St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Telegraph & Argus, Tue Jan 18, 2000.

New St Luke's vicar has a dream

The new vicar at St Luke's in Eccleshill aims to increase the size of his congregation five-fold.

The Bishop of Bradford, the Right Reverend David Smith, has announced the appointment of the Rev Dr John Hartley. He will be licensed on May 8.

Dr Hartley, 43, is currently priest-in-charge at Hanford, Stoke-on-Trent, where he has been since 1991.

He said St Luke's has a congregation of a similar number to his present congregation, but a parish which is five times the size.

"It is my dream that the congregation will also grow to five times the size," he said.

His role as Faith in the City Officer to the Potteries has also given him experience of working in deprived urban areas similar to Ravenscliffe.

Dr Hartley read maths at Cambridge University and gained a PhD in mathematical logic at Leeds University. He was ordained in London after theological training at Cranmer hall, Durham.

He is married to Shuna, a vet, and they have four children.

A lovely dream ...

You many have seen the article describing John in the Telegraph and Argus, which was taken from a press release by Bradford Diocese.

It's accurate about his biographical details, but there is one small point which has got slightly misrepresented...

but not what he said!

Actually the congregation at Hanford numbers about 40 adults and 10 children on a Sunday. What John said was “St Luke’s has a parish which is five times the size of my present parish, and it is my dream that the congregation will grow to five times the size of my present congregation”.

On the basis that St Luke's has about 70 at the 9.30am and about 40 plus 15 children at the 11.15, John was dreaming of the total rising to 200 adults plus 50 children.

However, John now wonders if maybe God’s hand is in the mistake?

“Should I really be dreaming of a combined congregation of 550 adults and 75 children?” he asks. “Is my vision too small? Should I be thinking as big as the Bradford Telegraph and Argos?”