Grants offer Vicar sad to leave parish
sports help WEALD Rotarians are offer- ing six training grants to peo- ple who have shown talent and dedication in sport. Nominations are being sought for the Active Maid- stone Awards, sponsored by Maidstone Council and local businesses. Nominations can be made
in six categories: Outstanding personal achievement (individual) Rise to the challenge (business, club, organisa- tion, school) Sports personality (indi- vidual) Fair play (individual) Creating healthier com- munities (business, club, or- ganisation, school, individual) Health and sport hall of fame (individual)
All nominations are eligi- ble for one of six training grants sponsored by the Ro- tary Club of the Weald of Kent.
Anyone can make a nomi- nation, with a celebration evening being held at Maid- stone Leisure Centre on Jan- uary 24, 2014 - just log on to
maidstone.gov.uk/residents/ sport-and-leisure.
THE Rev Canon Christopher Morgan-Jones leads his last service in Maidstone on January 5, after 21 years in the town. He is retiring to Whitstable, with wife Kitty, where he hopes to spend more time with family and their twin grandsons, read- ing and relaxing. He will also stand down as chairman of Tovil Parish Council in January. He told Downs Mail: “We hope to move to our new home early in the New Year, but will be spending Christmas at the vicarage in Maidstone, which we will miss very much, along with all the lovely people we have come to know in the area.” Ordained just over 40 years ago, he had his “calling” at the age of 26 after earning a Masters in Business Administration at the University of Chicago, where he met his American wife of 47 years.
Returning to England and to theological college, he was in- vited to the county town by the Bishop of Maidstone to preach at All Saints’ Church in Mill Street, and St Philip’s in Water- loo Street, and to the congrega- tion of Tovil.
Among his most rewarding achievements, he says, has been the creation of the Archbishop Courtenay School, where serv- ices are now taken (Tovil’s St
will need to rely on priests from several local churches to pro- vide cover. I’m afraid things do sometimes move in mysterious ways!”
Rev Christopher Morgan-Jones
Stephen’s Church was demol- ished after being damaged in the storms of 1987) and the £2 million restoration work at All Saints’.
“I’ve been kept very busy here. Unfortunately, there has always been more to do than I have had time to do, and I wish I’d had more help and more en- ergy,” he said.
Although the bishop was made aware of the Reverend’s retirement over three years ago, the three-parish post has still to be advertised.
Canon Morgan-Jones said: “It is unlikely a replacement will be in post until later in the year. In the meantime, the parishes
Reflecting on his time in Maidstone, he said much had changed in the borough. “The area has changed enor- mously; the Lockmeadow de- velopment, as an example, wasn’t here when we came. Un- fortunately, we have also seen a lot of independent shops close and the expansion of national chains. We have also seen more people from other countries liv- ing in the town and 31 nation- alities are now represented at our school in Tovil – something I have found enriching, al- though not everyone will agree with me.”
Speaking in the parish’s com- munity magazine about a suc- cessor, he says: “One of the certainties is that they will be younger than I am and so will have received more up-to-date training than me. They are likely to have gifts, skills and teaching abilities that I lack. It is right to expect new things, new ways.”
Canon Morgan-Jones will ad- dress the combined congrega- tion at a farewell service at 10.30am at All Saints’ Church on January 5.
22 Town
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