A NEW children and families worker has been appointed to work at St Michael and All Angels, Paulsgrove.

Clare Hudson, who currently worships at All Saints Church – part of Harbour Church, Portsmouth – will take on this new role from September. Her role is part of a five-year strategic plan to revitalise St Michael’s Church, with strategic funding to enhance its buildings and develop its work with young people and families.

Clare is married with two adult sons, and her late father, the Rev Chris Finch, was vicar at Holy Trinity Church, Fareham.

She said: “I was basically brought up in the Church, which has given me a sense of service alongside faith. At the moment I am a childminder, working with families and children from all over Portsmouth and Gosport.

“The experience I’ve got from childminding alongside the work I do with children at All Saints, I think will help me in this new role. I am eager to start meeting people, so although I don’t officially start until September, I will be making time to visit St Michael’s and the wider Paulsgrove community during July and August.”

Among the initiatives already well underway at St Michael’s is Choir Church, which involves pupils from local schools meeting at the church each week to sing together, eat together, be together - and start to learn about what faith might mean to them and how they might live it out.

This project is part of our diocese's rejuvenate strategy, which has been supported by strategic funding from the national Church of England. That funding is helping to pay for Clare to be part of a growing ministry team that includes her, the vicar the Rev Hugo Deadman, and a House for Duty priest.