Dear Friends at St Andrews and St Ignatius,

It was with great excitement that I received the request from Bishop Harold, the chairman of the Board of Nomination, to serve as your rector in Killaney and Carryduff. Having been approached by your Parochial Nominators a few days before Holy Week and being appointed just eight days after Easter this change has come very quickly so we are still coming to terms with all that it means.

We are not entirely new to Carryduff Parish as my mother and late father were parishioners there following his retirement. Like many of my colleagues in Down and Dromore I have also joined in worship at St Ignatius' at diocesan events. In fact a very close observation of one of the photographs of Bishop Poggo's visit in your April magazine reveals that I was attending a service there on the evening of Mothering Sunday when the work of CMSI in South Sudan was being celebrated. The image is only a few millimetres tall, unlike myself! For many years I have been interested in the southern dioceses of Sudan and had the privilege of visiting Maridi Diocese and meeting Bishop Justin Badi of Maridi and Bishop Tandema Obed of Olo Aera in 2010. I am hoping to return there - if I can get people to come with me - early next year. I have been ordained for what seems like a long time, having served first as a curate in St Patrick's and St Andrew's, Coleraine, then as rector of Greenisland for ten years, and currently rector (and more recently dean) of Dromore Cathedral for fifteen years. I was raised in a rectory, in fact four rectories, and have lived in one for all my life bar the first five years of my marriage to Vera. Vera is from Co. Fermanagh and grew up in Ballinamallard. She is a teacher of P5 children in Banbridge. We have two grown up children; David who lives in Belfast and Gillian who is married to Craig and lives in Southampton.

The words of Canon Cecil Wilson in his Farewell letter to you were that "God wants you to prepare your hearts and minds to develop a vision that will allow His Will to be done in the parish". My prayer is that together we can discover, develop and put into action such a vision. I hope that God's church family which meets in St Andrew's and St Ignatius' will grow in mutual love and care and faith. I look forward to getting to know you and over the years ahead to become part of your family.

We are thrilled to be coming among you and I consider it a great privilege to be entrusted with pastoral responsibility for you. Please continue to pray for your new rector, as you have been doing, but now with a name - Stephen - to help you pray.

In Christ
Stephen Lowry.