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The Revd. Philip McAvoy's last service was on 15th August 2010. In his open letter to the church he wrote
I am writing to let you know that after much thought and with much regret I have decided to resign as Vicar of All Saints Weston. I intend in the future to work as a teacher after I have completed a year’s training. I have discussed this with the diocesan senior staff and explained my reasons in full to them.
I should emphasise first of that this decision has nothing to do with the parish of All Saints. Everybody here has been very supportive to us during our time here and we are extremely grateful for the real warmth and love that has been shown to us. This is purely my personal decision and has to do with my own journey and not with anything here. It has been a hard decision to make but I am convinced that it is for the best not just for me but for the parish as well.
I feel that after nearly twenty years my time as a stipendiary parish priest has come to natural end and it is now right to move on to a new stage of my working life. Since I am approaching fifty it is important to make the change now since past that age it will rapidly become increasingly difficult to begin a new career.
This is not down to a crisis or anything of that sort. It’s simply that I feel I have been doing the job for long enough - or perhaps for too long - and as a result I am now not doing the job as well as I should. It would not be good for me or the church for me to continue past my “sell by date” in parish ministry.
For the time being I think it is best for me to take a complete break from ministry but I hope and intend in future to resume ministry in some form perhaps as a school or college chaplain or NSM. At present we intend to live in Hersham and I would like to continue to have permission to officiate in the diocese.
I expect my last Sunday to be in mid August.
With best wishes to you all and thanks for all that you have done.
Yours in Christ
Philip
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