A FORMER resident of Black Notley is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of his ordination as a priest.
Reverend Professor Bryan Spinks was ordained at St Nicholas Church in Witham where he served as curate between 1975 and 1978.
The former Black Notley school pupil, also studied at Endsleigh School and Braintree County High School, before going on to study theology at the Universities of Durham and London.
For 17 years starting in 1980 he was chaplain in the Churchill College at Cambridge University, where he also taught.
He has also served on the Church of England's Liturgical Commission, helping to compile the new services of Common Worship.
Far from his Black Notley roots, Reverend Spinks is now the Bishop F. Percy Goddard Professor of Liturgical Studies and Pastoral Theology at Yale University in Connecticut in the United States, where he also runs Sunday church services.
The special anniversary on September 19 will be marked with a celebration of communion in the church where he serves, and another on September 30 at the Yale Divinity School.
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