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Dear
Friends,
Another year, another fresh start ? Or is New Year
just a small celebration that you have survived Christmas,
before starting on the long grind towards better weather
?!
You will probably have heard by now that I am moving in
March - my last service will be at Elstead on 28th
February at 10am, and my licensing at Urchfont, Wiltshire,
will be on Wednesday 14th April. Having
just acquired solar heating (to do our bit for the environment)
and two new cats (because we can't be without a cat
for too long), we were not thinking of moving, but this
job more or less `sat up and hit us` and I shall
be going to do something rather different - running a Team
in a group of country parishes and managing the expansion
of that group.
The Team is called Redhorn, after a hill in one of the parishes
on the north edge of Salisbury Plain, and I shall initially
have five parishes, later eight; there will also be two
schools (and later four). Part of me is still wondering
what I am letting myself in for, but it has all seemed so
`right` up to now that I am sure I shall be given
grace to accomplish whatever it is that God wants me to
do there.
Leaving Elstead and Thursley , on the other hand, will be
difficult. We shall have been here eighteen years
- the longest Liz has ever lived anywhere, and almost the
longest that I have (just beaten by my first nineteen years,
growing up in Guildford, but then I scarcely remember the
beginning of that...). It will also be my first (and
last !) job away from Guildford diocese, so everything will
be new. So far, everyone there seems very friendly.
We shall miss an awful lot of people here, having really
got to know you, and leave many friends behind. But
then, the real friends we shall continue to see, I'm
sure; you might need to come and see us, though, as I am
not supposed to return for at least a couple of years.
People keep asking who my successor is going to be, but
I have to say that the process of choosing one has yet to
begin and will not be complete until after I have gone,
so please be patient. What I can say is that there
will be someone as incumbent of Elstead and Thursley - there
will be no dividing or amalgamating of parishes here.
So, as you can imagine, this will be a New Year like no
other before it as far as we are concerned: new (and different)
job, new house, new diocese, new friends (hopefully).
All of which is good, and we look forward to it, but the
wrench of actually leaving you all will be real, painful
and prolonged (because it has to some extent already started).
Please pray for us in the next three months, and for the
choosing of my successor.
Happy New Year ! William
Lang.
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