Clergy and team

The Reverend Will Hughes

Rev. Will Hughes

Vicar
E-mail Rev. Will Hughes

Will has been the Vicar of Petersfield and Rector or Buriton since 2011.

After a short time in the Royal Navy, Will studied theology at Exeter University and Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He served his curacy in the Cley Hill Team (Warminster) in Salisbury diocese, and then had a wonderful 5 years as vicar of Blackmoor and Whitehill (Portsmouth diocese).

Will serves on the Diocesan Synod, Bishop’s Council, Board of Education and the Diocesan Academy Trust. He loves working in schools, and is currently a Governor at Petersfield Infant School and a chaplain at Churcher’s College and Ditcham Park School, District Scout chaplain and chaplain to the ATC. Will enjoys working with people exploring their vocations, and is a Bishops’ Advisor in the selection of clergy.

He is married to Hattie, and they have four children. He enjoys woodwork and archery in his limited spare time!

Rev’d Helen Mitchell

Assistant Priest
E-mail Rev’d Helen Mitchell

Helen joined the team at St Peter’s at the end of 2017 as a self-supporting Assistant Priest. She and her husband Robin, who is a retired solicitor, moved that year to Petersfield from Suffolk, where they had lived for 35 years. They have three grown up children.

Helen studied History and Law at Girton College, Cambridge. She qualified as a solicitor in 1980, but stopped work while the children were small and then again to study for ministry. She became a Reader in her home church in the village of Stoke by Nayland in 2004, and then moved to St Gregory’s Church, in the nearby town of Sudbury to train for ordination, studying with the Eastern Region Ministry Course, part of the Cambridge Theological Federation. After ordination in 2010, she remained at St Gregory’s as a Curate and then as Assistant Priest.

Helen is a trained spiritual director; she has practised Christian Meditation for many years and in 2017 completed the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises at St Beuno’s Retreat Centre in North Wales.

Helen enjoys poetry and visiting art galleries, she jogs (very slowly!) to try to keep fit and loves growing vegetables.

Allison Waterhouse

Curate
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Alison joined the parish in June 2021 when she was ordained Deacon and prior to that had been an active member of another local church. Alison studied on the Portsmouth Pathway and at Ripon Theological College, Cuddesdon, Oxford for the previous 3 years before ordination.

Alison previously worked in and around Petersfield area serving her previous employer for 34 years.

Alison is a Street Pastor who patrols and serves on the streets of Portsmouth in the evenings taking God’s Love out on to the streets looking after the vulnerable, the students, the navy personnel, and locals whilst they are out in the nightclubs, restaurants and walking the streets.

Alison enjoys singing, walking, painting, and buildings maintenance, she particularly likes to use her experience to make the most of buildings in her care, and has had pivotal roles looking after listed buildings. She loves to do gardening and DIY. Alison likes to build teams to support both Local and Church Projects, she currently sits on the board for two local charities.

Alison is delighted to have joined the team at St Peter’s Petersfield and has led evening and morning prayers, taken baptisms, funerals and the first Taizé service since the covid restrictions have been eased.

Alison has a large extended family which gives her great pleasure and support.

Melanie Evans

Melanie is a Lay Reader in St Peter’s Church.She combines her Christian ministry within the life of the church while working full-time.

Melanie graduated with a degree in theology and ministry from University College, Chichester in 2004 and became a licensed reader in 2010 after spending sixteen years in the Methodist Church where she undertook similar ministry.

Her interests include spirituality and writing.

Penny Bell

Church Warden

Penny moved to St Peter’s in 2014 and since then has been enjoying an exciting journey of faith.

She loves St Peter’s and is involved in various ways, including the Tuesday Nights programme and Refresh Café, and is interested in the wider church and community as well.

She is married to Richard and they have three sons.

Martin How

Martin How

Church Warden
E-mail Martin How

Martin is Churchwarden and Head Server. He worked for most of his career for the Diocese of London, as Head of Property and later as Director of ICT. In 2003 he moved with family to Petersfield and has been a church member ever since. He has a wide experience of most things C-of-E and values it’s wide diversity of styles of ministry, worship and inclusive nature and hopes to see this broaden even further. He is a active team member of ALMA the Diocese of London’s Angola London Mozambique mission link and visits as often as possible.

Outside of the church he has a wife Gill and three grown up children and is interested in engineering, electronics, Photography and most things practical. He loves travel and is involved with a charity in Uganda that provides practical support and education for homeless boys aged 8 – 18.

He is also a member of the Petersfield Mens Shed which is a place to provide social and practical support for all members and the local community.

Mark Dancer - Director of Music at St Peter's Church

Mark Dancer

Director of Music

Stemming directly from his time as a chorister at Ewell Parish Church in Surrey, and already an accomplished pianist and flautist, Mark Dancer began to study the organ with Michael Fleming at Addington Palace, then home of the Royal School of Church Music, passing ARCO and LRAM in Organ Performance while still at school. He read music at Durham University and was Organ Scholar of the College of St Hild and St Bede, continuing his organ studies with Alan Thurlow and David Hill, gaining FRCO in 1984. He studied singing with Hervey Alan.

In 1986 he moved to Birmingham, becoming a lay-clerk at Birmingham Cathedral and Organist of Carrs Lane United Reformed Church in the city centre. During his time in Birmingham, Mark directed the annual festival of the Midlands branch of the Free Church Choir Union, and later, the National Festival.

Moving to the south coast in 1995, Mark spent a period as Organist at St George’s, Waterlooville, where he oversaw the restoration of the organ, and making a recording on it to help raise funds for the project. In 1997 he was appointed Director of Music at St Peter’s, Petersfield. Following the reordering of St Peter’s in 1998-9, he has established a summer lunchtime series of organ recitals, of which remains popular. He is conductor of the Petersfield Choral Society, and developing a recently acquired interest in composition, which resulted in him being commissioned to compose the anthem for the Petersfield Musical Festival’s Centenary Service in 2001. His ‘Mass of St Basil’ (2005) is in regular use at St Peter’s.

In addition to his private teaching practice, Mark is a visiting tutor for flute and piano at Dunhurst School, and works as a music type-setter using Finale and Sibelius (for sample scores in pdf format, please email via the link in paragraph one above). He also has a keen interest in photography and church architecture.

Safeguarding Officer

Safeguarding officer

Safeguarding is an important part of the governance and supervision at St Peter’s. Further details including how to contact the safeguarding team regarding a safeguarding matter can be seen at our Safeguarding page.

Madeline King

Verger

Madeline is Verger at St Peter’s. She is also a long standing bell ringer who learnt to ring at St. Peter’s when she and her family moved to Petersfield.