Dear Parishioners
It hardly seems possible that eight and a half years ago I arrived in the parish and yet here I am all packed up and ready to move again and this time to Yorkshire where I was born and grew up. Arriving just into County Durham forty five years ago, it was not entirely strange as my father was born and grew up within a mining family in Coundon Grange – which was also to be the place of my Curacy when I was ordained in 1994.
It has been a very real privilege to serve Great Aycliffe as the Rector and to share in the lives of many people in those years. The contact with every school who have also all visited St Clare’s Church for various occasions has enabled me to meet very many children and young people – I love the ‘Hello Revd Linda’ that greets me around the town from them.
Sharing in the events of your lives has been joyful through the Services of marriage and Blessing of marriages: it has been thankful through the very many Baptisms Services I have conducted: it has been moving to share in the times of sorrow that many of you have experienced over the years as we also tried to give thanks for what has been and in the hope of what will be.
It has been a privilege to be involved in the development of the new War Memorial which although not what everyone looked for, is fulfilling its purpose through the visits and the gatherings on Remembrance Sunday which I have also been privileged to share and develop with you. When we remember that we have members of the Armed Forces serving in places of conflict, then the words of that Memorial must surely help us to focus on what is needed for the future: the Memorial stands as a focus for people of all faiths and people of no faith. I am also proud of have walked alongside the British Legion on many occasions as We Remember the fallen.
It has been challenging to be Rector of the parish because I’ve ruffled a few feathers too and felt the consequential heat! But truth is more important than popularity, service more important than benefit, reality more important than hypothesis: development of ministry is costly too but the benefits are without measure.
I leave at a time of hope for the parish, with the coming of Hitachi which we hope will provide jobs and apprenticeships, will bring in new supporting businesses and have an impact on what we offer to those who come to us. That is hope and I shall pray for that hope to be realised in a new shape for the future.
Thankyou for the many good wishes and thanks I have received from folks in the town and village – that has been encouraging and heart warming both now and through the years.
I look forward to this new chapter in our lives – retirement and time with husband Norman, studying, gardening and travelling – and yes, looking after our grandchildren! Alleluia!
Revd Linda Potter
