Call by South Bersted priest for church to reflect wider world

The Rev David Thornley leaves St Mary Magdalene Church on August 31.

His final service will end 16 years there out of 29 years of being a vicar.

His departure comes as the CoE faces serious divisions about issues such as gay priests and women bishops.

The conflict within the church has overshadowed other aspects of its work in recent months.

Mr Thornley said he feared the constant looking inward was taking the church's vision away from its role in the wider community.

"If the church is going to survive, it has to be more interested in what is going on around it. Whatever one's views, you have to ask if the people who are creating these tensions are doing God's work," he explained.

"Or are they allowing themselves to be caught up with an issue that does not need to be one.

"I certainly would not have any problem with women bishops but I certainly understand the feelings of those who find it hard to think of a bishop who is co-habiting with another person of the same sex."

Mr Thornley (65) is preparing to move out of his vicarage in Victoria Drive with his wife, Rosalind, for a new life in Slindon. The couple have five children and seven grandchildren.

He said he had no plans to help out in the parishes around his home.

"You have to know when to let go," he stated.

He may only be going a short distance up the A29 into his retirement but his route to wearing a dog collar took in Kenya, England, Vietnam and the USA.

He went to school in Kenya while his parents lived in Africa. The Mau Mau uprising of the mid-1950s saw him moved to boarding school in England.

He emigrated to America at the age of 18 because his parents were then living in central America.

He was given the right to live in the USA on Thanksgiving Day in November 1961.

He soon found himself signed up for two years of national service. He was drafted into the Army and worked in the regional headquarters in Seoul in South Korea in a senior accounting role.

The two years' experience proved useful when he was discharged and went to work for a finance company. He handled billions of dollars of investments a year when he was about 26.

But he became fed up with the role and joined a family car dealership in Connecticut. He was responsible for ordering 11/120 cars a month for the showrooms.

But he again tired of working all hours for someone else. His religious beliefs from childhood came to the fore and he returned to England in 1975 after 14 years in America to study for the priesthood.

He ended up in the parishes based around Amberley for nine years before the chance arose to move to South Bersted.

His time at St Mary Magdalene has seen the church roll remain stable '“ 160 now against 150 when he arrived.

Congregations at the three Sunday services total about 100 worshippers. But the church was deeply divided in the mid-1990s.

Changes sought by Mr Thornley met with hostility among some worshippers.

The rare occurrence of a consistory court was held there to resolve the matter.

Mr Thornley explained the need for the changes: "Churches exist to take the good news about God to the rest of the world and not just to be there for people to come to worship."

On a happier note, in 2005 the church celebrated 600 years since it was dedicated and consecrated..