IMG_0523This is a letter from Corin and Nicky Redsell.  Corin has been the Lordsbridge Team’s curate for the last four years (a curate is an ‘apprentice priest’) and his curacy comes to an end in July.  This letter explains what their plans are next.

Dear Friends

This update starts with an ending and concludes with a beginning: the ending relates to my curacy and the beginning relates to the next step of mine and Nicky’s journey in ministry.

Let’s start with the ending. After four very happy years my term as curate to the Lordsbridge team is coming to an end. This has been a time of great encouragement, experiences and growth for both Nicky and me, and a time we will look back on with great fondness. We have appreciated how much we have been blessed by your kindness, love and friendship during this time.

While the summer marks the conclusions of my term as your curate, we hope to go out with a bang and not a whimper, with a short service and a big party on the evening of 5th July! Nicky and I want this to be a celebration of the team, with everyone from across the parishes coming together to enjoy each others’ company and have fun! More details regarding this will follow from others, but if you would like to help organise the celebration, please contact Mike. Please reserve the date in your diary!

Many people have been kind enough to ask us what we will be doing next. It has been great to know that people have our welfare at heart, both in supportive words and prayer.

This leads us to the beginning, which we hope you will be as happy about as we are! After much reflection we decided that for me my present calling in ministry is to be a minister in secular employment. Alongside this I will serve the Church as a self-supporting minister.

This means that we won’t be going far as I will be a self-supporting minister within the Lordsbridge team once the summer is over. There will be a formal licensing service a little later, once my new role has taken shape. This new role is one that we’re excited about.

In the meantime I need to find a job that will allow me the scope and time to be self-supporting. Your prayers for this are welcomed! In due course we hope to buy a house in the area as we will move out of the curate’s house in Coton in the summer. In the intervening time, we will live in our house in Milton, with you our eyes and ears regarding local properties for sale!

So this letter begins with an ending but ends with a beginning. There is much that God is doing within our team, of which Nicky and I feel called to continue to be a part of, and we look forward to the next steps in our personal and the team’s adventure of faith.

With love

Corin and Nicky