Trainee vicar: Teesdale has taught me so much

A VICAR who served her patch for four years is moving to pastures new.
Curate Claire Gibbs is leaving Evenwood for Redmarshall, near Stockton, after Easter.
The 40-year-old came to Teesdale in 2013 under the wing of Canon Alec Harding, of St Mary's, in Barnard Castle, and took over running Cockfield, Lynesack and Evenwood parishes from Revd Jane Grieve in 2015.
Mrs Gibbs said her goodbye would be a sad occasion when it came but she revealed how she’d learned a lot in her first training post.
She said: “I’ve learned that ministry, if I did not realise
it already, was all about people.
“All the theories in the book are worth nothing if you are not realising or figuring out what God wants to do in this place. It will be hard to say goodbye – but I always knew we would have to.
“I don’t think it will hit me until we have to say goodbye but luckily we’re only 20 minutes down the road.”
Mrs Gibbs’ tenure has overseen many departures and arrivals across her three parishes.
Her four-year curacy ends after Easter and she said it had been a privilege to play a part in people’s lives.
She added: “It’s lovely when you talk people through a funeral and then you’re able to welcome them for a baptism or a wedding. It’s real life with all its ups and downs.
“I will miss the friends I’ve made and the beautiful landscape – where we are going is awfully flat.
“I love Teesdale as it has so many hidden pockets.”
The mother-of-two was also a governor of Cockfield Primary School and helped bless the school’s mining banner. She added: “I have loved seeing kids grow up with children I’ve baptised going on to primary school and kids going from primary to secondary school.”
Parish priests are becoming fewer and farther between nowadays with many parishes merged into “super-parishes” – particularly in rural areas.
Mrs Gibbs added: “The needs of ministry are changing – it’s a bit like how a local policeman used to serve a small area where people expected you to be closely involved.
“Now we are much more spread over a bigger area.
“Part of that is down to necessity but it’s also about recognising that it should not be top down thing – it’s not a question of telling people what to do.”
Mrs Gibbs will hold her leaving service on Sunday, May 7, at St Paul’s Church, in Evenwood, at 10.15am.