The Rev Father John Lee, who is the Clergy Appointment Adviser to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and who lives in the Parish and is also an assistant priest at St. George’s Church, has spoken of his pride at being appointed as a chaplain to the Queen. John accepted the role after receiving a phone call in October saying he had been nominated. He said: "It's a great honour, I'm not really sure I deserve it. "As a priest I am proud to minister to whoever comes along whether it's a king or queen, or someone who is homeless or an asylum seeker. They are all equally as important."
John, 63, is now one of only 36 members of the Queen’s Chaplains. The honorary duties of chaplain to the Queen include preaching once a year at one of the Queen’s Chapel’s and may also include attending garden parties from time to time. He will also be entitled to wear a scarlet cassock and will hold the post until he retires. John will continue to assist Father Martin Harper at St. George’s Church in Brede and continue in his job as Clergy Appointments Adviser while also holding the new honorary title.
Before training for ordination, John served in the Royal Australian Navy as a marine scientist. He also has an MSc and is a member of the Institute of Group Analysis.John was ordained deacon in 1975 and served his title in Swansea, before becoming assistant priest and counsellor at St. Botolph’s, Aldgate with Holy Trinity, Minories from 1978-1984, then Priest in charge of Chiddingstone with Chiddingstone Causeway from 1984-89, and then Rector of the same parish from 1989-98. He was also a teaching fellow at St Bartholomew’s Hospital (London) and worked in the department of Psychological Medicine. He was appointed to his current position at Lambeth Palace in 1998. Married to Sue and with a son and two daughters he enjoys vegetable gardening and cross country running.
Church News
Deanery Pastoral Strategy
A strategy group has been looking at how the Anglican churches in the Rye area can be made to function better in the future, both in terms of financial responsibility and benefit the community. Up to the present time, the Chichester region (under which we come) has always heavily subsidised the cost of the ministry in our area which means that they are currently budgeting for a loss in the current year and have indicated that they will no longer be able to subsidise parishes in the way they have in the past.
The strategy group has therefore proposed a number of changes in the Deanery by reducing full time staffing whilst maintaining the use of ‘house for duty’ posts (where a priest is self-supporting in return for a house and small honorarium). The proposals mean that the full time posts in the Deanery will be reduced from eight to six, and the house for duty posts increased by one.
St. George’s Church in Brede and St. Mary’s in Udimore will be affected by these proposals.
It is proposed that, in the future, we will be in a group which will include Beckely and Peasmarsh, with a full-time priest living in Brede and a ‘house for duty’ priest living at Peasmarsh. The proposals will take some time to implement—we are probably looking at a five year plan – but will benefit everyone in the long term by ensuring that all areas continue to have a parish priest as a focus of the ministry.
Fr. Martin
