Green hill’s far away from city (From Cotswold Journal)
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Green hill’s far away from city
2:00pm Friday 19th October 2012 in News
A GOOD EGG: The Rev Christine Turpin, who has been the curate of 14 churches around the Bredon Hill area for three years, is preparing to make the move to Worcester. Picture taken by David Wood.
A CURATE who has spent the past three years serving no fewer than 14 churches in the Bredon Hill area is about to move to Worcester to take up her first position as a vicar.
The Rev Christine Turpin, who has officially been attached to Bredon with Bredon’s Norton, has been living in Ashton- under-Hill and working with congregations and parishioners all around the hill since July 2009.
The 48-year-old, who hails from the Black Country, worked as a hospital pharmacist for more than 20 years before responding to a calling into the Christian ministry.
She studied at theological college in Cambridge for two years before taking up her post as assistant curate to the Bredon Hill Group of Parishes.
Next month she is moving to Worcester to become vicar of St Wulstan’s Church in Warndon.
Reflecting on her time working around the Bredon Hill villages, she said: “There are four parishes around the hill and I’ve been working in all 14 churches.
“It’s made me quite adaptable so that’s been good but the down side is that you are spread a bit thinly.”
Ms Turpin hopes she has been a “channel” for parishioners, whether it has been in one-toone situations or through leading services in the various churches.
“It has been a joy,” she added.
“It is just a wonderful area. It’s very beautiful.
“Every time I travel round the hill it’s different.” Her final service will be a service of Evensong at St Giles' Church, Bredon, on Sunday at 6pm.
Rev Turpin is already looking forward to beginning her ministry in Warndon on November 26. St Wulstan’s has been without a vicar for more than a year after the Rev Dominic Melville moved on last year.
With between 50 to 60 people in an average Sunday congregation, she said it would be a bigger church than she was used to but it would hopefully allow her be more focused.
“It’s exciting but it will be a challenge as there’s more responsibility as a vicar,” she said.
“There will be fewer congregations to look after, but hopefully that will allow me to get to know a smaller group of people better.
The church in Warndon has a positive feel and it feels like a cared-for community.”
