Dear Friends,

At services today I have given the following announcement:

“It is announced today that the Reverend Prebendary Samantha Stayte has been appointed Priest-in-Charge of Cockington and Chelston in the deanery of Torbay. Samantha is presently Rector of the Lyn Valley parishes, based in Lynton on the North Devon coast.

The move will be a return home for Samantha, who grew up in Torquay and received her secondary education at the Torquay Girls’ Grammar School. She earned her undergraduate degree and MPhil in Theology from the University of Oxford and prepared for ordained ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge.

Following university, Samantha taught Religious Studies at schools in Canterbury and Oxford and ministered as a lay school chaplain before responding to a call to priesthood. She served her training curacy in Oxford and moved to her present North Devon benefice in 2017. Last year, Samantha was appointed additionally as Dean of Women in Ministry for the Diocese of Exeter and as an honorary Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral.

Subject to the completion of all legal formalities, the Bishop of Plymouth will license Samantha to her new ministry on a date in July to be announced in due course, during a service at which all will be welcome.

Your prayers are asked for the people of the Lyn Valley parishes, for the parish of Cockington and Chelston and the Torquay West Mission Community, and for Samantha as she prepares for this new stage in her life and work as a priest.”

The notice of a new appointment has to be kept confidential until it is given out in this way in both benefices so I have not been able to talk about it until today. As many of you will know, I have family in Torquay and this is an opportunity I had to take to be closer to them and I am delighted, for that reason, to be able to make this move.

It will, however, be a wrench to leave and I recognise that this will be a shock to many of you, and my leaving will create the anxiety of a vacancy. I want to assure you that before I go I will work with you to get things into the most stable position to go forward with confidence. Once a date is agreed for my licensing there will be a clearer picture for the next three months.

In the meantime, I will value more than ever walking through Holy Week to Easter with you this week with gratitude for all we have shared throughout my ministry here

God bless

Samantha