A large gathering of 98 people packed All Saints Church, Lydiard Millicent on Thursday (19 March) for the licensing of new part-time vicar, Revd Fran Youings. Members drawn from the local community, congregation and wider Bristol Diocese of the Church of England were on hand to welcome her as the Bishop of Swindon, Rt Revd Neil Warwick, licensed her to the parish.
Fran, who was previously Associate Minister at Grace Church, Bath, becomes All Saints’ first female priest-in-charge. It’s a role she embarked on just a week ahead of the installation of the first woman, Dame Sarah Mullally, as Archbishop of Canterbury.
A strong contingent from Grace Church were present at Thursday’s service to support Fran as she started her new role. Previously, much of Fran’s working life was as a Church Youth Minister. So her choice of Psalm 78 as a Bible reading, stressing a commitment to “tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord”, came as no surprise.
In his sermon, Bishop Neil spoke of the Bible’s “beautiful long story” and Fran’s “calling as a parish priest in this place to help people keep telling the story”. He quoted Fran as saying “The psalmist longs for people to learn from all God has done and pass His wonderful word on to future generations. I believe that to be my call and that sharing the good news of Jesus will be the call of us all as a church family”.
After Bishop Neil completed the “licensing” part of the service, the Archdeacon of Malmesbury, Ven. Christopher Bryan, led Fran to the vicar’s “stall” (seat) and charged her with the responsibilities of leading the parish in worship and service.
Representatives of the church, the parish council and the parish hall then welcomed Fran before the whole church committed itself to serve the parish of Northwest Swindon and Lydiard Millicent together with her.