BISHOP Jonathan has appointed a vicar with experience of church-planting to grow congregations at two Portsmouth churches.

The Rev Fran Carabott will be the new vicar of Cosham and Wymering, subject to DBS, with a brief to get involved with local communities and enlarge the congregations.

He has led St Margaret’s Church in Southsea, for the past eight years, first as a lay pioneer, then as an ordained minister. It was originally re-opened in 2017 with 12 worshippers from a nearby church – now more than 100 people worship there each week and it hosts many more during the week in its Pantry, community café and soft play area.

Fran will bring this experience of building new Christian communities to St Philip’s Church in Cosham and St Peter and St Paul, Wymering.

Both churches already have experience of reaching into their local communities via pioneer ministry, the Cosham Larder and monthly fireside gatherings, developed under the previous vicar, the Rev Amy Webb, who moved to a post in Surrey earlier this year.

Fran said: “I’m absolutely delighted and truly honoured to accept the job offer as vicar at Cosham and Wymering. I’m so excited to step into this new chapter and look forward to all that lies ahead.

“I’m thrilled to be moving to a place where the congregation members have already had some experience of doing things in a different way – they are already pioneers in their local communities, and that’s what we want to do more of.

“We just want to share the good news about Jesus with those who live in this area, and it’s so much easier to do that when the local church already has a good reputation for engaging with those who live there.”