Vicar arrives on a wing and a prayer

WARM welcome . . . the Rev John Rosedale, right, is inducted into St Thomas’s Church by the Bishop of Middleton, the Rt Rev Mark Davies, centre, and Saddleworth Team Rector Christopher Halliday, left

A FORMER RAF engineer is flying high after receiving a warm welcome as the new vicar of Delph.

Rev John Rosedale was inducted into St Thomas’s Church, Friarmere, by the Bishop of Middleton, the Rt Rev Mark Davies, during a licensing and commissioning service.

The church has been without a vicar for 18 months and Rev Rosedale took his first service at the weekend.

The 55-year-old, who is married and has three sons, has had a varied career before becoming a vicar.

Originally from Hertfordshire, he was a ground communication engineer in the RAF for 21 years before working for Derbyshire Social Services with adults with learning difficulties for 15 years.

He said: “I have been a Christian since I was 16 and it’s always been there right through my career in the Air Force. I was looking for work in Glossop while working for social services and looked at my calling and what I should be doing and it led me on the path to ordination.”

He trained on a Northern Ordination Course in Manchester and then spent more than four years at St Andrew’s Church, Hadfield. He added: “It was the people that attracted me to Delph.

“I saw an advert and applied for the job.

“I came and had a look around and everywhere I went in the village everyone said hello as we walked around the streets.

“We were strangers but they still said hello. It was the warmth of the people and the welcome and it’s a beautiful area to live in.”