BISHOP Jonathan has appointed the Rev Nick Todd as the interim minister for Hayling Island.

Nick, who has been an Army chaplain for the past 18 years, will be licensed for his new role by the bishop in January.

Having started work in IT, he then trained for ordination in Oxford before a curacy in the Black Country. He became a religious affairs producer for his local BBC radio station while also working as a vicar in Shropshire.

From there he moved to Suffolk and was rector to five very different rural and semi-rural churches. He became a chaplain in the British Army in 2006, serving with a range of mainly infantry regiments, and spent some time training recruits.

He and his wife Pam were posted to Kenya for three years, before their most recent post on Thorney Island, near Emsworth. The couple have four adult children and four grandchildren, with the newest having arrived only in October.

He said: “I am excited to have been chosen to become the interim minister on Hayling Island. The focus of the work will be to help the parishes become settled in how they best work together and then look forward to the future.

“Hayling Island is not somewhere that I know well, but already I can see a vibrant community that has seen a lot of change over the years. If the walls of the three buildings could talk, they would speak of people through the ages coming to worship. Through all the changes the really important things have remained constant.

“Serving with the British Army as a chaplain has been a privilege. Having completed a number of operational tours with the infantry, it quickly became clear that chaplains are both needed and welcomed in every theatre where the army works.

“We have settled in Southsea and will most likely make that our home when retirement proper finally calls.

“I can look back with hindsight and see that God has gifted me with a specific set of skills that may come in useful in this new role – from my time in industry working on large-scale databases through parish ministry to serving in the Army. Those skills are ready to serve the churches on Hayling as they look forward to an exciting future.”

Bishop Jonathan will license Nick to his new role on January 14, subject to a DBS check.