Sark welcomes new lay worker

THE Methodist Church's new lay worker in Sark was formally welcomed and commissioned at a special service on Saturday.

Karen Le Mouton (pictured) from Jersey was commissioned at a service led by the Rev. David Hinchcliffe, the Superintendent Minister of the Guernsey Bailiwick Circuit, after having been appointed to the position last month.

During the service there were readings by Sark Seigneur Michael Beaumont on behalf of the island and by the medical officer, Dr Peter Counsell, on behalf of the chapel. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Hinchcliffe.

During the commissioning service, Nellie Le Feuvre gave the formal welcome in the name of Sark Methodist Church.

In addition to regular worshippers at the Sark Methodist Church, members of the Guernsey congregation travelled to the island despite the rough seas which led to the cancellation of a couple of scheduled Sark Shipping services on Friday and Saturday.

The service was followed by a buffet lunch in the adjacent hall, to which all island residents were invited.

Mrs Le Mouton took her first service at the church on Sunday morning and told me later that the welcome given to her by Sark and its residents made the commissioning service a wonderful occasion.

Jersey-born Mrs Le Mouton will be spending five days a week in Sark - she will arrive each Friday and leave on the noon boat on Tuesdays, although she will have a more permanent presence during the school holidays as her part-time employment in Jersey relates to school children with special needs.

She said that she and her husband Steven, who is an accountant, 'thought long and hard' about her applying for the position, which she saw advertised in a church publication - so much so that she put in her application right on the closing date.

'My mother lives with us at our home in St Brelade, so I cannot be here all the time,' she explained.

'I was walking along the beach at St Ouen's Bay when I made the decision as I felt God was speaking to me and also felt this pulling towards Sark,' she added with a smile.

Mrs Le Mouton said that her application for the position was not influenced by any particular yearning to live and work in Sark because she had only visited the island on a few day trips, but she added that one of her first impressions was the 'wonderful sense of community' in the island.

If the comments I heard from people at the Saturday and Sunday services are anything to go by, I have a feeling that Sark will enjoy having Mrs Le Mouton here as much as she clearly enjoyed her welcome.

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I had an email last week from a reader in England asking for details of the Sark Folk Festival, following the tremendously successful inaugural event in 2010.

Fuller details than I have space for are available on the festival website - sarkfolkfestival.com - but I can say that the event will be held on the weekend of 1 to 3 July and those who know more about these things than I do tell me that it's likely to be at least as good as last year's.

One piece of news released only last week by the festival organisers is that James Findlay, the talented BBC Young Folk Artist of the Year 2010, has been booked to perform - just one of almost a dozen acts already on the programme.

Opinion here - and Sark residents watch such points very closely, given that any event here is in their back yards, so to speak - is that the 2010 event was superbly organised and just the sort of thing the island is pleased to host.

* The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.