Popular vicars prepare to bid farewell
Reporter: Church round-up by GEOFF WOOD
Date published: 26 August 2008
The vicar of Saddleworth Parish Church will quit St Chad’s to become rector of a union of four parishes in Dunmanway, County Cork.
The Rev Wilhelmina Nesbitt’s last service in Uppermill will be at the beginning of October.
She said: “I will be sorry to leave this area which I have grown to love. I will particularly miss the community events and the scenery around here.”
Miss Nesbitt was born in Belfast and brought up in Northern Ireland.
She did office work before attending Queen’s Theological College, Birmingham.
St Chad’s went without a vicar for more than a year following the death of the Rev Jonathan Tinker, who died at the age of 52 from cancer.
When the Rev Nesbitt arrived in 2004, some 300 well-wishers assembled at the church to welcome her.
ONE of Oldham’s longest serving clergymen, the Rev Howard Gray, is retiring at the end of September.
The Rev Gray (68) has been vicar at St Thomas’s, Moorside, for nearly 35 years.
Born in Bolton, he attended Bolton School and was in the same class as celebrity steeplejack Fred Dibnah.
After National Service, Mr Gray went to Durham Theological College and St Aiden’s Theological College, Birkenhead, to train for the ministry. His first job was as an industrial chaplain at Trafford Park. Later, he was curate at St Clement’s, Urmston, and then moved to St Thomas’s, Moorside.
Mr Gray said: “I have enjoyed my time at St Thomas’s and it will be a wrench to leave.
“I like the landscape of Moorside with its views of the hills. I believe I have made a lot of friends and have been involved with most things in the community.”
Although Mr Gray is retiring from full-time work, he will retain working links with the ministry.
He is moving to Brompton Regis, near Exmoor in Somerset, for a “house for duty” job where he will work two days in a parish and live in a church house.
Canon Cherry Vann has now based herself in Oldham following her appointment as archdeacon of Rochdale. She will be working with clergy in the wider Oldham area and is looking forward to forging new links.
