No new vicar yet
The Bishop of Dorchester, the Rt Revd Colin Fletcher, has issued a statement following the appointment panel's failure to appoint a new vicar for Charlbury.
"First of all may I thank everybody who made the interviews on Friday go so well. I thought that there was a lovely atmosphere and wonderful organisation from start to finish and I was very grateful for that.
"However, although we met three excellent priests we concluded, after a great deal of thoughtful and prayerful discussion, that it was not right to invite any of them to become the next Vicar of Charlbury with Shorthampton and Area Dean of Chipping Norton.
"Clearly this was a big disappointment both to them and to us but, as I have stressed to your representatives on several occasions, it is much better not to go ahead with an appointment than to make one that we were not convinced was the right one. As I said after the Eucharist on the day, such appointments, in my experience, do not work out well either for the individual or for the parish concerned
"What will happen now is that we will re-advertise the post in January, with the aim of interviewing sometime just before Easter. This will delay the arrival of your new incumbent by 3-4 months and I am very conscious of the extra burden this will place on all those who do so much in the life of the Church but, having said that, I am sure that we made the right decision on the day and I look forward to being with you again for the next round of interviews.
"Finally, please pray both for the candidates and for all of us on the panels."
Richard Fairhurst · Wed 12 Nov 2014, 14:41 · Link