Welcome Rev Karen Rizzello
Rev Karen Rizzello our new Associate Priest
I have been asked to write a few words to introduce myself to the Wychwood Benefice. I have recently moved from the Benefice of Lyneham with Woodhill in Wiltshire. I was house for duty priest there until November 2021 and since then I have been commuting into the benefice from Milton-under-Wychwood. Quite a long drive and becoming increasingly expensive.
I will be beginning my ministry in your Benefice of Wychwood in the new year. I am very grateful to Geoffrey your Vicar and the rest of the team for being so welcoming to a new person joining them in this place.
I am married to Peter who I met at university in Leicester many years ago. We would have liked to have had children but sadly IVF treatment was unsuccessful and so our lives have taken us along a different path.
We spent some time in Canada early in our marriage and travelled a fair bit. I became a minister after many years of working in Information Technology, a career which took me all over the world and offered some wonderful opportunities to work with lots of talented people.
I enjoy reading about everything from biographies to science to all types of fiction. When I get a chance I enjoy the theatre, festivals and concerts.
I went to church as a child and Sunday School was a regular feature in my life. As I grew to be a teenager like many young people I no longer attended church regularly and I was someone who returned to regular church after joining an Alpha class some years later. After that I served in the church as Church Warden, on PCC’s, Synods, and had the honour of being invited to be a member of the College of Canon’s at Salisbury Cathedral before answering the call to Ordination.
In closing, I have always felt that God has played a major part in my life, at the worst of times and at the best, in the background and sometimes front and centre. I feel very blessed to have God’s gift of faith and grace guiding my life.
I am looking forward to getting to know you all as I begin my ministry in the Wychwoods. God Bless, Karen.
Come and meet Karen on Sunday 19 February after the 9.30am United Benefice Service in Milton. Let’s give her a special Wychwood Benefice welcome!