Welcome from the warden

James Collins

Churchwarden at St. John the Baptist, Knaresborough.

A Story of Three Journeys

James may be as unique as our wonderful ancient Church.  He began his journey with Christ at the tender age of 39 when he was Baptised, Confirmed and Married in the Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene in the small village of Campsall, just north of Doncaster, over a period of only six months.

After graduating in Mechanical Engineering, James worked in the power generation industry in the UK for nearly 25 years before beginning another journey on an overseas extension to his career for a period approaching 20 years.  Working always in the power generation industry he worked and lived in Khartoum (Sudan), Palapye (Botswana) and Cape Town (South Africa).  He then became Managing Director of a power generation and sea water desalination company in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) before taking early retirement in 2006 after more than 8 years in the post.

James has also been on a “Churchwarden” journey – serving St Margaret’s Church in Fish Hoek, Cape Town and St Andrew’s Church in Abu Dhabi before serving again here at St John’s since 2007.  The role of a Churchwarden normally requires a good knowledge of the Parish and the people but James has, quite unusually, been elected to serve in three different Churches on three different continents and always less than 12 months of arriving in the Parish.

Having spent nearly 20 years overseas James obviously likes to travel widely as well as gourmet dining and pottering in his greenhouse.

Asked why they settled at the Parish Church of John the Baptist here in Knaresborough. They said:

having initially rented in Harrogate on our return to the UK in 2006, and while looking for a property to buy, we worshipped at Christ Church on the Stray. Once we were settled on buying in Knaresborough we were guided by the then Curate at Christ Church to try St John’s.  The first service we attended at St John’s happened to be the monthly Choral Eucharist. We were bowled over by the quality of the traditional Church music and the choir brilliantly led by our Director of Music and the Organist & Choirmaster. Also the bells were being rung for the first time after being re-hung and the ringing bells were relayed via video camera onto the wall of the Church.  Having lived in the Middle East for so long the sight and sound of ringing Church bells was music to our ears; there could be no other ‘home’ for us.

James and his wife Pam, since finding St John’s, have been ‘groupies’ of the choir and always accompany them on their three tours a year.