Adrian made the following statement at the end of the Morning Gathering on 22 October 2023.

I need to talk to you this morning about my retirement from ministry and therefore from Belvoir Parish.  In a couple of weeks, I will begin my seventh year with you and am probably reaching this point maybe a year earlier than I had intended, but there are reasons for that.

The first two years I was here were fruitful in beginning to shape a new staff team and a next chapter in the life of Belvoir Parish.  The booklets, ‘Belvoir Style’ and ‘Pathways’ were part of that season, when we were trying to understand where we had come from and how that might shape a possible future.  Without any warning the pandemic changed everyone’s agenda for the next few years.  We came out of that season with a desire to re-set, to re-calibrate Belvoir Parish.  The Dinner Table booklet tried to describe the new cultural and theological landscape.

Our parish systems, our volunteer levels, our income, our legal compliance, our traction with this local community have all improved (because of concerted efforts by church officers, staff, and yourselves).  But there are still challenges with finance, reduced numbers on Sundays (although increased on other days), local community connections and mission.  The lack of a youth worker grieves me – we have a youth group that is now growing beyond its infancy and deserves the best support we can provide.  We recognise our young people as full members of this church.

Anyway, what this church needs for the next chapter is the next chapter.  This requires vision; imagined, articulated, and planned.  This then needs to be implemented and fleshed out in real life.  Now, I have no shortage in imagination, but…

When I arrived in 2017, I knew what had gone before and knew that whatever happened next had to grow from that, but Tom passed it on and then let it go.  I once ran two consecutive legs in the Belfast marathon.  The only thing more important than taking the baton is knowing when to pass it on.  There is nothing to be achieved by holding onto the baton when someone else has been training to take it.  What I am trying to express is that I don’t think the best thing I can do is shape a five- or ten-year post-covid plan that someone else has to implement.  I am convinced the best thing I can do at this moment in the life of Belvoir Parish is to make space for that new person, that new start, and that new dream…

I left school in 1975 and, after four years training, became a teacher for five years, then four more years in theological training and then thirty-five years in ordained ministry.  I am pretty well done.  Could I do another three years?   I am sure we would all begin to regret it.   I have been talking with the Bishop for a number of months and he has agreed that retirement will begin on 1 January 2024. 

All of you and Janice and I are called again to step into the unknown.  The main difference is that we and you will be stepping into different unknowns.  Whatever the future holds we all deserve to be cheered on into it.   God put it this way, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow I will work wonders among you.”  (Joshua 3:5)

For God there is always a tomorrow, and today is always the day to prepare for it.  Let’s embrace the challenge of shaping that tomorrow.   My hope is that in our years together we have continued to point the ship in the right direction, but the next stage of the voyage requires new hands on the wheel.  Enough said.  This isn’t the moment to talk about the processes and systems and what happens in the gaps.  Instead let’s pray…