Heathfield, Punnetts Town, Broad Oak & Cross In Hand

CROSS IN HAND WI: Members at our November meeting were treated to a warming lunch prepared and served by members of the committee. This was then followed by our AGM at which we said thank you to our outgoing treasurer and secretary, Jean Graffham and Margaret Dove, and welcomed into their new roles Marilyn Grout and Dawn Brock. Anita Jobling was re-elected as our president for her second year of office. With our newly formed committee, business moved swiftly on to the organizing of our Christmas celebrations. Our speaker for the Christmas meeting will be Mr P Lewis with a talk entitled Memoirs of a Composer. Mr Lewis has written music for a number of TV programmes and promises to entertain us with a selection of music old and new. Then for the important bit, food and drink. We would love to welcome any prospective new members or visitors to our celebrations so why not come along and share a glass of bubbly and a mince pie with us. We shall look forward to seeing you. The Christmas meeting will be held on Wednesday December 7 at 2pm in the Cross-in-Hand Village Hall.

ALL SAINTS CHURCH: Old Heathfield. Sunday, 8am Holy Communion (BCP), 11am Morning Worship. All welcome for coffee after this service. St George’s Broad Oak, 9.30am am Holy Communion http://allsaintsoldheathfield.org

NEW VICAR: The churchwardens of the Benefice of Heathfield were delighted to announce in their churches that the Bishop of Chichester has appointed the Rev Christian Mitchell to be Vicar of the Benefice of Heathfield. Christian, who is better known as Mitch, is currently Curate at Holy Cross Uckfield. He and his family will be coming to lead the three churches, All Saints, Old Heathfield; St George’s, Broad Oak and St Richard’s, Heathfield in August or September 2017. For some time the Diocese of Chichester had been considering the bringing together of the Parish of Old Heathfield and the Parish of Heathfield under the one name of the Benefice of Heathfield. This move simply means a coming together under one name of the two parishes which include All Saints’ Church, Old Heathfield; St George’s Church, Broad Oak and St Richard’s Church, Heathfield. With the formation of this new Benefice there have been some changes of parish boundaries and these have reflected the more natural flow of where people live. With the retirement of Rev Malcolm Jones from St Richard’s in October 2015 and the move of the Rev David Guest to South East London in February 2016, the new proposals were introduced. These proposals also meant that when a new incumbent is appointed, that person will work across the whole Benefice of Heathfield to become the Vicar of Heathfield. Over the past few years, the three churches have seen themselves working together on various projects and programmes. The Rev Christian Mitchell said of his appointment to the churchwardens, ‘I am absolutely delighted to have been appointed as your new vicar in the Heathfield Benefice and am very much looking forward to joining you at the end of my curacy in Uckfield towards the end of the summer next year. I will be coming to Heathfield with my wife Vicky and two sons, Hugh and Charlie who will be 15 and 10 respectively when we arrive. Vicky works in Hartfield as a Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor for a small firm of Land Agents; Hugh is at school in Ardingly, while Charlie will continue at his current school in Uckfield until the end of Year 6. I am hugely excited about coming to Heathfield and am very much looking forward to joining you at what is a very exciting time with the newly-formed Benefice’.

When members and worshippers were informed of this appointment on Sunday November 27, the news was greeted with either applause or warm comments across all four services. Keith Warner, one of the churchwardens concluded his announcement with the words, ‘and together we thank God for his provision for which we have been praying’.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage at www.sussexexpress.co.uk/

2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Sussex-Express/

3) Follow us on Twitter @sussex_express

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

The Sussex Express - always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.