To the Priests and Deacons of the See of Richborough

Peace be with you!

We are now well into this season of grace and of hopeful expectation. As we begin this new Christian Year I pray that we may be watchful and attentive, mindful of the great charge given to those of us ordained to the sacred priesthood, that we are to be “messengers, watchmen and stewards of the Lord. ”

Inevitably, as we look forward to the feasts and fasts of the year ahead we also look back in thanksgiving for the grace and mercy that has sustained and strengthened us as we have lived out our common life and vocation across the Richborough Family and in our parishes, dioceses and communities in the past year. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your fortitude and faithfulness in bringing the grace and light of Jesus Christ to those you serve in his Name.

Looking back across the last nine months since my consecration and ordination as bishop I am thankful beyond measure for your prayerful encouragement, patience and goodwill towards me and for the early opportunities that we have had to be together: the chrism masses, ordinations, regional festivals in Portsmouth and Leicester, pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, IME and first incumbent training, confirmations, parish masses and pastoral visits. Whilst I can’t be with you in person every Sunday (and you will, I know, thank God for that!) we are closely with one another each time we go to the altar. There, time and eternity meet, and we are caught up into the saving mysteries of the One who is, who was, and who is to come.

It is that oneness in Christ, our full communion ‘through him, with him and in him’, that is our foundation, strength, and hope. Please do use the Richborough Cycle of Prayer (See-of-Richborough- Prayer-Cycle-1.pdf) daily to inform our prayer for one another and remember that there is also a monthly opportunity to join, clergy and people, in praying Compline via Zoom. This is at 8:30pm on the first Thursday of each month (except August). The link is https://us05web.zoom.us/j/82530656559?pwd=Y8l6lbidn34pJl0UlNSrZvpFKSb50a.1 Please share this with your faithful through your usual parish newsletters/mass sheets. Thank you.

There is an emerging pattern and rhythm of our life across the See of Richborough which, I pray, will serve us all and equip us in the mission and ministry in which we share.
To help you with some of your own planning for the year ahead I thought it would be good to share some key dates for the diary now as part of establishing that pattern and rhythm by which our life is sanctified and our way directed.

Chrism Masses
I realise that this isn’t seasonal, but I want to strongly encourage each of you to prioritise these in your diaries and to prepare your faithful through teaching to join together with us as we renew our ordination vows and receive the sacred oils for the renewal and sanctification of the people of God in the paschal mysteries. Nearer the time I will circulate the necessary booking link but do ink your regional chrism mass into the personal and parochial diary.

Guildford Cathedral – Saturday 28th March, 12noon 
Chelmsford Cathedral – Monday 30th March, 12noon 
Rochester Cathedral – Tuesday 31st March, 12noon 
St Mary’s, Walsingham – Wednesday 1st April, 12noon

As previously noted, I will be continuing my pattern of regional/diocesan visits across several days. These are important opportunities for us to spend time with one another for pastoral, sacramental and catechetical edification. They are not the only times in which I can visit your parish, but it is a good way of ensuring a sustainable and consistent pattern of ministry across the See.

In arranging these I will liaise with my local representative who can coordinate arrangements directly with you.
If you do have local celebrations or festivals, please be directly in touch with me or the office here. May I note in passing that I am more than happy to offer midweek visits as well as Sunday’s.

On a purely practical note, if I have celebrated the sacrament of confirmation in your parish please ensure that you have made the necessary return to your Diocese. Thank you.

Walsingham Dates
The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is our spiritual home. Many of us are regular pilgrims and priest or deacon associates of the Holy House.

The Shrine publish their pilgrimage and retreat dates on their website The Shrine – The Shrine Of Our Lady Of Walsingham but can I draw your particular attention to the:

Children’s Pilgrimage – 6th – 8th March 2026
Youth Pilgrimage – 3rd – 7th August 2026

Our ministry to children and young people is a priority across the See and wider Church. These pilgrimages are gifts of grace for the nurture and ongoing formation of all who take part. They are also important as times of fellowship and companionship. We all know the importance of joy and laughter as well as stillness and silence in pilgrimage whatever our age.
As you prepare candidates for baptism, confirmation or admission to Holy Communion, incorporate pilgrimage into the programme and bring this new generation to the feet of Our Lady who will point them to her Divine Son.

Richborough Festivals
It was a joy to be together in Portsmouth Cathedral to celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady and then in St Mary de Castro, Leicester, for an October Devotion. Thank you to all who were involved in making the necessary arrangements. From the many conversations that I have had since, I know how encouraging and uplifting these festivals were for us all.

Next year’s venues have not all been finalised yet, but I have set aside:

Saturday 6th June – Corpus Christi Eucharistic Festival, Lincoln
Saturday 18th July for a summer festival (location tbc)
Saturday 17th October (location tbc)

Appointments
You will all be aware of the vacancies across the See. Addressing these is a necessarily hidden work but clear pastoral priority. It is about the cure of souls.

Working closely and positively with local archdeacons and bishops it is wonderful to have been able to make several appointments in recent weeks. Please pray for:

Fr Glen Brooks – St Martin’s, Bedford & Chaplain to Bishop of Richborough (licensing 26th January 2026)
Fr Stephen Jullien – The Annunciation, Chislehurst (licensing 28th January 2026) 
Fr Emmanuel Nazir – Holy Cross, Marsh Farm (licensing tbc)

There are also interviews for other vacancies in the diary. Vacancies are advertised on the See of
Richborough website. Please pray for all involved in the discernment and appointment processes and, daily, for an increase of vocations to the Sacred Ministry.

Richborough Office
You will be aware that Fr Glen Brooks has been appointed to serve the parish of St Martin’s, Bedford and to act as my chaplain. I am delighted that he will be re-joining the Richborough Family and will be sharing with me in some of the day-to-day work serving each of you and the parishes who look to me for pastoral and sacramental oversight. I pray that having a chaplain with particular responsibility, amongst other things, for good communication across the See, supporting parishes through vacancy and appointment processes, being an additional pastoral contact for the clergy and churchwardens, and working with me in nurturing and encouraging vocations will be a further strengthening of our life.

From 26th January Fr Glen will be contactable via email on chaplain@seeofrichborough.org.uk When he has a ‘phone number I will share that too.

Claire continues to work part time Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (9.30 am to 2.30 pm) and can be contacted via email on office@seeofrichborough.org.uk or on 07447 103358.

Ongoing formation
Attending to our own ongoing formation as “stewards of the Lord” is essential. It was good recently to share in a programme of IME for Society curates as well as a time of formation with those in their first incumbencies. At those gatherings I underlined to all the imperative of ensuring that each of us regularly receive the ministry of a spiritual director and that we are penitents “that we all may grow into the fullness of Christ and be a living sacrifice acceptable to God.” The health, renewal, and revitalisation of parishes within the Richborough family, and indeed the wider Church of England, depend on lives that are oriented towards God. We are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ the Saviour. It is essential to do this, first, in our personal relationship with the Lord, in our commitment to a daily journey of conversion. The seed of the Church is found in the grace of those who, like the martyrs, offer their lives completely in love and service to Christ.

Fr Westhaver has asked me to bring this timely conference on the sacrament of confession to your attention. Remember the greatness of the charge that we have undertaken, that the whole Church may be built up in unity and in faith: “Formed by the word, they are to call their hearers to repentance and to declare in Christ’s name the absolution and forgiveness of their sins.”

Confession: The Church’s Gift to the World?
Pusey House, Oxford

Wednesday 25th – Thursday 26th February 2026

We hope that this conference will help those who attend to understand better the gift of this sacrament, give ideas and tools to revive the practice of sacramental confession, to consider the importance of addressing the need for forgiveness and reconciliation more generally, and to serve as a training opportunity for those preparing for ordination or preparing to offer this sacrament. For clergy and ordinands, the day could contribute to a training programme on the practice of confession.

The conference will have contributions from Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox speakers. We also hope that the day will give a richer appreciation of the importance and significance of confession in the Church of England and the Anglican tradition. We will consider not only ‘auricular confession’ but also the place of confession in Church of England liturgies. We will hear from those who consider that the incorporation of confession into the liturgy of the Mass does not down-grade or neglect the sacrament of confession, but gives a greater dignity and priority to the gift of reconciliation in the body of Christ. Others will focus on the gift of sacramental confession and the importance for the Church of reviving that practice among us.

Our conference will gather an ecumenical array of speakers from these different traditions to consider some of the pastoral challenges and contemporary issues that are being faced by clergy today in the ministry of hearing confessions, and by the Church and Christians more generally. This will include, among other concerns, how confession relates to the commitment to safeguarding and the protection of the vulnerable, to the inviolability of the seal, and to the wider significance of confession in a culture that preaches tolerance without practicing forgiveness.

We hope that this colloquium will be not only interesting, but also a source for encouragement for ordinands, seminarians, and clergy across different ecclesial traditions. This conference can also serve as a form of formation or education for those preparing to hear confessions, seeking renewal in this ministry, or looking to the hope which the Church offers the world through the gift of renewal and reconciliation.

All are welcome and please check our regularly for more details.
https://www.puseyhouse.org.uk/conferences/confession

Catholic Mission Network
Each Richborough parish stands in the deep and life-giving tradition of the Church in every place and across the ages. With confidence and delight in this we are called to look outwards, playing our full part in the life of the deanery and diocese in which we serve, cultivating a spirit of invitation and evangelisation.

In his recent Apostolic Visit to Turkey, Pope Leo XIV encouraged the faithful there to see with “an evangelical vision” and to cultivate hope, going on to say: “When we look with God’s eyes, we discover that he has chosen the way of littleness, descending into our midst. This is the way of the Lord, to which we are all called to bear witness. The prophets announce God’s promise by speaking of a small shoot that will spring forth (cf. Is 11:1). Jesus praises the little ones who trust in him (cf. Mk 10:13– 16). He teaches that God’s kingdom does not impose itself with displays of power (cf. Lk 17:20–21), but grows like the smallest of all the seeds planted in the earth (cf. Mk 4:31).”

Some of you will be aware of the developing work of the Catholic Mission Network Programme. This is a network that will seek to develop and implement mission initiatives, support clergy and parishes, and contribute to training and resource creation in the field of mission and evangelism, experiencing together our fidelity to the Lord and bringing the Good News to all.

It is very encouraging to see some of the Richborough Family signed up to take part in the Leading Your Church into Growth (LYCiG) conference in Walsingham next February.
Please pray for the fruitful growth of this network and engage fully with the opportunities that will be offered through it, receiving them as a gift to equip us in mission and evangelism as we work together for the renewal and revitalisation of the Church in bringing Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary, to the waiting world.

Thank you
Finally, I am very conscious of the joys and demands that this holy season brings. Thank you for joyfully proclaiming the wondrous news that God is with us. May our voices be joined with those of the angelic choir in heralding the birth of the Prince of Peace who is the Light of the World. May you, your parishes and households know the blessing of his peace and joy this Christmas and, also, find time for rest and refreshment!

With my prayer for a holy and blessed Advent and every blessing,