The Revd Oliver Learmont
Assistant Curate
The Revd Steve Wood
Assistant Curate
Church should be inspiring
To be a Christian is to follow a calling to be a disciple of Jesus. He taught us to do something which is both simple to understand and hard to do- to love God and the people around us as much as ourselves.
Jesus taught us that if we live in this way we are fully alive. So in church we bring our thoughts, feelings and our prayers to God and we think about our life and the life of the world. We join other Christians here to pray for strength to live a life based on love rather than on selfishness.
The Revd Michael Roden
Team Rector of Hitchin & Vicar of St Mary’s Church
After school, I worked in a hostel for recovering alcoholics in Handsworth, and went on to run a homeless hostel in Chelsea. The suffering I saw in peoples lives, damaged by addiction, helped kindle a sense of vocation. I went off to Ripon College Cuddesdon to study theology.
I started as a curate in inner city Lambeth followed by suburban Wandsworth. After a time in Oxford as chaplain to Wadham College and assistant priest at the University Church, I was made Rector of the rural parishes of Steeple Aston, North Aston and Tackley. I have been Team Rector of Hitchin since 2002, I am vicar of St Mary’s and I chair the team of Anglican clergy in town.
I love being a priest here. My aim is to make church accessible to all, by providing a mixture of services ranging from the highly informal storyteller service to the beautiful candlelit formality of Choral Evensong. My hunch is that when people come to church they do not want to feel ‘got at’ but want to feel free to join in the prayers at their own level. A gradual feeling of belonging to a positive community often means that people are set free to do good things with their lives.
This is of course a tough challenge- the toughest there is and often we fall short. That is why we tip up in church each week to be inspired and gather strength to try again. The service, the music and the company are there to inspire us to do our best with our lives. The most wonderful thing on earth is when somebody does something really good for some one else for no selfish reason.
If you feel that this may be what you are looking for in your life, you are welcome to join us at one of our services here. Our main service is on Sundays at 9.35am
Michael Roden
Vicar