Three years ago, I stood, actually not too nervously, before the Lord Bishop of Birmingham and was collated as the new Vicar of St Michael and All Angels, Bartley Green.

Bartley Green is one of the Anglican parishes on the edge of Birmingham. It is the home to several schools (two which are linked to the Church of England through the Diocesan Board of Education (www.birmingham.anglican.org), see www.bartleygreen.org.uk and www.stmicb32.bham.sch.uk), a university (www.newman.ac.uk) and a remarkable group of people.

I will take time over the coming weeks to reflect on some of what has been achieved as well as on that which should perhaps not have been done.

For now, I want to say how pleased I am to be here.

I am pleased to be involved in people’s lives.

I am pleased to have been into schools; and trust a difference has been made.

I am pleased to be leading St Michael and All Angels Church

In many ways, I feel I have come home by being in Bartley Green.

Home can of course be uncomfortable as well as comfortable.

I will reflect more over the coming days.