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AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER FROM THE COOMBERS

The year was 1958; three small boys in a school party from lowland Essex were in the little train chugging from Penrith to Keswick, and as the train rounded a bend caught their first ever sight of mountains,- an unforgettable introduction to The Lakes.

Fast forward to 2005.  lan was one of those small boys; never did he dream that one day Cumbria would become home. Over the past eight years we have stayed regularly in Grasmere, and have grown to love the people and scenery of The Lakes.

Both of us are former teachers (we met across the staffroom whilst teaching children with special needs in Bermuda), and our ministry has always been in southern England; a curacy in Winchester, a rural Team ministry in Essex, a Group ministry on a large estate in Southampton, a suburban parish outside Portsmouth. We’ve been nine years in our present post in Botley, Curdridge and Durley, three villages north-east of Southampton. It’s been an exciting period,- there have been curates to train, the building of a ministry team (including curate, Deacon, Readers and retired clergy), the melding together of three very different parishes, and a five-year stint as Rural Dean. Jill was teaching part-time in a variety of schools until she retired in summer 2003, and has been much-involved in various parish projects, as well as being a member of the Diocesan Parsonages Board for many years.

We have two adult sons. Philip (an Actuary) is married to Helen (a Medical Physicist) - they live in Bristol.  Simon (also an Actuary but not yet fully qualified) married Leanne (a Pensions Administrator) last summer in Botley - they live near Winchester.  They are all very keen on our coming north,- and promise there will be plenty of visits!  They are all fully involved in their own churches. The member of the family you will meet is Jazz, our ten-year-old Siamese cat, who exercises a good degree of control over us all!

We’re very much looking forward to being part of the Team; there seems to be so much involvement in community life, and so many good lay folk involved - signs that the churches are very much alive and well on the Cartmel Peninsula.  “I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come?’  It seems to me that the task of the Team Rector, like any good fell-walker, is to keep his eyes both on the wider horizon, and also firmly on the ground.  May the Lord give us both wisdom and strength for the path ahead.

Please pray for us in our final months in Botley, - it will be hard leaving folk we’ve come to love and know so well. You will certainly be in our prayers, that we may face the challenges of the future together with courage, commitment,- and with laughter, for the church should be full of fun as well as learning and love. God has given us a great opportunity to work together, let’s make the most of it!

 With warmest good wishes,          Ian and Jill Coomber

Rev Ruth Crossley