally accepted that God was calling me to ministry. I feel very fortunate to be appointed as a curate in the MId-Trent Benefice, a rural team of 10 churches. Each church is unique with a wide range of services from Book of Common Prayer to café-style. Ever since I embraced my vocation, I've felt a bubble of joy within me.
Mr. Andy Cooper- our Team Lay Reader / Minister
At my age (mid 60's) - it is something of a novelty being the new kid on the block! But that is not to say I am new in the faith - and like everyone who loves the Lord I know I am on a journey and part of God's plan. My family was by tradition Methodist - but by no means active. My brother and I were parceled off to Sunday School - probably to give Mum and Dad a break, and I guess that was where the seeds of the Christian faith were planted in me.
Through a friend in my secondary school years, I joined the Boys' Brigade where I progressed through the ranks to leader/officer. When the BB Company (which was unusually associated with the local Anglian church rather than the more typical Baptist church) folded, I joined the church's youth group where my faith really became challenged and stretched. However it was when working on a programme called Evangelism Explosion that I was confronted with the simple truth that my salvation was through the grace of God and not by my efforts. I had spent a long time in the church and in Christian youth work - yet only at that point coming to a real faith in Christ!
Over the following years I have lived in Burton and Derby, moving down to Handsacre and then Great Haywood in 2005.
A lot has happened along the way - often not noticed at the time - but looking back…… well that's a different matter. Life is like an ocean voyage - sometimes calm and blissful - often stormy and dangerous. It is only looking back that I see the people and events that God has used in His plan to bring me to where I am now. In spite of my own failings, I can also see that the one ever present thread through my life is the love of God
Meanwhile, I'm still in full time work as an engineer in the food & drink industry, dreaming of retirement!! In my "spare" time, I'm involved in local politics and I'm a member of Stafford Morris Men. When I get the chance, I like to get away in our motorhome with our rescue collie cross.
P.C.C. Rep: Mr. Robert Selby: [email protected]
Wardens and Deputy Warden: please see All Saint's Church, Sandon.
Team Lay Chair: Mr. Stuart Hodson: [email protected] 01889 - 505414
Team Minutes Secretary: Mrs. Shirley Hayes: <[email protected]>
Christenings (Baptism): Rev'd Vivienne Starkie: [email protected]
Weddings: Mrs. Elizabeth Jarrett: [email protected]
Funerals: Mrs. Janet Stubbs: [email protected]
Compass Magazine Editor: Rev'd Duncan Leake: [email protected]