Peter’s farewell to Inverell

After nearly 12 years, the church’s Reverend Peter Grice has taken leave of his debut seat as vicar. It will soon be in the hands of Barraba vicar, Adam Draycott. Adam has spent five years in Barraba and three years before that as vicar  in Gunnedah. 

Adam’s Barraba posting will be filled by St Augustine’s former curate, Phil Coughlin.

While Adam and Phil are shifting up and down the Barraba road, Peter is moving furthest of all. He has accepted the post as Dean of the Cathedral in Geraldton, Western Australia.

The Grice family has already left Inverell to take up the new position. Inverell was Peter’s first posting as a vicar. He arrived in town as a curate with wife and veterinarian, Virginia and two children on January 14, 2002. 

After a year, the vicar was appointed as assistant to the bishop, so Peter was offered his position.

Since then, their family has grown from four to seven, and Peter said he and his family have grown very close to their congregation and the community. However, a chance to move to a different level of leadership came knocking on the Grice door in April last year.

“What happened was that the Bishop from the North West of Australia said, ‘We have an opportunity here, would you like to consider it?’” Peter said. “We thought about that, prayed about it for a number of months, talked about it with our own bishop, and then finally, once we worked out where all the cards would fall, we accepted that.” 

Peter said the Geraldton Anglican Cathedral congregation may be of similar size, but taking on the responsibility of the large, modern edifice would be a step up from a Inverell’s modest church.

“I think I will be overwhelmed, but that just comes with the territory,” he chuckled.

“A cathedral is a complex, unwieldy beast, and sort of loving people in that context and looking after people in that context is going to be a challenge, but I’m excited by the challenge.” 

Adam will soon be moving up to Inverell with his wife Tanya and their two young children. He said leaving behind his congregation would be difficult.

“They become like family, and there will be a time of grief, but we’re looking forward to this next season of ministry very much.”

Peter felt Inverell was the ideal place to begin his career in the church and felt a measure of regret leaving so many friends behind.

“This has been a fantastic place, and I say that without any qualification. As soon as we got to Inverell, we loved it,” he said meaningfully. “The people were nothing short of excellent and the church has been incredibly supportive and close for us.”

He added: “Can I just thank the community of Inverell for the friendship, the fellowship and the great time that we’ve had here?

“And I can’t think of a better place to tell people about Jesus.”