I am sad to announce that Joanne Rose has decided to step down from her role as our pastoral care co-ordinator. Here you will find a letter from Joanne to the church family, and a vote of thanks from Ben below.
Joanne writes:
Dear Christ Church family,
After much consideration and prayer, I need to let you know, I have made the difficult decision to resign from my position of Pastoral Care Co-ordinator at Christ Church. This has not been an easy decision and for well over a year, I have been feeling God’s promptings and call.
I have decided to step away from my role, partly due to personal family circumstances that need my care and attention. However, God has been leading me for some time to seek and discern the next steps on my journey with Him. This involves my own personal surrender to God for all that He wants to do in me. Recently, God reminded me about the story of Abraham and the step of faith he had to take to give up all that was dear for an unknown land. I hold tightly yet again to the following verses from Proverbs which God gave to me many years ago, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.’
It has been a huge privilege and responsibility to lead the pastoral care support at Christ Church, firstly as a volunteer and then as a staff member. I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you’ to Ben (and many others) for giving me the opportunity to grow and develop the pastoral care support at Christ Church over the past ten years.
Joanne Rose
It has been one of the true highlights of my time as vicar of Christ Church to work with Joanne. She has beautiful pastoral gifts and has been such a support and help to so many of us with her genuine care and compassion, embodying some of the best qualities of our church family, and I will miss her greatly as a colleague. She is showing remarkable courage to step out in faith. Often God calls us to stop or lay things down before our next steps are clear, and I am excited to walk with Joanne and discern what God is calling her to next. And, of course, what God is calling all of us into in a time of change.
It will be a difficult transition for her to lay down a role she’s performed so well for so many years and take her place as a member of our church family without the additional part of being a member of staff. Pastoral care is something for everyone to be involved in, loving and caring for one another, but thanks to Joanne and others we also have a gifted and dedicated pastoral care team who will continue to minister and help us during this transition.
We don’t have a formal end date yet when Joanne will step down, but we will let you all know as soon as we do. Staff changes are a good opportunity to review a role and a ministry, so the PCC will begin discussing straight away how we might fill this important position and what that might look like. Watch this space! If you are not on PCC but feel God is speaking to you about pastoral care and Joanne’s role, please get in touch with me directly so that can be fed into the conversation.
But above all please join me in giving thanks to God for Joanne and the generosity with which she has shared her gifts; and commit her, Martin and Lydia into the Lord’s hands over the coming weeks and months. May they know God’s peace, his guiding hand and above all his presence with them.
Revd Ben Green – Vicar
Go link: go.ccsp.uk/5454