It is with a lot of excitement and anticipation that I am looking forward to joining you at St Mary’s as your Curate, and starting the next stage of my journey, from July 2016. I am married to Sophy and we currently live just a stone’s throw away in St Albans: so we will not be travelling far! We already know a little about Redbourn, as Sophy’s brother’s family used to live there and two members of the family still work and study at Redbourn Junior School.

You will probably be wanting to know a bit about who your new curate and his wife might be? I am currently studying part-time at Ripon College Cuddesdon (the same place as your Vicar, so hope that bodes well) and I work 3 days a week at Luton Museum as Collections Care Officer. I’ve been working there since 2007, and before that worked as a professional archaeologist. For fun I like running, reading and singing. I practice daily meditation.  Sophy works as an HR Business Partner at Middlesex University in Hendon.

You may want to know what new gifts or abilities we might bring with us. Between us we have a lot of experience of different aspects of church life: from youth work to singing in the choir, from PCC to social events and pastoral care. However, we are really open to how the work of the Spirit will make use of us at Redbourn as I learn about how to be a deacon and a priest, and how we will both learn about being a ‘vicar’s family’. On paper and in our visits we have been really impressed by the welcome we have received. Redbourn looks like a great place to learn, not just in the array of services but also in its links with the community, and it has amazing potential.  We hope we will be a blessing to each other in the years ahead.

We are looking forward to getting to know you and as we prepare to make the big change in our lives, we hope that you will pray for us as we will be praying for you.

Tim and Sophy

Tim and Sophy will be coming to join us next summer and we look forward to that very much.  Tim will be ordained deacon by the Bishop of St Albans on Sunday 3 July at St Alban’s Abbey Cathedral and we’ll share more details about that and how we might come along to share in that special service.  Please pray for Tim and Sophy in the coming months as we look forward to welcoming them formally.

Will