Methodist ministers go

Last updated 05:37, Friday, 01 August 2008

TWO ministers are retiring from north Cumbria’s Methodist circuit – the Rev Joan Gooding in Carlisle and the Rev John Millard in Wigton.

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Joan Gooding: Served the rural churches around Carlisle

Joan Gooding has served the rural churches around Carlisle since 2002 – she served an extra year after originally planning to fully retire in 2007.

She will be replaced by the Rev Janet Preston, taking up her first appointment as a Methodist minister after training at the Wesley Study Centre in Durham. Janet will be welcomed to Carlisle at a service in Wigton Road Methodist Church on September 1 at 7.30pm.

Mr Millard has preached at Wigton Methodist Church for the past seven years.

He and his wife Maureen are retiring from active ministry but will continue to live in the area.

In 2004 he exchanged his rural Cumbrian parish for a six-week stint as a minister in the US state of Wisconsin.

John will be replaced by the Rev Kim Hurst, who has been a Methodist minister in Pickering, north Yorkshire for eight years.

She will move into the area in August and will be welcomed into the Wigton circuit at a service in Wigton Methodist Church on September 2 at 7.30pm.