The Vicar

Welcome to our website. I've been the Vicar here since 2001 coming from a post in Norwich and before that a curacy in Newark-on-Trent. My first full time job was working for British Rail in Nottingham on their international computer network.

I am married to Jacquie (a trained occupational therapist) with three great children (Sam, Rosie and Evie). I run, read plenty and do DIY(especially bricklaying). As a family we are into driftwood and beaches and cycling and art using found objects.

There are two things which have appealed to me about Christ Church since I came. Firstly the people are eager to be actively involved in the life of the church. And secondly there is a real love and emphasis on children and families. The children’s work and indeed a lot of the All Age events are and have been of a really high standard.

Our aim as a Christian community is to be a worshipping, mission-focussed Church. We are called to make our outreach to others our priority - we try to "make the edge the centre". Those at a distance from God, from society, from us are meant to be at the centre of our activities.

We are fully committed to running the Alpha course (an introductory course to the Christian faith developed by Holy Trinity Church in Brompton, London and used around the world) three times a year. And we are developing Clusters to make it easy for those coming through Alpha to integrate easily into our wider life together. Both Alpha and details of Clusters can be found elsewhere on the website.

Over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend each year we do projects in and for the community. We call this our Works Weekend. On the Saturday we freely commit to doing large scale community projects (often painting or gardening, refuse collecting etc.). In the past we have

• painted the whole of the outpatients department of the hospital (2007)
• painted the Library and entrance to Margaret Wix Junior school (2005).

As well as many other smaller projects.

On the Monday we run a FUN DAY at which everything is free.

• free candyfloss, barbecue, tea and cakes
• free bouncy castles, face painting, hair braiding, balloon modelling
• live music, karaoke etc. all free.

It’s great. Hundreds of people come and stay for the afternoon, relaxing in something good freely given with no strings attached.

We also recognise our need for the Holy Spirit to inspire and direct our mission. We are learning what it means for us together to be open to his prompting through inspiring worship, the word of God preached, through the gifts of the Spirit and through prayer and fasting. We are looking for God to be tangibly manifest among us bringing salvation, healing and revelation.

Our calling at Christ Church and my calling too is that we can fully be the people of God and powerfully do the works of the kingdom. That's the journey we're on and which you would be part of if you visit us.

Jeremy Follett