'Bittersweet' farewell as  Rector of Skegness retires - video Dailymotion

It was a 'bittersweet' farewell for the Rector of Skegness when he retired after eight years in charge of the Group's five churches.

Transcript

00:00The Reverend Richard Holden has taken his final service at St. Matthew's Church in

00:06Skegness before retiring. A large congregation made up of representatives

00:12from the five churches he served gathered to say farewell to him and his

00:17wife Carol. Reverend Richard Holden your final communion service as rector of the

00:26Skegness group of churches how are you feeling? Oh fine it's bittersweet

00:32it's nice to look forward to having a bit of rest and going on to pastures new

00:39if you like because we're moving because we're not allowed to retire in the

00:43parish we serve but it's also sad because you you get to know people and

00:48care for them so for eight years I've been here looking after this

00:52congregation and you get to know them and care for them so moving on is

00:57bittersweet. What would you say your high spot of your period here would be?

01:03Difficult to say we've had a number of different things it was very difficult

01:08during the Covid times but I would say the high spot was rebuilding the church

01:13after after the pandemic because we went down to very small numbers and as you

01:20can see today we were a thriving church with a large and lively congregation

01:26doing lots and lots of different things in the community and serving God and

01:31serving the people of this town. Now you are moving on and you've been

01:37showing us you've even got the mug for retirement haven't you? But what are your

01:42plans? Oh well we want to we've got a house in Filey so we're moving up to

01:48Filey we've got friends coming to visit I'm going on the Bad Gandersheim trip

01:53with the Skegness Twinning and Skegness Twinning is a wonderful organisation so

01:58if you want to go to Germany meet some lovely people

02:01Skegness Twinning is fab. We're going on a holiday to Oxford I've got friends

02:06coming from here to stay with us during the year and then we want to go on a

02:14trip to Canada across Canada on the Rocky Mountain here and then fly from

02:20Vancouver to Hawaii to go and see Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri. So that is

02:26an exciting plan isn't it? Absolutely yeah we've been planning it for a couple

02:33of years so we're looking forward to it. And what about your successor has anyone

02:38been chosen yet? One person's had a look round we're putting together a parish

02:44profile so it's our hope and prayers that the right person for this

02:49parish is looking at it now and thinking would I should I could I? But services

02:54will continue until that time? Services will continue with the retired clergy which we've

02:59got five and I'm very grateful to all of them for stepping into the breach. Well

03:04here's hoping that you and your wife Carol have a wonderful retirement. Thank

03:11you Chris.