Visit of Bishop Stephen - 23 September 2007

Church at The White House School is now a Conventional District Church We are very grateful for the visit of Right Rev Stephen Cottrell Bishop of Reading to inaugurate us as a Conventional District Church on September 23rd 2007. He was grateful for the efforts we have made in establishing Church at the White House School, as well as for the support of St Paul’s Parish and its Incumbent, Rev. John Connell, in our formation. He spoke of his great support for initiatives such as ours and spoke of his desire to see more churches of our kind. He celebrated with us the fact that he woke up overseeing 260 churches in his diocese, and was returning home with 261! On 23rd September we were legally established to operate with our own PCC within the Diocese of Oxford with Deanery Synod representation in Sonning.

Thank you We are grateful for all the support we have received and the warm welcome onto the Deanery. We are grateful for the work of Diocesan Registrar, John Rees in his legal advice, Mrs Barbara Bench, Deputy Mayor in her support, Ralph Higson, chair of governors at the White House School and the Wokingham Times for reporting this day for us. Most of all we are grateful to our God of Grace who has established us and brought us this far. We looked back with gratitude to the way God has strengthened us to become an established church, despite some opposition, and we look forward to what God has in store for us as we seek to build his kingdom under the authority of his Word and by the power of his Spirit.
Licensing To that end the Bishop licensed Rev Piers Bickersteth as incumbent of Church at the White House School with power of appointment and Rev John Parker as Minister of the Church, both of whom are committed to passing on the teaching of Christ as revealed in the scriptures. To that end we continue to pray that God will lead us by his all powerful Spirit into growth in numbers and maturity in the faith. Rev John Parker