A MUCH-LOVED Canon is retiring after 16 years as team rector of four popular Worcester churches.
The Revd Canon Ken Boyce, who first moved to the Worcester Diocese in 1986, will step-down as rector of Worcester South East Team of Churches, which covers St Martin’s Church, on London Road, Holy Trinity and St Matthew’s Church in Ronkswood, St Mark’s Church, in Cherry Orchard and St Philip and St James’ Church in Whittington, on Sunday, May 22.
Born in 1951 in Barrow-in-Furness, Canon Boyce spent his first 18 years on Walney Island, before moving to the Midlands and meeting his wife Sarah in the Leicestershire village of Great Bowden, where they married in 1981.
When he moved to the Worcester Diocese, Canon Boyce started as Diocesan Chaplain to the Deaf and Priest-in-charge of Astwood Bank in Redditch, before moving to Fladbury in 1992 to become Rector of Fladbury, Wyre Piddle and Moor and Priest-in-charge of Cropthorne with Charlton.
After serving as Rural Dean of both Pershore and Worcester East, Canon Boyce took up his current role in 2000 and became an Honorary Canon of Worcester Cathedral in 2007.
Canon Boyce and his wife Sarah have three children, 30-year-old Hannah, 28-year-old Sophie – who got married at St Martin’s in April – and 25-year-old Dom, who is a drummer in the popular indie band Peace.
Canon Boyce said: “I’m trying not to be sentimental about coming to the end of my working life, but memories just pop into my head and without fail remind me of the privilege I’ve enjoyed as a priest in the Church of England.
“When I walk into St Martin’s or one of the other churches in the team, I immediately think of members of the congregation who used to worship there, visualising where they sat and remembering how they moved, spoke or sang.
“Many of them are indeed now dead, but some have moved away or become too frail to come to church. I miss them, but I’m glad to have known them and thankful they are a part of my life.
“Some of the people whose lives touched mine still have the power to make my heart nearly break. I have vivid memories of working with people who are deaf and hard of hearing. They and their families are amongst the most courageous people I’ve met.
“All these remembered people are a part of who I am. They still enrich me and are part of my family in God. Thank you for being part of my life for the last sixteen years and I hope to keep in touch and hear good reports of the church thriving in the future.”
A celebration and thanksgiving event for Canon Boyce’s forty years of ministry will take place on Sunday, May 22 at 10am in St Martin’s Church, where all four churches in the Worcester South East Team will attend to commemorate his service.
