Friday 4th February 1977
After months without an active vicar, Christ Church, Warminster, is to get one – the Rev. John Day, who plans to try to heal the wounds in a parish which has seen a great deal of bitterness recently. At present he has three small parishes in Petersfield (Hants).
There has been a long period of discussion between different factions which reached its peak in the rare event of a consistory court in the church itself which decreed that the experimental nave altar should become permanent.
In September the Vicar (Rev. Barry Abbott) resigned through ill health, caused by stress and overwork.
Mr. Day (40) was born at Chippenham and has been vicar of the parishes of Froxfield, Froxfield Green and Privett for five years. Before that he was curate of Bedhampton, near Portsmouth, for four years after training at Salisbury Theological College, where he knew Mr. Abbott.
Previously he spent nine years in the Church Army after graduating from the Church Army Training College at Marylebone, London. His postings were to Preston, Reading, where his duties included chaplain of Reading Jail, which was then a Borstal, and Pamber Heath, near Basingstoke. He finished his service as a captain.
His Lancashire born wife, Margaret, was a chemist’s assistant before marriage. They have two sons – Stephen, 11, and Paul, eight.
In Froxfield, Mr. Day edits and writes for the village magazine. He is also village correspondent for a weekly paper published in Portsmouth.
Mr. and Mrs. Day are interested in antiques, local history and walking.
Mr. Day will be inducted at Christ Church on 26th April, possibly by the Bishop of Ramsbury (Rt. Rev. John Neale).