News
CURRENT NEWS ITEMS
GREAT NEWS – TEAM VICAR APPOINTED (Posted 28th January 2025)
Great news – the Reverend Alexandra (Alex) Holmes has been appointed Team Vicar in the Dart & Avon Mission Community, to serve alongside the Team Rector with a special focus on ministry in Buckfastleigh and Dean Prior.
Alex was ordained in 2016 and her ministry to date has been in Somerset, most recently as Vicar of Westbury sub Mendip in the diocese of Bath & Wells.
She will live in Buckfastleigh and will serve in the Dart & Avon Team on a half-time basis. In the other half of her time, Alex plans to continue her work towards a PhD in theology at the University of Exeter. The focus of her research is the fourth mark of mission as received in the churches of the Anglican Communion: transforming unjust structures of society, challenging violence of every kind, and pursuing peace and reconciliation. Alex will move to Buckfastleigh later this spring and, subject to the completion of all legal formalities, she will be licensed by the Bishop of Exeter on the evening of Tuesday, May 6th during a service in St Luke’s, Buckfastleigh, at which all will be welcome.
Please keep Alex in your prayers as she prepares to join us here in the Dart & Avon Team and for this new stage in her life and ministry as a priest.
PROPOSALS FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES (Posted 19th January 2023, latest update 28th January 2025
The Church of England bishops issued proposals for allowing prayers of thanksgiving, dedication and blessing, to take place within normal church services, for same-sex couples in partnerships and marriages, but not allowing churches to hold stand-alone blessing services or to conduct same-sex marriages. These proposals were approved by General Synod in February 2023. Since then the debate has slowly ground its way forward. Further work is to be done before the next General Synod debates in February and July 2025.
In the meantime as churches we are committed to welcoming all, and many of us want to see change to a far more accepting position in the Church of England for gay people generally and for those in a same-sex partnership or marriage.
A helpful video on the current position nationally is here
ARCHIVED NEWS ITEMS
Gina Radford instituted as Team Rector (Posted 5th November 2023)
Gina Radford was instituted as Team Rector in a warm and inspiring service at St Luke’s Church, Buckfastleigh, on 5th November. She is already of course well-known to us in her role as team vicar, and is thoroughly immersed in the work of all our churches. She has in effect been acting team rector for the last two years, but has now officially stepped into that role. She will continue living in South Brent, and will still serve on a half-time basis.
Congratulations to Gina
The Rev’d Professor Gina Radford, Team Vicar (now Team Rector) in our Dart and Avon Mission Community, has been awarded the Canterbury Cross by the Archbishop of Canterbury for her outstanding work providing medical advice for churches and the Church of England’s senior leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic. Gina is a former Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England.
The Dart and Avon Mission Community
This started officially on November 1st 2018, during the incumbency of the Rev Tom Benson, and was inaugurated at a service of Holy Communion on Sunday November 18th 2018 in St Petroc’s Church, South Brent.
The service was followed by a bring-and-share lunch, with people from the different churches mingling together.
