We look forward to welcoming Claire Abraham to the parish in July as our new Assistant Curate. During the summer Claire will be settling into the town, getting to know us all, and undertaking some project work for the Diocese before her ordination. Claire will be ordained Deacon on Saturday 11 September after which she will be known as Mother Claire in the parish and will begin her full ministry with us which is part of her period of formation and training for her work as a priest in the Church of England. God willing, Mthr Claire’s ordination as a priest will take place in the summer of 2022.

Originally from Ingatestone, Claire is currently in her final year of training at Cuddesdon Theological College, which is located on a beautiful remote hill in rural Oxfordshire. Prior to beginning ordination training, she worked for 22 years in the City of London/Canary Wharf in financial services; managing Global projects and programmes. This gave her wonderful opportunities for travel to Asia, the US and Europe and lead to a real love for India. In her spare time, when not in a global pandemic, Claire enjoys swimming, running (a recent couch to 5k graduate), reading, photography, countryside picnics and spending time with family and friends. She is also partial to resurrecting her project management background to organise community events as people working together to create community makes her heart sing!

Claire is really looking forward to moving to Westcliff, learning from the Ministry Team and getting to know the new parish at this very exciting time. She hopes to get immersed in church and community life and meet as many people as possible. She is veryexcited by the recent renovation project at Saint Alban’s and the seeding project at Saint Mark’s.

Claire has been married to Russ for 13 years. Russ is a self-employed web developer and a self-confessed geek, who enjoys photography and 3D printing. Russ is originally from the Wirral and is looking forward to exploring the Essex Coast.