THE CLAN HOMEWOOD
Gary, Vicky and Sarah come to Maidenhead – and to the Thames Valley Circuit – after seven years in what the Chair of District called the “leafy lanes of Kent”. (Sarah, of course, remembers only two of those seven years – the two in which she has been Head of the Homewood household!) In his last appointment Gary had charge of six churches and seven congregations with chapels as much as twenty miles apart. The roads were indeed mostly leafy, but traffic reduced to the speed of the slowest tractor is actually on a par with the M4 for the banishment of peace of mind and punctuality!
Gary trained for the Presbyteral Ministry at S.T.E.T.S. (Southern Theological Education Training Scheme), based at Sarum College in Salisbury, where, throughout the three years of the course, he worked and studied alongside both Anglican and U.R.C. students.
In a much more dim and distant past, Gary worked for the National Health Service in his home town of Brighton, and it was at this time, when he and Vicky attended Patcham Methodist Church, that they penned, produced, directed and starred in the most notorious of their pantomimes (see Crimewatch for details), and also produced shows like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Godspell (in which Gary played God ... for the only time in his life). And, no, you do not ever ask Gary to sing!
Meanwhile Vicky is far the more sensible half of the team. A Welsh-born life-long Methodist, she has variously been a Lay Worker and a Youth Worker for the Methodist Church, and most recently she was Head of Religious Education and Head of Upper School at Kent College, Pembury, one of a number of schools actually owned by the Methodist Church. Vicky is also a Local Preacher, but now, of course, a busy mother, too.
The Head of the Homewood Household, Sarah Carenza Homewood, arrived on 6 September 2008, and Gary had the great joy of baptizing her on her first birthday at Headcorn Methodist Church (Kent), where, in 1887, Gary's grandfather had been baptized. Sarah is currently studying all the episodes of Mr Tumble she can find and is a world-renowned authority on the Australian children's entertainers The Wiggles , most of whose DVDs she has already worn out. (The claim that Daddy has vowed to shoot them all on sight remains unproven.)
And that is a very brief introduction to the gang currently in residence at Priesthaus (which also includes three chickens). Doubtless you will get to know them better soon, and they are most certainly looking forward to getting to know you.
Gary is the pastoral minister for High Street Maidenhead and St Mark's Crescent Churches. |
