As John and I join the church family at All Saints, we do so with excitement at the thought of what is to come as we join you on your journey. Our prayer is that we will all grow together in faith and in love as we seek to work together in bringing God's kingdom to this place and to all in our community.

Having come to faith late in life (14th December 1999, to be exact!) I know how important it is to be made welcome into a church and to be loved and nurtured by that community. I believe that church should be a safe place where we can laugh and cry together, where we value each other and our individuality and where the liturgy (whatever it is) should come alive for us and not just be repeated by rote. I am passionate that church is not viewed as a 'Sunday thing' or as something that we only do in a specific building. It is more than that: it is you and I. We are church in our community and as such I want people to see that we are different. Different because we radiate something of God to a world who seems to have forgotten Him and has a different set of values.

As we join you now I pray that you will release me to do what I am called to do - to teach, preach, evangelize, encourage, nurture and to love and get to know not only those of you who come to church but also to reach out to those who don't....yet!                                                                               JM