LIFE has gone full circle for the Reverend Philip Carrington.
At 57, the grandfather of one is leaving Teesside to become a vicar on the island of Guernsey where he worked as an electronics engineer before he was ordained, 21 years ago.
"We are staggered,'' said Mr Carrington, who is moving to the Channel Islands with wife, Linda, in two weeks.
Ordained in 1985, at St Mary's Acklam, Middlesbrough, he took over as priest at the Church of St Agnes on the then Easterside council estate, adjacent to South Tees, now the James Cook University Hospital.
In 1992, he was asked to become the hospital's first, full-time chaplain.
He said: "I have done work integrating the chaplaincy. I have had an absolutely super time. I have rebuilt the chaplaincy team and rebuilt the chapel.''
The York-born clergyman and father of four was the last chaplain to the chairman of the defunct Cleveland County Council and was chaplain to one of the Middlesbrough mayors.
"We have had a great time,'' said Mr Carrington, who will be inducted as Vicar of St Stephen's, Guernsey, on February 22.
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