At a meeting of Portsmouth Diocese Bishop’s Council last Tuesday a bold and important decision was made to recognise the needs of one of our church communities and to appoint a Church Army Evangelist rather than a traditional parish priest.

Falling partly within the parish of Sarisbury Green and partly within the parish of Titchfiled the new development of Whiteley is a distinct community that is different to the surrounding areas.At present Whiteley has over 6,000 residents with an average age of approx 36 (79% of the population is under 44). It also has a substantial business park with offices of Zurich, NATS and ITV Meridian. As part of the South East Development plan a further 3,000 homes are planned along with two primary schools and a secondary school.

A Church Army Evangelist is someone whose primary gifts are in evangelism, church planting and establishing strong foundations in new church communities. Often they work in difficult and deprived areas but they also work in areas of new housing development like Whiteley. The Church Army Evangelist will be appointed for a period of five years and would have ‘one foot’ within the existing church community supporting, training and encouraging them in mission and the ‘other foot’ in the local community finding and establishing new ways of connecting with that community and possibly establishing new expressions of church there. As the average age in Whiteley is about 36 they will predominately be working with families with young children and with young professionals.

This all sounds great – but there is a catch! Although a Church Army Evangelist is a licenced minister within the Church of England they are not ordained Priests. So they cannot celebrate communion or conduct weddings & they cannot legally be the ‘priest’ or ‘curate’ in Charge of Whiteley.

Therefore to make this happen Whiteley Church needs the support of someone from another parish. As the Deanery Plan has always linked Whiteley with Sarisbury it was natural for me to be approached to support Whiteley in this way.

So the plan is this:

1. A Church Army Evangelist would be appointed and licensed to Whiteley Church in a full time capacity for five years
2. I would be licensed as the ‘priest’ or ‘curate’ in charge of Whiteley
3. The Church Army Evangelist would also be licensed to St Paul’s with the remit of supporting our ministry in this church alongside their ministry in Whiteley.

This is an exciting and bold decision from our Bishop. I believe that for too long our churches have been led by Pastor/Teachers and we desperately need new leadership from the other three parts of the fivefold ministry Paul talks about in Ephesians – Apostles, Prophets and Evangelists.

I look forward to getting to know the community in Whiteley (both the church and wider community) and seeing what God has in store. I also look forward to working with and learning from someone with evangelistic gifts and skills and seeing how they approach ministry and can help St Paul’s with our mission in Sarisbury Green.

Exciting times ahead.