More stories from St Faithful's, Havnot
by TOM KENNAR
St Faithful’s, Havnot, is an entirely ordinary parish.
The boiler misbehaves.
The WhatsApp group overreacts.
The biscuits run out at critical theological moments.
And yet, beneath the gentle chaos, something deeper stirs.
In this third volume of The Parish Life, the fictional community of St Faithful’s dares to step into harder conversations. Identity. Power. Law. Shame. Suffering. The things polite church meetings prefer to postpone.
What happens when a parish decides to stay in the room?
Alongside familiar humour and beloved characters, Volume 3 moves into quieter, more searching territory. These are stories about faith that is sometimes uncertain, disagreement that does not collapse into exile, and the stubborn grace of turning up — even when the mist has not quite lifted.
Warm, observant, and quietly courageous, The Parish Life: Volume 3 marks a turning point in the St Faithful’s series — where laughter remains, but listening grows deeper.
The urn is still humming.
Church of England priest, musician and social entrepreneur
Tom Kennar is the rector of Havant, in Hampshire (on the south coast, between the cathedral cities of Portsmouth and Chichester). He is an honorary canon of three cathedrals, Portsmouth and, in Ghana, Cape Coast and Ho (as a result of his ministry there over the years). Tom holds a masters degree in Christian Ministry and Mission. From 1985 to 2000 he was a leader in the YMCA movement and then an advisor to HM Government (2000-2005). Ordained in 2005, Tom brings his experiences of the voluntary and government sectors into his ministry today as a priest and social entrepreneur. His prime goal is to help people discover their own passions, gifts and abilities, rooted in a real and honest faith, to meet the challenges of our time, and to participate, with God, in the building of His ‘kingdom on earth as it is in heaven’. He has published five books: 'Scribblings' (a collection of sermons, stories blog posts and a Ghana diary), 'Lockdown Lines' (a collection of sermons by Tom, with other material shared by his parishioners during the Covid pandemic) and 'Faith on The Way' (a collection of sermons and Facebook posts from 2025) and two volumes of stories about the fictional parish of St Faithful's, Havnot. All of these books can be printed on demand from this site.
Observed humour and gentle theology from the fictional parish of St Faithful's Havnot
A year of Progressive sermons that are unafraid of doubt, attentive to injustice, and grounded in a deep love of Scripture.
by Tom Kennar
A collection of short talks, homilies, stories, journals and pithy reflections is a snap-shot of the life and work of a parish priest, during the approximate decade from around 2009 to 2020
by Tom Kennar
A collection of original reflections, sermons, autobiographies, local history and poetry from the Pandemic of 2020.
by Tom Kennar & Parishioners