Yesterday I had my first meeting with the Archdeacon since becoming one of the church reps for St Luke’s. It was a very promising meeting and the archdeacon said that he wants to have a lively evangelical church community at St Luke’s that will reach out to the people of Somerstown and to students - which would be a good thing. They are planning to follow a similar process to that of appointing an Incumbent - but for a “Priest in Charge”, which means we will have quite a say in the process and the opportunity to interview the prospective vicars. The only real difference will be that a Priest in Charge doesn’t have a permanent position.

The other thing that’s floating around in the process at the moment is that the diocese are planning to replace the vicarage with a new house in a different area of town, as they feel that the current house isn’t suitable for a vicar with a family, because of the neighbourhood and the position of the house as being away from other houses. The next thing that will with this is a PCC meeting with the Archdeacon and someone from the diocesan housing board to discuss the possibilities.

Apart from that meeting, we will also have a meeting in December with representatives from another local church (that is coming up to being without a minister), and representatives from the diocesan ‘Kairos’ process (which is looking at ways the diocese can move forward). At this we will need to present our vision for the future ministry of St Luke’s and various possibilities will be discussed.