After holding interviews in December, it has now been announced that Laura Hewitt has been appointed as our new vicar. Laura preached her first service on 07 May. Please come along on Sunday mornings at 10.30am to sit in on a service and find out about our wonderful saviour, Jesus. Below is some background about Laura and a letter from her.
Laura grew up in London Colney, near St Albans, but headed north in 1993 to run a Christian B&B. While there she became involved with church leadership, which ultimately resulted in her embracing the call on her life to be ordained in the Anglican church.
After attending Cranmer theological college, Laura was ordained at York Minister (2003) and completed her curacy at St Aidan’s, Hull. During this time, she became involved with New Wine and set up a local network and developed an interest in the healing and prophetic ministries – and has been a trainer and regular speaker for them ever since. Laura became the Vicar of Seamer and East Ayton (2006), where, together with the congregation and Jesus, she turned around a failing church. After this Laura became the Rector of Billingham Team Parish (2014), which comprised five churches and allowed her to work as the pioneer minister.
Laura is now a Regional Director for New Wine, where she headed up a team for an event called ‘Inspire’, a five-day camping conference for over a thousand people. As Laura leaves the north to return home she is excited at all that Jesus has planned for St James and is looking forward to being part of the next phase in the life of the church. In her spare time, Laura enjoys reading, walking and shopping.
Dear all at St James,
I am so delighted that you have agreed to appoint me as your next vicar of St James, New Barnet; I am so excited about getting to know you all and discovering more of what God has in store for us as we journey together. It was also good to meet many of you during the interview process – thank you for making me feel so welcome. You will quickly discover that I have a real heart for mission and discipleship, and believe I am called to be an enabler in the body of Christ. This means that I love helping others to realise their potential and seeing them become all that can for Jesus. I also have a passion to reach out into the community to show others the love of God. I am excited at the prospect of being with you as we seek the Jesus agenda for us, as we serve in the community. I also like a lot of fun, so expect some fun and good times as the family of God.
Anyway, may Jesus bless you all.
See you very soon,
Laura