New Minister at High Street Methodist Church

The minister at High Street Methodist Church, Rev Peter Barber, will shortly be moving to the North West, to take up a new role as Chairman of the District.
Peter's replacement, Rev Jenny Dyer, has now been appointed and we look forward to welcoming Jenny and husband Nigel to Harpenden when they move here in August 08.

Jenny grew up in an Air Force family, and then spent her secondary school years in Aberystwyth. Before university, she spent a year in Germany, on a voluntary service scheme run by the MAYC, and it was during this time that she came to faith.

She obtained a law degree from Cambridge and worked for some years as a solicitor, specialising in charity foundations.

Following her call to the ministry, she trained in service on the ecumenical Northern Ordination Course for three years from 1995, while serving as a probationer minister. She continued her studies and she was also awarded a MTh in Applied Theology, her dissertation being on the early history of baptism.

Jenny's first appointment was in the South Wirral circuit, where she served for six years and since 2001 she has been a minister in the Coventry circuit.
While at Coventry she has also been Free Church chaplain at Warwick University.

When asked about her approach to worship, Jenny said "I aim to make my preaching and leading of worship interesting, helpful, challenging and uplifting."
She sings and plays the guitar and feels music makes an important contribution to worship. She is comfortable with a variety of worship styles, both contemporary and traditional. Jenny has attended Easter People regularly and she enjoys introducing new songs.

She stresses the importance of pastoral work and she has found recently that talkíng to people one-to-one about their faith and where they are ín their spiritual life has become a growing part of her ministry.
She also leads worship in school assemblies and day-care centres.
"I see Christian discipleship as a joumey we make together," says Jenny," both with one another and with Christ, searching together for truth and understanding and seeking the power of the Spirit to help us discern and follow God's will for our lives."

Jermy has put her legal background to good effect by serving on two committees at Connexional level and from September next year she will be serving on the Bible Resource Group under the Faith and Order network.

Jenny's husband Nigel plays organ and keyboard and he is something of an expert with computers - like mending them when they refuse to work! Having taken voluntary redundancy after a career in telecoms, he is studying for a PhD in Biology at Warwick University. He, as well as Jenny, wíll be greatly missed when they leave Coventry. Keeping fít is important to Jenny, mainly through running and cycling and occasionally by climbíng mountains. She also enjoys doing family history research.
Their daughter Naomi and son Jacob will both be at university by the tíme the family arrives in Harpenden. We look forward to meeting them too.

I am sure we all wish Jenny and her family much blessíng and happiness when they join us ín Harpenden. We assure them of a very warm welcome.

John Farrow

This article first appeared in High Street News, Jan 08