Chris Beaumont is our new Associate Vicar – we welcomed him last night at his Licensing Service which took place at St John's. I am very excited about Chris's arrival and for all he will bring and contribute. His appointment is a key step on our journey; it creates the leadership capacity to continue to develop our Kingdom Culture. It also supports the development of our vision, values, vehicles for mission and discipleship; and in readying us to plant new congregations and churches. Please do pray for Chris and for his family as they ‘land’ with us here at St John's. Read here for a little more about Chris:
'Hi there, we’re The Beaumonts. Chris, Cat, Elise (11), Edward (8) and Nathan (3 months).
We’ve been in Bristol for the last four years, and for the last year Chris has been working
with Jordan Ling who some of you may know as she was part of Holy Trinity here in
Leicester before she was ordained. Cat has until recently been co-chair of governors at
our local primary school. For 14 years or so we lived in Cheltenham, where Chris was a civil servant involved in property, business change, and operational leadership and Cat was a biomedical scientist.
We attended Holy Trinity in Cheltenham, being actively involved in New Wine, and then
were part of a plant/graft/renewal team to St Paul’s in Cheltenham where we saw the
church go from 60 original members to about 150 before we left to train
for ordination.
We’re excited to be joining the St John’s worshipping community as you make the transition into becoming a resourcing church with all the missional opportunities and challenges that brings. We come to learn and to serve, but most of all to
enjoy being part of God’s amazing plan for Leicester and beyond.
Please do come and say hello – we look forward to getting to know you all!'
Meanwhile, and very sadly we say farewell to Chris Szejnmann and Alla Mykhailenko.
On Sunday we said farewell to Chris who has now completed his
Ordinand placement with us and moves to Holy Trinity Leicester, where he will be a Curate. I am enormously thankful for all that Chris has contributed over the last 20 months. The depth of his devotion to God, his passion and vision for the things of God have been an inspiration to me. His drive and missional ambition in developing and leading the Alpha Course and the link with international students in particular has led to significant fruit. Although we will be sad to miss him, we send him out with our blessing confident that God will continue to develop his sense of call and purpose and that God will use him to bear much fruit.
We are also sad to say farewell to Alla, who has been an intern with us since September and who has made her own significant contribution across the life of the church. She has provided support to Dawn in the office, supported much of our media and communications work, working with Mary; and has been part of the team making connections with, sharing the gospel and making disciples of international students. She was also involved in the youth and Presence teams. Alla been offered an exciting new job back in Ukraine and will leave on Sunday 9th June to take up her new position. We are very grateful for her hard work, support, energy and contribution and we send her off with our blessing.
Please do pray for Chris Beaumont, Chris Szejnmann and Alla and their families as they take these next steps.