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Good evening everyone,

Dear sisters and brothers, dear friends and siblings,

As my ministry as your parish priest draws to an imminent close at midnight, I wanted to write to you all for one last time to say a massive big ‘thank you’.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart ♥️❤️❤️

Thank you to each and every one of you in our parish, which will always be the biggest and best in our Diocese of Nottingham and beyond for your ministry in being the presence of Christ in the world in which we live. He is alive in you - in each and every one you!

My task as parish priest - well, one of them, at least - has been to empower all my parishioners to exercise their Prophetic, Priestly and Kingly Mission, which is proper to them in Baptism. As Archbishop Malcolm rightly puts it, slightly misquoting the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey, ‘We all have a part to play, and we must all be able to play our part.’ It was the Archbishop, when I was his secretary, who taught me the importance of the parish priest bringing out the priesthood of his parishioners, in accordance of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, ‘whether you’re saying Mass or calling bingo.’ That I hope I have done, nothing more, nothing less, because ‘I am for Christ’.

I hope that I have enabled and empowered you to play your part, with as much grace as possible, and you have certainly enabled and empowered me to play my part as your parish priest.

If I have upset or angered you during these last years, I am sincerely sorry. Thank you, from the bottom of me heart, for all you have done for our parish, and for me.

I shall miss you and I will pray for you all. The ‘Grimsby Dock Tower’, as I have christened the wonderful grandfather clock which has been given to me from the overwhelming generosity of the leaving collection, will be a tangible reminder in Derby beyond of my home here in North East Lincolnshire, and I renew my intention to retire here once I have turned seventy-five, if the Good Lord spares me - and you can hold me to it, as I know that you will, I have been blown away by the kind comments, emails, letters, cards and presents which I have received, and which I will treasure from this day forward and ever.

As I said at Mass today, Jesus went about doing good. We are all called to be ‘de-gooders’. Please keep striving to think, act and do as he did - to behave and to live as he lives. This wonderful corner of God’s Kingdom is even more wonderful because of you - because of each and every one of you. Please think about what you would like for you children and your grand children - and please apply that to the children of Gaza and other wartorn parts of the world as well as those living here in this amazing borough, which it had been the privilege of my life to serve as parish priest and mayor’s chaplain.

Never forget that we are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song! Please keep singing it loud and clear, because it is a song worth singing, even, or maybe especially, when we don’t feel like singing it, because it needs to be sung louder than ever! And, in the words of St David, ‘Keep doubt the small things. Be joyful, keep the faith.’

With all my love today and every day,

Your friend,

Andrew xxxxx ... See MoreSee Less

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Here are some snaps of Fr Andrew’s ‘88’ - his eight years and eights months as our parish priest! If you have more, please feel free to add them - he won’t mind and, from midnight, won’t have any say in the matter 🤣😎🤣

Thank you, Fr Andrew, for everything - and goodbye and God bless you and everyone in StRalphs Derby! ... See MoreSee Less

So let us learn how to serve,
and in our lives enthrone him:
each other’s needs to prefer,
for it is Christ we’re serving. ... See MoreSee Less