Curates Nicky Lee and Archie Coates have been appointed Associate Vicars of Holy Trinity Brompton by the Bishop of London.

The announcement was made by the Bishop at HTB's Home Focus teaching holiday week at Pakefield, Suffolk - and he duly swore them in to their new office.

The two men will act as assistants to Nicky Gumbel, who remains Vicar.
The bishop said, 'All the way through the story of the church there have been great agencies like the great missionary orders and societies like CMS, which continue to be in the forefront of Christian mission.

'But any age calls forth fresh missionary responses. I believe that with Alpha International and Holy Trinity we have a genuinely 21st century response to the missionary challenge of our day. Now when you've got a missionary community like that, you've got to think very seriously about the leadership.'

He emphasised that the two men's areas of responsibility - Archie in charge of pastoral oversight and Nicky in his role in marriage and family life with his wife Sila - would remain unchanged. He said, 'Not that anyone is grasping at titles, but it is clearer for the office-holders to realise where their responsibility begins and ends.'

He added that whereas most HTB clergy might expect to lead church plants to other parts of London, Archie and Nicky would be remaining at HTB for the time being.

He said, 'There's going to be no seduction of Archie or Nicky to go and serve in other places because they are integral, vital and essential to the leadership team, which you have developed for a growing entity, which is nothing less than an international missionary community.'

Nicky Lee has been a curate at HTB for 22 years. For seven of those years he led a church plant in Onslow Square. Archie Coates joined the staff in 2003.

Nicky joked, 'When I was welcomed as a curate in 1985, John Collins [then Vicar] said, I hope very much that you and Sila will stay for a long time. He said the record for a curate was 32 years. Well, until this morning I was set to beat that record, so the bishop has rather spoilt it for me...'