Fond farewell to Rev Fliss (From Ledbury Reporter)

Fond farewell to Rev Fliss

11:20am Tuesday 22nd January 2013 in News

LEDBURY is to pay a fond farewell to popular curate, Rev Felicity “Fliss” Iliffe, who will become the new Rector of Highley, Shropshire, next month.

Her replacement, the Rev Tony Hodder, is already working as a curate in the town, and he and his family will move from Hereford to Ledbury.

Mrs IIiffe, aged 55, said: “I’m sad to be leaving, but happy as well. I’ve been made very welcome here during the past three-and-a-half years.

“I do know Highley a bit. It is where I trained. I spent three months in the Highley parish, so it’s a bit like going to friends, not strangers.”

She is married to Richard and the couple have a grown up daughter, Madeleine, and a nine-year-old grandson, Mikah.

Ledbury rector the Rev Paul Dunthorne said: “We are really sad to be losing Fliss, but delighted that she has been appointed and that she and Richard have this new opportunity in ministry.

“Tony’s arrival as the new curate was not connected at all with Fliss’ departure, but it does mean that unusually there won’t be a gap when we do not have a curate.”

Mr Hodder is 56 and married to Kirsty. They have three children: Lauren, aged 17; Emme, nine and Reuben, six.

He said: “Working in Ledbury is wonderful, and there has been a nice welcome from people. My background is in working with young people, and I founded and ran a charity called Close House, to help kids who are not in employment, education or training.

“I am a Pioneer Minister, and I hope to work with families and the community and look at new ways of ‘doing church'.”

Mrs IIiffe’s last Sunday service in town will be at Ledbury Primary School on Sunday, January 27, at 10am.

On the same day there will be a farewell tea in St Katherine’s Hall, at 5pm.