The Jubilee weekend was marked at St Mary's by a magnificent tea party, thanks to Ann Wade and her Team, and a Songs of Praise service on the Saturday afternoon. We chose our favourite Hymns and the Choir sang 2 favourite anthems, the Mozart Ave Verum Corpus, and 'I will Sing with the Spirit' by John Rutter, and there were three beautifully read readings interspersed between the musical items. A collection in aid of the New Rooms Project was taken up.
 Many residents opened their gardens over the Jubilee weekend, also in aid of the New Rooms project. Between these events we have raised over a thousand pounds towards the new building!

On SundayJune the 10th we held a Gift Service, a Choral Evensong at which we were delighted to welcome the Dean of Chichester Cathedral the Very Reverend Nicholas Frayling. The Dean preached an excellent and inspiring sermon, and joined us for tea and cakes afterwards. The Gifts and Pledges made at this service, added to our existing activities means that we are half way to our projected target for the Building Project. In the mean time, the submission of plans continues and we hope that we will be able to report progress in that direction soon!

Jubilee Tea in the Church Hall

Jubilee flowers in church

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Dr Martin Clive Warner

On 3 May we learned that the priest who is to take over from Bishop John Hind as 79th Bishop of Chichester will be The Right Reverend Dr Martin Clive Warner. Born in 1958 he studied at St Chad's College, Durham and then prepared for the priesthood at St Stephen's House, Oxford, between 1982 and 1984, being ordained Deacon in 1984 and priest the following year. He served as Curate in Plymouth and then became Team Vicar in Leicester between 1983 and 1992. He was then made Priest Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk, where he stayed until 2002, undertaking this role concurrently with that of caring for a group of parishes in rural Norfolk. During this time Fr Martin became an honorary Canon of Norwich Cathedral. Until he became Bishop of Whitby (a suffragen of York) approximately two years ago, Fr Martin was, from 2003, Canon Residentiary at St Paul's Cathedral. He is expected to be enthroned in Chichester Cathedral later this year.
Fr Stephen