After thirty years serving Easingwold Parish Church, Gerald Edmondson-Jones has stepped down as Lay Reader. Michael Wansborough of Easingwoldwrites:
"There was a special event after the Sunday morning Eucharist service recently at Easingwold Parish Church, when there was a presentation to Gerald Edmondson-Jones on the occasion of his retirement as a Lay Reader. Sacristan Doreen Hayes thanked him for all his work at Easingwold during the last 30 years and gave him a gift voucher on behalf of the PCC and churchwardens.
"Gerald has had a long and distinguished career in his service to the Church. It was about 50 years ago that he began training to be a Reader when living in a small country Parish just outside Hereford. One of the Canons at the Cathedral undertook this, and he was later licensed as a Reader by the Bishop of Hereford 47 years ago.
"Not long after, he was promoted from being the Deputy there of the County Council to being Chief Executive of one of the County Councils in Lincolnshire. This meant that his licence was transferred to the Diocese of Lincoln, where he served for the next few years in two different village Parishes, as well as going out to help in other Parishes in the Diocese.
"In the late 1970’s he came to York to be the Chapter Clerk and Solicitor at the Minster for about 6 years, during the time that Ronald Jasper was Dean. Then about 30 years ago he came with his wife Iris to live in Easingwold, working as a legal consultant for the Town Planning section of the Government’s Department of the Environment, until his retirement in 2005.