Team Rector Appointment

We are pleased to announce that following the recruitment process a new team rector is to be appointed, with a hopeful installation date of 22nd June 2023.

“The Bishop of Southwark is pleased to announce that The Reverend John Pout, Vicar of Christ Church Paignton and St Paul Preston, in the Diocese of Exeter, is to be the new Team Rector of the East Greenwich Team Ministry with particular oversight for Christ Church East Greenwich.

John and his family are looking forward to taking up this new appointment, and subject to satisfactory completion of the necessary procedures, he is to be Instituted and Inducted at Christ Church on 22 June 2023.” 

John introduces himself below:

Hi I’m John

I am thrilled to have been appointed as the new Team Rector at East Greenwich and really look forward to meeting you and living in love and faith with you.

For the past five years or so I have been a Vicar by the Sea in Devon and although the beaches have their attractions I’m really looking forward to coming to London, to such vibrant, diverse and inclusive churches and to live in our great capital city.

I am married to Jo and we have a son, Sam, who lives in Clapham and works at the Omnibus Theatre there. Jo is a textile artist and tutor and she is currently studying for a degree in Natural Sciences with the Open University.

I was born in Scotland and have lived in Surrey, Sussex, Gloucestershire and Devon. I haven’t always been a Vicar, in fact most of my life has been in Sales and for the longest time I was with a company called Arval who lease and manage company cars for large corporates.

I’ve also been a radio DJ on and off for a long time and I currently present a morning show on Riviera FM and a late night EDM (dance show) there and also on a radio station in Hawaii – MY959 FM.

As well as radio, I’m a keen tennis player (but not very good), support Portsmouth FC and I’m into politics.

So I’m coming with a fair amount of life experience and bags of enthusiasm!

At our churches in Devon, we have moved from being very traditional to become much more friendly, lively and relatively informal in our worship and in our life together as church

I try to remove anything which puts up barriers and excludes people. That might mean we change some things, maybe do more of some things and less of others. Certainly the first thing I’m going to do is listen to you, see what you think and share more of myself with you.

I love to help people see that the Bible is an amazing book that speaks directly into our lives today and in my sermons I always try to bring life-related insight from the Bible which encourages people who have been Christians for many years as well as those who are just beginning.  

As you know, just as Jesus loves everyone and is for everyone, that’s naturally how the church should be too. My aim is that we continue to be like that in East Greenwich and have an ever increasing impact and voice within the community, so that we grow together and more and more people can come to know the love, mercy and forgiveness that Jesus offers to us all.

The most exciting thing about being a vicar is seeing people come to know Jesus and grow in their commitment and love for Him and my prayer as we come to you is that we will see that happening more and more as we continue to grow across our churches in East Greenwich.