A Letter from Our New Pastor

Dear Friends at ESUMC

It is a pleasure and privilege to address you as your new Pastor. 

I am humbled to have been chosen for this role by the General Board of Global Ministries. Ministering in Austria as the next phase of my ministry was not something that I would have imagined this time last year. But God’s designs and plans are different from ours – and are always for his good and his glory. 

I can only look back over the last few months and be amazed at the goodness and the leading of God, and joyfully and humbly embrace this new chapter in ministry that God has called me to. 

To come amongst you as your Pastor and get to know each of you, to share in your faith journeys in this season of your lives, to worship with you and pray for you and with you, to expound and teach God’s Word among you, to celebrate with you in your joys and support you in your sorrows, is not something I take lightly, but rather see these things as central to my ministry among you.  

And so, I come amongst you, reliant on the grace of God and the hospitality and love of all of you. I pray that ESUMC will continue to be a welcoming place — a spiritual home for people of all nations and all languages, a place where we explore our faith together and ask honest questions, support one another through the various seasons of life as we grow deeper in our walk with Christ, while all along being rooted and grounded in God’s word. That is my hope and that is my prayer for our time together.

Myself, Sarah and my family

To tell you a little about myself, I am presently serving as a Pastor in the Methodist Church of Great Britain. But during the last 26 years in my ministry I have also ministered in South India, Scotland and West Africa where I served as Missionary in The Gambia.

I am married to Sarah. We have served in ministry together for just over twenty-five years now. Sarah has always been a crucial part of my ministry in the different countries we have been in and we have always seen ourselves as partners in God’s mission. Sarah is a trained counsellor and specializes in bereavement counselling and works at the family support centre in a local hospice. For Sarah and myself, we anticipate with joy becoming a part of your community. We both enjoying walking and hiking and being outdoors, so are looking forward to exploring Vienna and further afield, as well as understanding Austrian culture, and of course, learning German!

We have two sons. Our older son Abishek is a cyber-security engineer who works for Lloyds Banking Group and lives in Manchester. Paul, our younger son, is studying Hairstyling and Barbering at Blackburn College in Lancashire and also works as a Hairstylist. Both our sons will continue to live in the North West of England. 

As Sarah and I get ready to embark on this journey with all of you, we open our hearts to you and pray for each of you, and ask that you also open your hearts to us and uphold us in your prayers in these final months of our time here in the UK and for all arrangements and things that need to be done as we prepare to move to Austria in the middle of November. We look forward to getting to know each of you personally when we meet you all soon.  In the meantime, feel free to be in touch via email if you want to introduce yourself or even just say ‘hello!’ It will be lovely to hear from you.

And so, until we meet:

 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor 13:14) 

With prayerful wishes and blessings,

Pastor Mark