‘It went really well. The Town Church was full, but also there were a lot of people in Derby and from within the Bailiwick who watched the service on the live-stream and then sent messages saying how good it felt to be a part of it, though they couldn’t physically be there. So between those physically present and those present online, it was a wonderful occasion,’ he said.
He was particularly grateful to all those who had helped with the extensive preparations for his installation, as well as the youngsters from across the island who welcomed him as part of the opening of the service.
‘The young people played a really pivotal role at the start of the service, which was great,’ he said. ‘They asked me why I’d come to be Dean and what I plan to do in a liturgical sense as Dean.’
In addition to being installed as the Dean of Guernsey, the following day at noon, the new Dean took the ferry over to St Peter’s Church in Sark to be installed as the island’s first vicar for about 25 years.
‘My predecessor was priest-in-charge, so they haven’t had a vicar for 25 years or so,’ he said. ‘It’s been a packed 24 hours, and it’s been a real time of celebration, which has been great.’
While looking forward to getting stuck into his new pan-island role, unlike his predecessor, the Very Rev. Tim Barker, Mr Trick has not taken on a permanent role as a rector of a Guernsey church.
The logic behind this decision, he explained, was that the move would enable him to have more flexibility to visit different locations around the Bailiwick on Sundays, something he described as being ‘really important’ to him.
‘Tim, necessarily being rector of St Andrew’s, was most commonly found at St Andrew’s. Whereas I’ll have much greater freedom to go around and meet the other churches on Sundays, meet the congregations, worship with them and lead their services when invited.
‘I can go over to Alderney, as I am on 11 October to meet to join with them in worship, and I’ll be coming to Sark on a regular basis as their vicar. So, I’ll be travelling around and across all the islands.’
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