SHE has been part of Harbour Church’s presence in Copnor for years – so it makes sense for the Rev Katherine Message to become the vicar there.

Bishop Jonathan has appointed Katherine to be the team vicar for Harbour Church, Portsmouth, based at St Alban’s Church, Copnor, subject to DBS. She’ll be part of the Harbour team that includes the Rev Lewis Dean as team rector and the Rev Alex Coakley-Youngs who has just been appointed as team vicar based at All Saints Church.

And she’s really thrilled about carrying on the work in Copnor, largely among those children and families that Harbour Church has been engaged with since 2016. She’ll also be heavily involved in a project to refurbish St Alban’s Church as part of our diocese’s strategy.

Katherine was originally part of the congregation, embarked on her ordination training, and has served as curate – all within the Harbour team, based at St George’s, All Saints and St Alban’s in the city.

“I’m excited about the work that is already going on here,” she said. “It’s the ideal job for me because I get to stay within the Harbour team who I love and value. But I’m also able to step out and try doing something new as part of that team.”

Katherine comes from Portsmouth and attended Cosham Baptist Church with her family. She went to university in Cambridge and worked in London for three years. She returned to the city just as a group from St Peter’s Church, Brighton, were considering planting a new congregation in Portsmouth.

That congregation was Harbour Church, which was launched with 20 people in a refurbished department store in Commercial Road in September 2016. It had a specific brief to reach teenagers, students and young adults and quickly became Portsmouth’s fastest-growing church. Katherine helped to run its youthwork as a volunteer.

Harbour Church’s first involvement with St Alban’s, Copnor, came with the creation of a toddler group in 2016. This initial engagement with families then led to the launch of an all-age service called ‘The Four’, hosted by St Alban’s at 4pm each Sunday.

‘The Four’ attracted between 50 and 100 adults and children each week. Katherine was involved upfront most Sundays – as well as writing and performing in drama ‘spectaculars’ at Christmas and Easter, staged at each of Harbour’s locations.

Katherine, who was working as a teaching assistant in a Portsmouth secondary school, felt a call to ordination. She began her training in 2018 on the St Mellitus course, half of which was in-person and half online during the Covid pandemic. She was ordained as a deacon in 2021 and a priest in 2022.

The weekly all-age service at St Alban’s became a monthly one, as the personnel involved changed. But a specific team vicar embedded there was included in our diocese’s application for strategic funding last year, so that weekly worship could become possible again.

“This new role will make it possible for us to create a congregation worshipping every Sunday morning,” said Katherine. “We already have five or six core families from this area, who came to faith because of the toddlers group, the Four, and Alpha at St Albans’s. Recently they’ve had to worship at St George’s Church near Gunwharf, which is some distance to travel. Now they’ll be our initial morning congregation here.

The dream is that St Alban’s will be known as a centre of excellence for all-age worship, that engages adults, elevates the youth and sparks faith in children. Young people will be our focus and we already have a good relationship with Copnor Primary. But there are also lots of different demographics represented in the parish, and so the vision is that St Alban’s will be a place full of faith, joy and community, whatever your age and stage of life.”

The strategic funding secured from the national Church of England should also make it possible to refurbish the church building. Worship services have been exclusively in the nave since 2016, but the new congregation will face east.

A new café and welcome area will be created at the church’s entrance, and new chairs and flooring will ensure the space is flexible. The church’s tower and bells will be repaired, and its kitchen and toilets improved.

The church’s historic font used to be in St Mary’s Church in Fratton, and was the one used for the baptism of Charles Dickens in 1812. It will be retained, as well the church’s rood screen and chancel.

Katherine will be licensed by the bishop on May 8.