A vicar who has been serving South Holland for the last 21 years is retiring this week.
Rev Rosamund Seal said her last services in her current position at Holbeach Parish Church last Sunday.
After serving her curracy in Grantham and Stamford she became an associate priest in St Mary and St Nicholas in Spalding before moving to Moulton and Moulton Chapel in 2005 and then on to Holbeach. She’s also held the position of Rural Dean of Elloe East for 12 years and oversaw 18 parishes in the deanery.
Rev Seal said: “As I retire I am not just saying goodbye to Holbeach but am letting go of almost 30 years of ministry and all the accumulated resources.
“I shall miss having a community and church to call my own, I shall miss the excited buzz of having a church full of children for school services raising the roof with their singing. I shall miss the buzz and joyful activity of Flower Festivals and the St Nicholas Fayre – but not the exhausting hard work that goes into them. I shall miss all the many people who have shared their journey of faith with me over the years and who have contributed their time, energy and resources to building up the lie of the church, and to all the many people who have helped me with so many of the projects that I have been involved with over the years.
“I am immensely grateful to those who made my last two services on Sunday July 25 the beautiful services they were – particularly Boris for removing Covid restrictions so that we could sing together for the first time in 18 months – that was certainly the greatest joy! And sing we did, and some of my favourite hymns! I am hugely grateful to Barry Lancaster our organist for gathering a sizable choir together for my final evensong and being joined by so many from the other churches in the deanery for a real celebration of my time here.
“The large number of well-wishers, appreciative comments and gifts have been overwhelming – a beautiful watercolour of the church specially commissioned from Phil Biggs, a local artist, and a hugely generous number of garden tokens from the parish and the deanery – we shall have the most splendid garden in all of Shropshire by the time we have spent all of those – though we will also need a large garden shed as well!”
“I am also immensely grateful to my husband Roger who has supported me and put up with me and coped so well with being the vicar’s husband for the last 26 years.
“I wish the parish well as they seek to appoint a new vicar in the new year, the churchwardens Mick Boylan and Carol Hellen as they hold the fort in the meantime and to deanery colleagues both old and new for their help and support over the years. I am particularly pleased that we have been able to appoint and youth and children’s worker for the deanery – Micki Carey-Slater, whose husband is the new priest in charge of Sutton Bridge – something I have wanted to do for the last eight years but have only recently been in the position to be able to do.
“She started work in June, and will be working in our local schools, supporting the churches in their work with children and young people and recruiting and training volunteers. I am just sorry that I won’t be her to work alongside her.”
