Farewell to Canon Simon Butler, Vicar of St Mary’s 2011-23

St Mary’s will be saying farewell to its Vicar after twelve years in post.

Canon Simon Butler joined St Mary’s from a parish in South Croydon and is moving on to be the Rector of Holy Trinity and St Mary’s, in Guildford Town Centre.

Members of the parish and local people who wish to join us at St Mary’s to say farewell and thank you to Simon are invited to do so in the following ways:

Saturday 25th November: There will be an informal party in St Mary’s Church at 7pm, where we can gather and chat over a drink. There will be some entertainment and a relaxed atmosphere where Simon is looking forward to seeing a range of people associated with Battersea’s churches and community. Feel free to contribute some food and/and or drink (please let the organisers know what you’re offering via the Parish Office.

Sunday 26th November: Simon will lead all three services on this, his final Sunday – 8.30am Holy Communion, 11am Parish Eucharist and 6pm Choral Evensong. Music has been an important element of the life of the church during Simon’s time as Vicar, so St Mary’s Choir will be singing a number of pieces he has chosen for today: Maurice Durufle’s Ubi caritas, Colin Mawby’s Ave verum corpus at the 11am Eucharist, and Stanford’s Evening Canticles in G and Vaughan Williams’ Let all the world in every corner sing at Evensong.

If you would like to contribute to a farewell gift for Simon, as a mark of your thanks for 12 years of ministry in Battersea, please do so via the Parish Office, in an envelope marked Simon’s Farewell. If you prefer to make an online bank transfer to St Mary’s for this, please ensure that in the reference section you include ‘Simon Gift’ so that our Church Office will know what it is for!  Any questions on how to do this, contact Felicity [email protected].