Nick Aiken - Rector
Nick lives in Pyrford with his wife Hilary and has been Rector since 1993. They have two sons who are now in full-time employment and a black labrador called Ella. Nick's hobby is golf, and he can be found from time to time on the course, trying to improve his handicap!
Diane Davidson - Ordained Local Minister/ Discipleship Network Catalyst.
Diane is married to Richard and has 3 adult children. She has been involved in parish life since 1992 and was recently ordained as a local minister in 2020. She is passionate about making faith ‘real’ and encouraging a daily walk with Jesus.
Although Diane has spent most of her adult life in the UK, her New Zealand roots show through when watching the All Blacks. She also enjoys tennis (a big Rafa fan), Sci Fi and eating good food.
Charles Gibson - Retired Clergy
Charles has been a parishioner for over 40 years. He was ordained in 2003 to serve in our parish. Having reached the age of 70 he was obliged to retire but still serves as a minister in our parish. Charles has three grown up children and a grandson. In his spare time he enjoys playing gentle tennis, being a vocal supporter of Woking FC, travelling and the theatre.
Anthony Bligh - Youth Minister/Pastoral Catalyst and Facilities Manager
Anthony was raised in Bookham where he attended the local primary and secondary school. He has always attended his local church, Bookham Baptist. Anthony has continued here to help young people in their relationship with God and their personal development.
Anthony@wisleywithpyrford.org
Families Minister/Engaging Community Catalyst
Suzanne joined the parish as a 'Time for God' volunteer in September 1994, intending to stay in Pyrford just one year - many years later she remains a vital part of the church. Mother to Matthew and Daniel, Suzanne loves action songs and creative worship oh yes.
Caroline Oldroyd - Licensed Lay Minister/Worship and Prayer Catalyst
Caroline has been worshipping in the parish since 1998 and was licensed as a lay minister in 2010. She is married to Graham and they have three adult children and a cat, Fonz. Her church activities include promoting prayer and working mainly with the elderly members of our community. Outside church she is a keen tennis player.
Tina Osborne - Licensed Lay Minister
Ian Howell - Licensed Lay Minister
Ian became a Licensed Lay Minister in Oxford in 1966 and joined the Ministry team in the parish in 1979. He and his wife Anne live in West Byfleet and have two children and four grandchildren. He spent his career in the oil industry with BP and is a governor at Pyrford CofE Primary School, a trustee of the Friends of St Nicholas' and a member of the Horticultural Committee of the Pyrford Flower Show.
Eldon Sandys - Occasional Preacher
Eldon has been an Occasional Preacher since 2010. He is married to Carol – a Parish Secretary – and has two children and three grandchildren. His career was spent in marketing, advertising and market research. He is the parish magazine editor and acts as Parish Press Officer. He is one of the original members of the Newark Group Committee and is on the Shepherds Market committee. Eldon is a trustee of the Friends of St Nicholas’ and Wisley Churches. He co-ordinates our parish Christian Aid Week annual door to door collection. He is a keen cyclist.
Kathy MacCutchan - Occasional Preacher
Kathy has been a member of the Parish for over 40 years and since 2009 has been preaching and leading services.
She met Richard while they were both working for The Samaritans and, in 2000, they married. Between them, they have 4 children and a growing number of grandchildren.
Kathy enjoys reading, gardening, crosswords and spending time with the family.
Katharine Gervasio - Occasional Preacher
Katharine has been coming to COGS for the last 20
years. She is a mother of two children, Amy, who works in London and George
who is studying music at Uniersity and plays guitar/sings in the Worship Group.
She is married to Joe who does the sound and AV at church. She is
currently teaching Group Fitness but has tried out various careers
including acting and personnel management. She is passionate about
sharing her faith and is joint Head of Evangelism with Ian Lamaison.
Hilary Aiken - Occasional Preacher
Ian Wishart - Occasional Preacher
Jo Clayton - Occasional Preacher
Diane Wiltshire - Occasional Preacher
Member of COGS for over 30 years . Lifelong Christian .Married to Alan with a family of three children and 6 grandchildren .
Loves reading , music , gardening and trying to learn Spanish .Wants to be like Mary Berry but not succeeding .
Philippa Hewitt - Pastoral Assistant Co-ordinator
“I was born in South Africa but came to England in 1976. My husband Robert and I moved to Pyrford in 1991 and have worshipped and been part of the parish since that time.
We have three children, all married and living in various corners of the UK”
phil@rdhewitt.co.uk
Alison Ingram - Pastoral Assistant Co-ordinator/Vulnerable Adults Safeguarding Officer
“I have lived in Pyrford for over 25 years and have been attending COGS ever since. I am married to Paul and we have 2 adult children who have moved away. I am a recently retired nurse and have held many voluntary roles locally over the years.”
Andy Pearce - Churchwarden of St Nicholas
Andy first moved to Pyrford in 1962, and attended Pyrford Primary School. He worked for 11 years as a solicitor in central London before retraining as a teacher and becoming Head of History at George Abbot School in Guildford for 22 years. Andy married Sue at St. Nicholas’ in 2014 and, following his retirement, became Churchwarden for that Church in 2019.
Matthew Ryan - Churchwarden of COGS
I have worshipped in the Parish for over seven years. During that time I have served on the PCC and as Deanery Synod representative. I am passionate about men’s ministry, and have played an active role in organising Men’s curry nights. Outside of church, my day job is as a scientist, and I work for a UN treaty level organisation that has a mission to improve people’s lives in developing countries through the application and dissemination of scientific information and knowledge.
Sarah Daly - Churchwarden of COGS
I moved to the parish in 2004 and have worshipped in the parish throughout this time. I have previously served on the PCC. I have also acted as a Sidesman, Reader and one of the Sunday School leaders of Explorers. More recently I became very involved in setting up Down Memory Lane a service aimed towards enabling the elderly members of the community to attend a more traditional service each month. This has strong links with my full-time job of running a domiciliary care agency supporting elderly and vulnerable people to remain living as independently as possible in their own homes. I am also part of the team which supports the Holiday at Home project each year.
I am married to Chris, have two wonderful children Mili and Tom and two Hungarian vizslas who keep me extremely active.
Pauline Langfield - Churchwarden of Wisley Church
Pauline took early retirement after a 32 year career with the BBC, latterly making television trailers and directing the live transmission of BBC-1 and 2.
She is widowed from a retired BBC Senior Producer with whom she has an adult son. Worshipping at Wisley since 1989, Pauline has previously served 6 years as a warden and, as a glutton for punishment, is now several years into a second stint.
She helps with children's holiday clubs, runs the Shepherds Market preserves stall, and, when not engaged in church business, enjoys gardening, genealogy and collecting books.
Linda Knowles - COGS Parish Operations Manager
Linda has been Churchwarden at the Church of the Good Shepherd since April 2016. She moved to Pyrford in 1998 and joined a homegroup following an Alpha Course held at the Church of the Good Shepherd. She and husband Mark were married at St Nicholas' in 2000, her two sons Max and Luke were baptised at the Good Shepherd and Linda and the boys have been regular attendees ever since.
Dannii Russell - Halls Manager
Dannii is the point of contact for all the bookings made at the three churches, managing them in the Parish Office four days a week.
PCC Members :
Canon Nick Aiken, Rev. Diane Davidson, Matthew Ryan, Sarah Daly, Pauline Langfield, Camilla Nicholls-Wilson, Penny Hoskyn, Andy Pearce, Claire Clough, Anthony Bligh, Jeremy Gidman, Claire Williams, Suzanne Lees-Smith, Ed Brockman.
Carol Sandys - Parish Secretary
Carol worked for the Foreign Office for many years and enjoyed postings to South East Asia and South America. She moved to Pyrford in 1978 with her husband Eldon. They have a daughter, a son and three grandchildren. Carol joined the Parish Office team as a part-timer in 1986 and since then the majority of her office hours have been devoted to organising weddings and baptisms and compiling the weekly pew sheets.
Kerry Scott - Parish Secretary
A Prayer as we celebrate all that Revd. Nicholas Aiken and Hilary have brought us, and look to the future.
God our Father, you have welcomed each one of us in Jesus and called us to be his body in this place. Send us your Holy Spirit at this time of uncertainty and change, to fill us with vision and energy and faithfulness in prayer, that we may be true to our calling to bring new life to our community.
Give your heavenly wisdom to those who are to choose a new Rector for this Parish, that she or he may be a wise and gentle shepherd of your people, ready to serve us with joy, to build us up in faith and to lead us by example in loving obedience to your Son Jesus. Amen.
