Service of Celebration for the United Benefice

11 November 2007

By John Dowell, Jan Miller, John Gray, Graham Hindley (Churchwardens of St Mary’s and St Anne’s)

On Monday 1 October 2007, our two parishes were legally unified as a United Benefice to be known as “The Benefice of Moseley, St Mary and St Anne”. The service of celebration on Sunday 11 November was led by the Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt Revd David Urquhart assisted by the Archdeacon of Birmingham, the Venerable Hayward Osborne. The Bishop formally presented the Revd Jeremy Dussek as the Vicar of the United Benefice, the Revd Rosemary Donovan as the Associate Vicar, the Revd Dr Peter Hansell as the Assistant Curate, the Revd Prof Frank Berry as an Assistant Priest, and Jonathan Hodgson and Cathie Carey as Licensed Readers. The Revd Joan Griffin and Eric Dwyer already hold the Bishop’s licence with permission to officiate in the Diocese.

The service began at St Mary’s at 6:00 p.m. with the formal licensing of the Ministry Team followed by a procession through the village to St Anne’s for Sung Eucharist at 7:00 p.m. This was the reverse of the procedure adopted for the licensing of Jeremy as Priest-in-Charge of the two parishes on Friday 2 February 2007, which started at St Anne’s and ended at St Mary’s.

On behalf of St Mary’s and St Anne’s, we warmly welcome the Revd Prof Frank Berry as our new Assistant Priest. During the service, the Archdeacon announced that the Revd Joan Griffin would be retiring as Assistant Priest at Easter 2008. We extend our sincere thanks and very best wishes to Joan, and look forward to seeing her at both our churches after her retirement.

A note from Frank Berry

My wife, Gill and I moved to Birmingham in 1977 with our four month old son Matthew. We made our home in Selly Oak and our second son, John was born a few years later. Gill is a bereavement counsellor at St Mary’s Hospice, Matthew is teacher married to Karen and living in King’s Norton where they recently became the parents of Ellen Rose. John is a Town Planner for Sport for England.

I am in full-time employment being Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Open University and Honorary Professor of Chemistry in the University of Birmingham. I was ordained in 1999 and have spent, as a non-stipendiary minister, four years at St Stephen the Martyr, Rednal and four years at St Martin in the Bullring — eight years with interesting people in very different parishes.

I am looking forward to returning to Moseley (returning in the sense that I have good memories of rugby at The Reddings) and it is a privilege to be joining the Ministry Team at an exciting time in the history of the Benefice. I have enjoyed conversations over recent months with Jeremy, Rosemary and your Church Wardens and am mindful of the strong traditions you have built.

I look forward to meeting you all.

Frank

Top of page