A new priest-in-charge, the Rev Andrew Gubbins, has been installed to serve the Okeford Benefice in the Blackmore Vale – comprising Child Okeford with Manston, Shillingstone, Okeford Fitzpaine and Hammoon. Parishioners have waited nearly two years since the departure of the Rev Lydia Cook.
The Rev Gubbins is married to the Rev Mary Gubbins, the new vicar of Sturminster Newton. The licensing of the Okeford Benefice’s new part-time minister by the Bishop of Sherborne, the Rt Rev Karen Gorham, and installation by Sherborne Archdeacon the Ven Penny Sayer, took place at a special service with a packed congregation in Holy Rood Church, Shillingstone, on Thursday 29 June.
Andrew will be close to some of his childhood haunts of the 1970s, when he visited relatives near Shaftesbury and in Winterborne Zelston.
Andrew worked in Yorkshire as a civil servant dealing with benefits and employment issues. He says: ‘I am shaped by my parents who, with personal steps of faith, local action and global vision, have never rested on their laurels.’
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