AS I was on holiday at the time of the original article, I am grateful for the opportunity to respond to the story headlined - You can't use my church - Vicar.

Let me assure your readers the church belongs to all the parishioners. The people at St Michael's, Stoke Prior, and at the other churches in our united parish, are very welcoming to all who come, regardless of where they live.

Their warm Christian acceptance was one of the attractions that led me to accept their invitation to become their vicar. The story has caused the reaction in Your View because it is seen to reflect not just on the vicar but on all the church people.

But originally the real issue was the effect of the legal church parish boundary. The position is that the civic boundaries for Stoke Parish have changed but the Stoke Prior church parish boundaries - and the boundaries of St John's, Bromsgrove - remain as before.

In common with every other Church of England parish, when people want baptisms, weddings or funerals they are encouraged to approach first their own parish vicar, because as parishioners they have the established right to those services in their parish church.

If people choose to attend regularly at a different C of E church outside their parish and want a baptism, wedding or funeral there, arrangements are usually made. For instance, this year we will celebrate about one third of weddings in this parish under such arrangements.

Requests in other circumstances for these services are then at the discretion of the vicar, but will be considered sympathetically to enable the best decision to be taken within the constraints of church parish boundaries. I hope that this helps to understand the situation.

Rev Roger Antell

Rector

Stoke Prior, Wychbold

and Upton Warren