Welcome to the webpage of a rural Church of England priest on this and that. Martin Coppen lives in the village of St Mary Bourne, near Andover in north Hampshire, in the south of England.
Trinity - the One and Three, God of all, above all, within all, compassionate and loving ... So, I'm just opening up a few lines of thought and experience, and hope that they might be of interest to others.
The four parishes I serve as vicar are: Hurstbourne Priors, Longparish, St Mary Bourne and Woodcott. The first three have crystal clear chalk streams flowing through, the Rivers Bourne and Test. Woodcott is high on the Hampshire chalk downland. The links below give some idea of the churches and places.
I have a particular interest in local history and have a substantial archive of information and pictures - too large to give more than a taster here.
We have done a lot of work to find our ancestors both in England and Canada. The basic family tree is published here. If you find a connection with your family, or would like to enquire further, please contact me via my Blog, and I'll get back to you.
There are also pictures of both the Coppen and Wardle families in Canada - including a picture of the 'family mountain' in British Columbia, named after James Morey Wardle, pioneering road builder in the foundation days of the National Parks.
Dick (Richard) Coppen and his brother, Ed(win), both fought for the Canadian Forces in World War I. I have pictures of their service medals and Dick's mention in Despatches - signed by the then Secretary of State for War, Winston S Churchill.
Just a few photos of some things around here which have caught my attention recently.
Thoughts and readings are posted on my very occasional Blog
I have some opportunity to try to put experiences and ideas into words in the normal course of my vicar's work. There is a regular weekly output of sermons, and monthly contribution to the Parish Magazine, Hill & Valley. Beyond that I have written occasional articles for particular occasions.
¶ Please note: these links are to Adobe Acrobat ('pdf') files, for which you need the free download Adobe Acrobat Reader if you haven't already got it.