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NOT FROM THE VICARAGE!

In the weeks that have passed since Steven left, several people have said to me, things like: “How are you enjoying your new job?” or “Why don’t you apply for the post?” Some have assumed that I have “Taken over”……………let me explain what is happening:

I was ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Church in Malawi twenty five years ago – this was on a voluntary basis and I remained as a full time employee of my regular employers who were very supportive of me in my ministry.

When we retired from secular employment in Malawi and came to England to live I was granted “Permission to Officiate” by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Chelmsford. For the first four years I assisted Rev Gay Ellis at the parishes of Abridge and Lambourne together with Stapleford Abbotts and then because of staffing changes in those parishes and because Steven had taken on the duties of Area Dean in addition to his duties as Vicar I was asked if I would like to spend more time in this parish. I said yes and so stopped my trips to the Essex countryside. I enjoyed being able to spend more time working with Steven and getting a little more involved in the life of this parish – then Steven told us he was moving so, from the end of June, we no longer had a Vicar.

I am here – and I advised the PCC that I would be pleased to preside at a majority of Sunday services and that is what I have been doing – we are blessed at St. Peter’s in having an enthusiastic and good team of preachers – so I don’t have a sermon to prepare every week.

I have also agreed to take care of the “Occasional Services” of Weddings and Funerals until such time as we have a new incumbent. I am available to make pastoral visits and to talk to you about other “church matters”. I am not the priest-in-charge – but I am a priest in the parish and am pleased to be able to serve as and where required. In my life, as I think back through it from time to time, reasons for situations in which I find myself become more apparent – after a life in Africa I have wondered what I am doing in Walthamstow – I feel I have further good reason to be here now.

Rev Mike Gibbs

ALL WELCOME!!!!

St Peter's is a lovely, early Victorian Italianate style church building set in a slither of Epping Forest but otherwise in the heart of Walthamstow. It was awarded a Grade II listing in April 2009.

Fire damage in the 1970s led to extensive re-ordering and the inside is a very light and open space with some delightful works of art from 1840 to the present day.

The congregation and preaching team represent an eclectic mix of church traditions.

We have a good musical set-up and use a variety of music. The choir sing an anthem most Sundays.

Children are an active part of the worshipping life and are very welcome at St Peter's.

As a church we try to serve our wider community, not least through the provision of our community centre Peterhouse.

We sometime have services outside in the forest and in a local pub.

We invite you to come and find a warm welcome at St Peter's-in-the-Forest.

Notes on previous Vicars

Father Edward Finch (RIP) - Vicar of St Peter's 1959-1970

June 2009 - Obituary by Revd Chris Elliott, former curate of St Peter's

Edward Finch was born in 1923. When he left school he joined the Royal Navy and served on a converted fishing boat on convoy watch. During his time in the Navy he felt a call to ordination and studied for a degree in Sociology at London University before going to Salisbury Theological College which was still run as a semi-monastic community so wives and families were never allowed near the place, fairly recently married, his wife, Muriel and young child were consigned to a rented house in Dorset.

His title was served in Wealdstone, where former youth club members still remember with gratitude his pantomimes which were subsequently taken on tour to East Grinstead (where he served his second curacy, and to Walthamstow, where he was Vicar of St. Peters-in-the-Forest from 1959 until 1971.

It was here that his ministry took real shape as the redundant Victorian Vicarage, nestling, as was the church, in the southern tip of Epping Forest came to house many activities serving the parish, the deanery and the borough. This was Peterhouse nd was part of the vision that Ted had for the church. The then Medical Officer of Health for the London Borough Waltham Forest spoke glowingly of the Social Responsibility Centre established by Ted and others in Peterhouse as an “Equal partnership between Church and State”. Here were full time staff meeting emergency requests from Social and Mental Health Workers, here were “Learning to Earning” conferences for 6th formers; here were volunteers being trained to help with local clubs for the elderly and disabled; here were Lay Training Courses for members from churches throughout the borough studying the Bible, Church History, Ethics, Care of the Sick and Dying, human relationships and so much more that is now assumed into diocesan courses. And then in the evening, when all these activities died down, the house would hum to the ministrations of the Youth Club, when upwards of a hundred or so would descend to enjoy the coffee bar, the music, the pool table and just relax (and smoke!)

Nor was the parish neglected, compulsory wedding and baptism classes were a regular feature, and baptisms were always conducted in the midst of parish worship – unusual for the 1960’s. Wednesday night was Church Night – once a month Mothers’ Union, once a month the Parish Meeting to which ALL were invited, usually there was no agenda, and anybody could raise any subject whatever, and often the agenda for the PCC, two weeks later, was formulated, and enacted. It was always a lively parish in which all, young and old had a part to play.

Ted, (“the late Vicar” as he was called because he always was rushing from one thing to another, rarely arriving on time), was deeply committed to the Social Gospel, persuaded the parish and the diocese of Chelmsford that a parcel of land close to the church Hall should be turned into sheltered housing. From this parochial seed eventually sprung Springboard Housing Association (Now subsumed into Genesis) which by 2005 had 5000 housing units served over 10,000 people in East London, Essex and Hertfordshire. At the time of his death G
Ted was still Life President – of which he was rightly proud.

In 1971 he was persuaded by Bishop Tiarks to take a residentary canonry at Chelmsford and develop this work across the diocese of Chelmsford. This involved oversight of many “moral welfare” organisations, mother and baby homes, and the like. Many of these regarded themselves as local and independent and resented any hint of diocesan control, so Ted’s skills of listening, bridge building, and negotiation came to the fore, as over the next fifteen years he walked on egg shells but also developed the work of the Department of Mission building teams of folk across the diocese that had specialist skills in social care, evangelism, housing, and (after 1978) fostering links with linked dioceses in Kenya and Trinidad and Tobago.

In 1985 Ted moved sideways. The last recession had deeply affected him and the lack of a realistic response from the Church. With the Interface Association he turned his attention to the restoration of Moulsham Mill close by the Army and Navy Pub on the old A 12. This was a dilapidated water mill belonging to Marriages Flour. It was a landmark locally, and under Ted’s leadership it provided an opportunity for unemployed men and women to gain skills and crafts to improve their job prospects. Today it still runs as a building housing small businesses, retail outlets, charities and community groups.

In the midst of all this Ted took a Masters degree in Sociology. He wrote a thesis on the status of Migrant Workers which led to some work with the United Nations as consultant to two committees, one allocating grants to a variety of welfare projects, the other in responsible tourism, ensuring that profits from tourism went to local communities affected by tourism.

His gospel was a simple one, of care for the downtrodden, of a faith in a Saviour who was himself down trodden and who blazed the trail of new Life as a gift for all.

Ted died, after a short illness in February, and a Service of Thanksgiving for his life was held at Pakenham, Suffolk, on 24th April 2009.
Ted leaves a widow, Muriel and five children, Ruth, Helen, Claire, Peter, and Richard.

END

Revd Frederick Quarrington (RIP) - Perpetual Curate 1852-1854; Vicar of St Peter's 1854-1885

'Mr Quarrington was held in high regard by his parishioners, particularly for his work with the poor and with the gypsies who would camp in the Forest. In 1860, he moved into the parishes first vicarage.' (From 'The First One Hundred and Fifty Years' booklet.)  It is worth noting that Rodney "Gypsy" Smith, the famous evangelist, was born in St Peter's parish in 1860 at the spot marked by Gypsy Smith Stone in Epping Forest (see http://www.biblebelievers.com/gypsy_smith/01.html). END

Revd Tullie Cornthwaite (RIP) - Perpetual Curate 1844-1852

Extracts from Vestry House Museum Archives (courtesy of Dabid Boote).

Rev Tullie Cornthwaite

- anonymous undated handwritten pages in a ‘biographies’ folder VHM
From ‘William Cotton Oswell’ 1900 vol.II 152
Cousin to WCO’s wife – who was a Miss Agnes Rwaz[?]. In a letter dated Dec. 10, 1878 WCO writes
“Cousin Tullie is, I fear, dying ... Perchance I may be allowed to see the dear old man once more ... I should be very sorry ... if the dear old gentleman were to die before I could get to him.”
Two days later WCO writes :-
“Tullie is dead – the very best educated man I ever met in my life, & one of the most generous, hospitable, & modest”.
“Tullie Cornthwaite was a naturalist, theologian, artist, geologist, archaeologist, philologist, a learned collector of books, shells, butterflies, minerals, coins, a master of six languages besides his own, & with all this as eager to receive information as he was to give it. Living in a delightful rambling old house – The Forest, Walthamstow – for the benefit, apparently, of the countless friends who flocked round him, he [illegible word] himself of his wealth to do good all[?] any with both hands – here a loan, there a gift, here a church built, there a young man sent travelling or to college, a sick person to the seaside or abroad. Throughout the summer he give a series of lavish entertainments to nurses, hospital patients, poor children. Always a student, never a man of action, it is not to be wondered at that his views on certain subjects were diametrically opposed to those of William Oswell. This was notably the case on that of the education of boys, he holding strongly that private & home tuition was the better plan, Oswell as strongly advocating the boarding-school system, though fully recognising & admitting its defects. Neither succeeded in moving the other from his position, but when Oswell was about to send his eldest boy to school, W Cornthwaite, who was his godfather, with graceful touching generosity, begged to be allowed to make himself responsible for his education on the lines laid down by his father. Needless to add, the offer was declined.” END