1 October 2011

Two years ago in this parish magazine, I was delighted to introduce Sue Tucker and Wendy Roderick as lay readers for our parishes  -  Sue transferring to our parishes after many years’ service elsewhere, and Wendy being licensed as a lay reader for the first time.  Like with buses, after waiting for a while, two came along at once!  Or to put it more scripturally, Jesus in the gospels liked to send out disciples in pairs (Mark 6.7, Luke 10.1).

 So I’m equally delighted, two years on, to be introducing to you two more lay readers  -  Sally and Christopher Pancheri  -  who are beginning their ministry in our parishes.  Their vocation has arisen from Brent Tor, where they live, but they will be ministering principally in Tavistock and Gulworthy as well as Brent Tor; so they are something of a ‘gift’ from Brent Tor to Tavistock and Gulworthy and indeed the wider church.

Sally Pancheri has lived in Brentor for thirty years.  She is known in her professional career as Sally Wetherbee, but don’t be confused: she is one and the same!  She remembers the welcome of the church at Brentor when she arrived at her first church service, and has always felt indebted to the church and community who supported her after the loss of her first husband, when in her mid-thirties.

 After five years on her own, at Christ Church, Brentor, in 1993, she married Christopher, a family friend whom she met on holiday in Devon, and who had lost his own wife at a young age.  Christopher arrived in Brentor with two young children, Emilia and James, aged 8 and 6, and Sally has had the joy of nurturing them to adulthood.  Emilia is now 27, and a knitted textile designer in London, and James is a self-employed carpenter in Brentor.

 Sally still leads a very busy and varied life, working in sales and marketing for the dairy industry, occasionally teaching food skills, and also having her own business providing accommodation for guests.  She loves being outdoors and living in the country.  She is most happy when walking her dog, Sam, or gardening.

 Sally is very keen to support and help families, having had the experience of being thrown into the deep end of family life at 40.  A few years ago, she started a summer camp for local families, and has seen the fruits of this idea develop as friendships have been strengthened and families have come together for workshops to celebrate the seasons of the Christian calendar.  Sally felt frustrated that she had very limited theological knowledge and felt called to offer herself for training as a reader alongside Christopher.

 Christopher was brought up in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, where he was a chorister in his parish church.  His father was a lay reader, and also a woodcarver, and Christopher spent time in the holidays helping to fit choir stalls, lecterns or screens in church buildings throughout the midlands, so he’s always felt at home in church buildings.

 He married Catherine in 1981 and they lived in Droitwich where they attended St Peter’s church  -  tragically, Catherine died suddenly in 1991.

 For the last 15 years, Christopher worked for Torbay Council as its service manager for design and built heritage.  He accepted voluntary redundancy in April 2010, and now has several architectural projects in progress.  He is passionate about the Arts and Crafts Movement  –  particularly the career of C. F. A. Voysey.

 Christopher has wanted to give something back to the church, after the warmth of the welcome that he and his children received from Christ Church.  He felt a powerful vocation to reader ministry, which has been reinforced by the doors that have opened to him.  Both he and Sally were selected for reader training in May 2009 and gradually discovered what a challenge it was.  They have dutifully chosen different essay topics and remain at pains not to compete.  Christopher is apprehensive about the forthcoming training year, but nevertheless feels a priority to serve.

 I hope that as many parishioners as possible will welcome this gift from Brent Tor  -  both at Exeter Cathedral at 2.30 pm on Saturday 15 October when Sally and Christopher will be licensed (ring the parish office if you’d like a lift there on a coach), and over lunch at 12 for 12.30 pm in the parish centre on Sunday 16 October, when they will have appeared as new readers at worship in Tavistock and Gulworthy for the first time.

 Please pray for them as they take up this ministry, and assure them of your warmest best wishes as they’re licensed.  We hope that their ministry among us will be deeply enjoyable and rewarding; and I pray and long for, and look forward to, the time when Tavistock and Gulworthy return the favour to Brent Tor with a similar gift.

 With my warmest best wishes, Michael