Announcement of New Priest-in-Charge

We are pleased to announce that the new Priest-in-Charge of St Mark’s Teddington is The Rev Karen Wellman.

Karen is married to David and they have three children. She has been a Curate in Basingstoke, will be licensed at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, 19 September 2015, at St Mark’s and will celebrate her first Eucharist on Sunday, 20 September, at 10:00 a.m.

We very much look forward to welcoming Karen to St Mark’s Teddington and pray that she and her family will have a long, happy and fulfilling ministry in Teddington and Hampton Wick.

Karen says:

“I am really looking forward to joining you at St Mark’s South Teddington. In some ways it feels like coming home as I grew up in Wandsworth and my father used to work for the Automobile Association in Kingston and Teddington. As I travel around the Teddington area I see buildings that I remember from forty years ago which is very strange as so much has changed yet so much is still the same.

For the past three years I have been the curate in the Basingstoke Team based at St Michael’s Church. Before we moved I was an authorised lay preacher at All Saints’ Church Wokingham. I have been very active in internet ministry and in projects aimed at engaging with those with no knowledge or experience of Christianity. I trained for ordained ministry at Ripon College Cuddesdon and I am part way through an MTh in Religion, Ethics and Society at Winchester University.

My working life has been very varied with jobs in publishing and computers as well as in local government and working with horses. I trained as a garden designer at Berkshire College of Agriculture whilst my children were small but found that I spent more time in conflict resolution than design as couples had very different ideas about what the new garden would look like. I enjoy creating my own gardens and I’m looking forward to getting to grips with the one at the vicarage.

David, my husband and two of our three sons will be moving to the vicarage along with our three cats Monty, Sky and Poppy. We think Poppy will enjoy meeting all the children on the school run in St Mark’s Road as she does the same here, sitting on a wall by the park next to the house to greet people as they walk past.”