The Reverend Mark Neave has been Priest-in-Charge of the nine-strong Start Bay group of churches since 2022.

He was previously a civil and structural engineer as he explained:

‘’I was working for local authorities, central government and the private sector then took early retirement around eight years ago to train for the ministry.’’

‘’I was ordained around five years ago and this is my first proper placing as an incumbent.’’

It was quite a change in direction but how did he do it?:

‘’The basic training was three years which led to a degree in theology and then a three-year curacy, which is like an apprenticeship working alongside another priest, which I did up on Dartmoor.

‘’My two careers may seem very different but there are lots of transferrable skills.

‘’For instance my particular speciality as a civil engineer was as a bridge-builder and this is bridge-building of a completely different kind.’’

We then turned to the Reverend Mark’s faith and what it means to him.

‘’God drew me to this. I had no choice.

‘’It was a gradual process. I had been a Christian for most of my life, but in recent years it became more and more central to what life was all about.

‘’You sort of get the tap on your shoulder and you have no choice.’’

What does the role entail?: ‘’You get groups of parishes coming together because that’s the only way that ultimately they will survive .

‘’We’re in the situation that if you go back one or two generations each parish would have had it’s own parish priest but with falling congregations and falling numbers of ministers being available the norm now is to have several parishes.

‘’They will be very different even if they are in the same geographical locality, each will have its own particular way of doing things so trying to bring those groups together is sometimes quite challenging but it’s also incredibly satisfying.

Once a month we have a benefice service as the Reverend Mark explained: ‘’People from all nine churches come together at one of the churches for a special service and that’s very exciting because you get a full church and people who don’t normally meet together actually find that they’re not as different as they thought they might be.’’

The Reverend Mark is hoping to continue his work for as long as possible: ‘’There isn’t a fixed tenure as with the Methodists and some other denominations so I expect to be here probably until I retire which means probably another four years if the people still want me and if I’m still fit and healthy. I want to make a difference.

The nine churches in the group serve the parishes of Buckland-tout-Saints, Charleton, Chivelstone, East Portlemouth, Sherford, Slapton, South Pool and Stokenham.

The group publish a parish magazine called The Link which includes the Reverend Mark’s ‘View from the Rectory’. Church collections are vital as it costs just over £1000m a year to run the Church of England which has 13,000 parishes and 43 cathedrals. The money collected is called the Common Fund and is divided between parishes.

Nationwide the number of churchgoers has fallen dramatically and in 2022 654,000 attended Church of England churches so new joiners are very welcome. If you would like to find out more about the nine churches including St Mary’s you can e-mail: [email protected]