THE congregations of three parishes, Bourne, Tilford and Crondall, gathered at St Thomas-on-The Bourne church on September 25 for the harvest festival and Reverend Canon Karen Hutchinson’s last service in the Bourne parish.

Nearly 300 people attended the service, including the full choir of men, boys and girls with St Thomas’ director of music, Rob Lewis, who had written music specifically for the service.

Karen has been vicar of The Bourne and Tilford for almost five years and before that was vicar of Crondall. She is leaving Farnham to take up the position of Archdeacon of Norwich and Warden of Readers and will be installed at Norwich Cathedral at 3.30pm on Sunday, November 13. All are welcome to attend the service.

Karen read mathematics at Lady Margaret Hall Oxford and in 1989 qualified as a solicitor, and worked in this profession for 10 years. She then trained for ordination at Wycliffe Hall Oxford.

Karen served as a curate in the Diocese of Winchester before moving to the Diocese of Guildford and then to Crondall, and on to The Bourne and Tilford. She has been an elected member of the Church of England General Synod since 2013 and the Guildford Diocesan Adviser for Women’s Ministry for five years.

Karen’s presence in the community will be missed as she has achieved a great deal at The Bourne and Tilford. Her strength of leadership, organisational ability, drive and energy have been outstanding, and her ministry and pastoral work in the parish admired and appreciated.

Among her many achievements within The Bourne was the process of identifying and pursuing the parish vision ‘Radiating God’s love: transforming lives and communities’.

Her interest in and support of children and youth, including outreach work, resulted in many successes including the establishment of the boxing club at Brambleton and activities spreading across the whole parish.

Karen encouraged support for the Farnham Help for Refugees campaign with premises and volunteers, and ‘Messy Church’ for the younger congregation, an ecumenical project jointly run by the Farnham Methodist Church and the Bourne Parish.

Karen has also supported the project to renovate Brambleton Hall, which has recently achieved planning approval.

Karen has a great liking for music and appreciated the choir. She accompanied them on their recent tour to Germany where they sang in Cologne Cathedral. With the support of her husband, Richard, she has led two pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

Richard has also been a central pillar of church life during the last five years and his technological expertise has been invaluable.

The congregations of The Bourne and Tilford are proud of what Karen has achieved and wish her and Richard great happiness and success in Norwich.

Following the church service on Sunday, September 25, a harvest lunch took on a party atmosphere with Grandpa Spells’ jazz band playing in the courtyard and a bouncy castle for the children in the gardens.

Churchwarden Pamela Wagerfield read a very amusing poem that she had written for the occasion and Karen and Richard were presented with gifts from the congregations. One was a beautiful calligraphy, set above a watercolour scene of the countryside with Norwich Cathedral in the distance, by local artist Helen Sale.

For another gift, another local artist Graham Mollart had painted a picture of the back of St Thomas’ church to remind Karen of her walk to work. Karen had a special cake to cut and many thanks and good wishes for her future with Richard in Norwich. It was altogether a wonderful day.