Karis Pastors’ Lunch

Reporting by Wendy Allyss. Edited by Will Law.

What did we learn from Covid…?

Being together in person is precious.

Having not met for the last few years, we at Karis were stirred to gather the church leaders as a small community doing the work of the gospel.

And, in early June, it was GOOD to be together again!

This is a ministry of relationships and we have some wonderful people involved:

  • Revd Brian Wakelin and Revd Simon Cansdale of Christ Church Winchester

  • Revd Kevin Rogers of The Downs Benefice

  • Revd Dan Wells of Holy Trinity Richmond

  • Jo & Nigel Hemming of Winchester Vineyard (who graciously hosted our event despite an awful flood that wrecked a good third of their building the week before! Hats off.)

The Karis UK team made a strong showing too with nearly every face on our About page showing up! Our biggest honour was having Bishop Zac Niringiye(Karis’ Honorary President and Co-founder) join us too. Bishop Zac is currently an Academic Visitor at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford for most of this year, so we hope to see him more often!

Over a buffet lunch, we shared stories, put a few faces to names and were delighted to welcome Revd Kevin Rogers to this ministry, having taken on the position of leading The Downs Benefice after Revd Jax Machin.

After a brief encouragement from Will Law (UK Champion), Bishop Zac shared.

He spoke powerfully from the heart. At his close, we found ourselves standing, holding hands — a demonstration of our desire to be linked on this journey. Hands together, a sign of the two-way exchange of blessing of this partnership in the gospel.

It was a personal highlight to see our clergy hugging one another, notebooks out, exchanging details, and the many smiles!

The afternoon concluded with the serving of some exceptional Ugandan coffee — freshly ground and tasting every bit as delicious. ☕️🇺🇬

Will Law