Colette and I have a particular affection for St Teresa's. We moved to East Sussex in December 1997 and, for a time, attended Mass at Benenden, where the priest was Father Bert White. I was an Anglican but, for some years had been attending Catholic Mass with Colette. When I talked to Father Bert about converting to Catholicism he suggested I got in touch with Canon Charles Walker at St Teresa's, Northiam, as he knew that Canon Charles had a small group of like minded people.
Accordingly, we started to attend St Teresa's in 1999 and I joined Canon Charles's class. The others under instruction were Tom Petzel, who became our main organist on the death of Frans van Vroonhoven, and Joanne Smith, who has since moved away. Also in attendance at the classes was Walter Busuttil – the Busuttils have also moved away. The classes were held in our various homes and I consider myself very fortunate to have benefited from the wise and sympathetic words of Canon Charles, with occasional (also wise) interventions from Walter. I was received into the Church at St Teresa's at Easter 2000, Canon Charles officiating.
Clearly, St Teresa's means a lot to both of us, not only because of the above, but also because of its extremely welcoming, caring and friendly community.
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