Inclusivity is key aim for Town Church’s new priest-in-charge
THE Town Church’s new priest-in-charge hopes to make the island’s landmark church as inclusive as she can.
The Rev. Penny Graysmith will be taking over the role in March, and has ideas to develop the church environment further to be inclusive and accessible for everyone.
‘For me, it’s about building on what is already good here, because there is a lot of good,’ said Mrs Graysmith.
‘We want to create an inclusive church network and make it accessible to everyone regardless of their sex, race, gender or disabilities, because the church hasn’t always made everyone welcome.
‘We want to make a safe space where people can come to sit for a while in the warm and have a hot drink.’
Mrs Graysmith was appointed a parish deacon in the UK in 1989 before women were legally able to be priests.
She went on to become one of the first women in Britain to be ordained as a priest in 1994.
‘The legislation was eventually passed through for women to be priests and so I trained to be a priest which was what I wanted to do since my first training,’ she said.
In 1996 she started full-time working with people in palliative care in hospitals and hospices.
Following her husband’s job – the Rev. Peter Graysmith has been chaplain of Elizabeth College and a mission priest in St Peter Port – Mrs Graysmith moved to the island from Staffordshire in 2017, and has since been working as the chaplain at the prison. She was appointed as one of the island’s vice-deans in 2020.
‘It’s been a very long time since I’ve worked in a parish church but I’ve been a member of the congress here since I moved over and a member of the choir.’
Mrs Graysmith said it was an experience while she was praying which led her to apply for the priest position at the Town Church.
While in charge, she hopes to improve accessibility, continue musical and bell ringing traditions, and to encourage more young people into the choir.
‘I will be the priest-in-charge but it’s not my church, it’s our church,’ she said.
‘It is a real privilege to do this job, it is an honour to lead and take care of the church, and I’m really excited to learn more about it.’
Mrs Graysmith intends to continue singing in the church choir alongside her new role.
