Emma's Ordination as Deacon in Durham Cathedral

       Emma with family and church friends                                       Old friends from school

Emma was ordained at the Petertide Service on Sunday 28th June 2009 by the Bishop of Durham, the Rt. Rev. Tom Wright, and is one of twelve appointed to various ministries throughout the Diocese of Durham.

She trained in Theology at Ridley Hall and learned her ministry skills in the school of life and Christian nurture. She will serve as Curate in the rural parishes of Cockfield St. Mary, lynesack St. John and Evenwood St. Paul. In her spare time she plays a good game of Croquet.

     Emma is at the Bishop's Wright hand

Previously Emma has been involved in overseas ministry in Zambia and kept up a steady stream of correspondence which we labelled as Emma's Epistles, which are worth reading through to catch a flavour of one aspect of life in an African culture seen through her eyes.

Emma will of course be missed at St. Gabriel's, but it is the nature of Christian love to give back to the Lord the things we have received from Him in blessing and thereby bring blessing to others. This is our prayer at this time and I close with the words Emma used in her last Zambian Epistle:-

I will leave you with something that I wrote in my diary in March – and I think it is still true today: ' At the beginning of each day I remember how much I need to depend on God's grace, love and strength; and at the end of each day I remember how I have seen God's grace (beyond imagination), love (beyond understanding) and strength (beyond belief), through the people that I been blessed enough to meet .'

May we all come to know God's love as we have never known love before, may we come to experience fellowship as we have never known intimacy before, and may we laugh with love as we have never laughed before. God bless, much love, Emma xxx