Bohemia Village Voice

Elizabeth Cresswell – left – in the new extension chatting last week with church helper June Wilcock.

By John Humphries (Jul 2006)

The Reverend Elizabeth Cresswell, for eight years minister at Park Road Methodist Church retires this month. She leaves with ‘mixed feelings’ on the 25th of July and will move to Litchfield in Staffordshire with husband Roger, who is also a minister and who’s also retiring – after 41 years. They will be near their two sons and will be able to pop up the motorway to visit  Edinburgh where their daughter lives.

      What changes has she noticed in her eight years? “Hastings has improved a lot and I’m delighted at the ethnic mix that has developed recently”, she said. “The size of the congregation has gradually increased while I’ve been here – we now have about a hundred members with about sixty to seventy showing up every Sunday. It’s nice to see families attending”. She is especially pleased with the new extension – which was opened on Saturday 15 July.

 The new minister at Park Road Church starts on September 1^st. She is the Rev Marion Proud from Eastbourne. She’ll take over as minister for three churches: Park Road, Calvert Road (in Mount Pleasant) and St Helen’s Methodist Church on the Ridge.

Michael Ward writes (Jul 2006)

Dear Sir, correction of detail: Marion Proud is moving to us from Holsworthy in Devon, but her husband who is a probationer minister will have churches in the Eastbourne Circuit, Hailsham I believe. [noted]. Because of the slowness of my connections Bohemia Village Voice  took about 1/2 hour each to down load creating some problems.  Very good articles about Park Road Methodist. Would it be possible to let me have Bohemia Voice in hard copy in the future C/o The Church? [yes]. Rev. Michael Ward, Park Road Methodist Church.