The Dean of Chelmsford, the Very Revd Nicholas Henshall, has announced that he is moving to be Parish Priest of St Thomas the Apostle, New Groombridge in the Diocese of Chichester. The Dean has written this letter about his move.
I failed to notice it at the time, but the Dean of Newcastle, the Very Revd Geoff Miller, announced his retirement some time ago, and his farewell service was last Sunday.
Groombridge is a striking instance of the silliness of boundaries. Old Groombridge lies in Kent; the church of St John (constructed as a thank-offering for the failure of the abortive ‘Spanish match’ in 1623) lies in Kent and Rochester diocese, and was a chapelry of Speldhurst. New Groombridge, which grew largely as a function of Groombridge Junction not being capable of being constructed on the more precipitous Kent side of the county boundary, lies in East Sussex; the church of St Thomas (by Norman Shaw) is in Chichester diocese and was carved out of Withyham first as a mission room,… Read more »
Here in Suffolk we have an ecclesiastical parish, Bures, that straddles the county boundary between Suffolk and Essex. It comprises two civil parishes on either side of the River Stour (the county boundary): Bures St Mary in Suffolk (where, as the name implies, the parish church is located), and Bures Hamlet in Essex. The ecclesiastical parish is in the diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, giving it (while mostly in Suffolk) a foothold in Essex – perhaps to balance, when the diocese was created in 1914, the retention by the diocese of Norwich of Lowestoft in the north-east of the… Read more »
Many thanks indeed. I know Bures and attended services there and at St Stephen’s chapel 7 years’ ago (the parish, and the Waldegraves of Bures, were in part the subject of Diarmaid MacCulloch’s doctoral thesis: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/suffolk-and-the-tudors-9780198229148?sortField=7&lang=en&cc=bh; he, of course, is from Wetherden). Great Yarmouth, Thetford St Mary and Rushford also had an ambiguous relationship with Suffolk, being partly in and out of Norfolk, although they were of course in the same diocese until 1837 (St Mary the Less Thetford is being turned into residential units after a long period of disuse and neglect). I am glad you have mentioned Eds… Read more »
It is interesting that Dean Henshall mentions how much time he has spent outside the Cathedral. This has been a feature of his ministry. Before Covid, he or one of the Residentiary Canons would frequently be leading worship or preaching on a Sunday elsewhere in the Diocese. He seems to have grasped that in contrast to many parishes the Cathedral was generously staffed and it was right to help out where possible. Christ Church, Oxford (and the Sub Deanery) , Gloucester (and the Sub Deanery when the Sub Dean moves to Norwich), Carlisle, Newcastle, Durham and Truro are currently vacant.… Read more »
It would be good to see some BAME appointments to these vacancies.
No, it would be good to see someone appointed who was qualified to do the job.
Well said!
Simon, can I support your first paragraph. Down here in a rural benefice close to Salisbury, when our much appreciated but very overworked rector disappears on holiday, it is not unusual for a cathedral canon to turn up in his place to lead a service.
That sense of “we are all part of one team” is much appreciated by our congregation.
Any news on whether the cathedral visitation planned for this month, then delayed until January, will still be happening? Surely an odd time for a dean to discover a heart for parish ministry, but the spirit moves in mysterious ways…
I know it’s probably odd for the subject of a comment to respond themselves, but the visitation was initiated by the Dean and Chapter in a request to the Bishop as Visitor on 18 March 2022 and is completely unrelated to my move to Chichester. At Chelmsford Cathedral over the last nine years the Chapter has sought maximum transparency through external scrutiny, through a visitation six years ago to a peer review in autumn 2019 to the SCIE audit in 2019. The present invitation by Chapter to the Bishop to initiate a visitation of the cathedral was originally spurred by… Read more »
I don’t know Chelmsford Cathedral at all, so there may be particular local issues of which I am unaware, but I am curious as to why a second visitation in such a short space of time is thought to be necessary. The desire for transparency is laudable, but visitations usually take place when something has gone awry. Do the Dean and Chapter of Chelmsford think the usual processes of accountability inadequate?
Glad to see the Dean of Newcastle getting a mention. Sadly Overlooked for episcopacy, well loved in the diocese!
No news on interim Dean only that it’s not ‘an internal candidate’ so I wonder what’s gone on with the Canons there.