Retirement of Rev. Gamble after 30 years in Malahide

Categories: News

On Wednesday evening, I informed the Select Vestry that I will be retiring on and as from 4th January next.  This is not a sudden decision: since ordination, it was always my intention to retire from parish ministry during 2020, after 41 years in Holy Orders, and having passed the ‘threescore years and ten’ last summer. By next month, I will have been Rector of Malahide for thirty years. I feel that now is the time to move on, while in good health. Susan and I will be moving locally, having bought a house in Belltree in Clongriffin, and while we will probably worship elsewhere (as is customary in the circumstances), we hope to retain social contacts with so many friends we have made over a far longer period than we ever contemplated way back in 1990!

Please pray for the Parochial Nominators as they seek to find a replacement, in conjunction with the Diocesan Committee of Patronage. This is a task that needs patience and time, and a great deal of hard work, and which commences when the vacancy occurs. The Select Vestry Glebes and Property Committee will also have a great deal of work to do. While the Rectory has been kept in fair order, it will need a considerable amount of work to meet the current standards laid down by the Representative Church Body for rectories.

I ask you all to give any assistance needed to the Nominators and to the Glebewardens in what will be a difficult time superimposed upon the disruption we have experienced, first with St Andrew’s ceiling and then Covid19. I know that all of them are dedicated to the task, and that all our Nominators have a strong love and collective understanding of the Church of Ireland and the needs of the parish. With everyone’s support, I trust that the vacancy can be filled with relative speed.

 

Yours

Norman