SHE is already working across all three villages – and now the Rev Joy Windsor has a new role there.

Bishop Jonathan has appointed her as the new priest-in-charge for Blendworth, Chalton and Idsworth, after three years serving there as an unpaid associate priest. She will also continue her work as the Horndean Missioner, trying to establish more of a Christian presence in the town.

Joy initially trained as a teacher and worked at Swanmore School from 1997 to 2001, and then at Amery Hill School in Alton, teaching English and History.

She felt a calling to ordained ministry, studied at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, in Oxford from 2015-17, and was ordained in Winchester Cathedral. Bishop Jonathan, who was then Bishop of Southampton, washed her feet during her first ordination service.

Joy was a self-supporting curate at the Parish of the Resurrection, Alton, working at one point alongside the Rev Chris Bradish, who is now team rector of Newport and Carisbrooke with Gatcombe. She continued to teach even when she arrived in our diocese in 2021, as part-time associate priest, serving at Rowlands Castle as well as at Blendworth, Chalton and Idsworth.

“I do remember when I first felt that sense of calling and talked to my vicar in Alton,” she said. “He told me he had been waiting for seven years for me to say that. But it had taken a while for me to discern that God was calling me to ordination.

“I enjoyed being in Alton, but when the House for Duty post came up here, it sounded attractive. As it has turned out, I love it here. I’ve already been working alongside Revd Richard Hutchins from Catherington and Clanfield to have a larger Christian presence in the middle Horndean, where there’s no CofE church.

“I’m likely to be involved with the Flourish worshipping community in Horndean Junior and I’d love to see more Alpha courses in the centre of Horndean village and would love to make a connection with the infant school.

“I also want to see revival in our rural churches as well. Blendworth, Chalton and Idsworth are all very special places, and we want to find even more connections with their local communities. I’ll also be commissioned as an Anna Chaplain on November 24, so I will continue to be able to do some visits alongside our Anna Chaplain Dawn Jenkins.

“I have been leading services at Rowlands Castle in my current role and will work with whoever is appointed there. I’m already booked to do Remembrance Sunday and Carols on the Green there.”

Joy and her husband Peter have two adult children, Ellie and Richard and two grandchildren, Oscar and Ziva, aged 12 and nine. And she already lives in the vicarage that goes with her new role, and therefore won’t need to move house. Bishop Jonathan is expected to license her on January 8.