New Team Rector Announced

Message from Glen and Anita June 2022
Dear church family,

We are very excited to be joining you in a few months and ministering the Gospel in Rayleigh. We are now in the process of finishing our season here in ‘sunny’ Rhyl on the north Wales coast. There will be many things we will miss about Wales including the scenery, the beach, the relatively quiet roads, and the hedgehog that has lived in our garden. We will especially miss the people we have built relationships with over the last 7 years both inside and outside of the Church. However, we will not miss the aggressive seagulls and the freezing winter winds! We would really appreciate your prayers during this period of transition:

- For the Rhyl Churches, St Ann’s and St Thomas and the appointment of a new vicar

- For our physical and spiritual vitality in preparation for the new post

- Thanks for those who have served at Rayleigh during the interregnum

We hope to see you in person on 31^st August at the licensing service.

Glen and Anita

Glen's Biographical Background adapted from his profile page on the Parish of Rhyl Website.
I do not come from a Christian background at all. I am half English and half Finnish. My mother was raised in a log cabin by a frozen lake inside the Arctic Circle (allegedly they used to knock a hole in the ice and go swimming). My interests include listening to 1970s country music, eating chocolate chip cookies and playing various sports to a low standard. I became a Christian when I was 19. At university I joined the hockey team and it turned out that the captain was a Christian. As I was studying history my first question was whether Christianity was historically true. To my surprise I found it was. I joined a Bible study group and eventually went along (reluctantly) to church. Sometime late in 1995 I was converted having heard Ephesians 1 preached in power.

Following university I spent time teaching, and working for a doormat company. I then spent six and a half years working for Yeldall Manor, a Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre near Reading. This was definitely a formative experience, and hence I have a passion for Christian counselling. In 2006 I did a church apprenticeship at Christchurch, Virginia Water involving some study, ministry and lots of chair moving. It was there that I met Anita…

Anita comes originally from Hungary where she came to Christ at a Bible camp disguised as an English language school. She has lived in England for over fifteen years and worked in an assortment of cafes and pharmacies. She enjoys cooking, running and cats.

We moved to Rhyl in 2015 from Aldershot where we had been ministering at Holy Trinity Church for the previous three and a half years.

[Editorial note: Glen was announced as the new Team Rector of Rayleigh on April 3rd 2022. This profile is copied from the Parish of Rhyl website where he currently ministers. His licencing date in Rayleigh is Wednesday 31st August 2022]