Sunday marks a special anniversary for a retired Tenby clergyman. Fifty years ago - on September 29, 1952 - Canon John Potter, of Bryn Brith, Park Terrace, was ordained in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Before retiring to Tenby four years ago, Canon Potter had held wide-ranging clerical appointments in contrasting settings from London to rural Cornwall and Dorset.
Following his ordination, he was appointed curate at Islington, which proved a fascinating area in which to start his career.
"Islington was recognised as a kind of cathedral church of the evangelical movement within the Church of England," he says proudly. "Charles Wesley was once a curate there. And two Archbishops of Canterbury, Donald Coggan and the present Archbishop, George Carey, were also curates there."
One of Canon Potter's contemporary curates at Islington was the charismatic David Sheppard, former England cricket captain and now retired Bishop of Liverpool.
"So I'm one of the curates who didn't achieve anything special," laughs John, now a neighbour of mine.
He was born in Tunbridge Wells, one of four children. I asked him when he first felt a calling to be a clergyman. "I think in my last years at school," he said. "And then I went into the Army and, strangely, that strengthened my desire to enter the Church."
The vicar who trained him at Islington later became Bishop of Norwich. He came to Tenby to conduct John's marriage ceremony in 1955.
"My wife Gillian, though born in Maesteg, spent her early life in Tenby. She was the daughter of Aubrey and Molly Ellis. She had a fine voice and at one time had ambitions to be a professional singer."
Gillian took part in many local concerts organised by her talented uncle, Albert Bevan, former organist and choirmaster of St. Mary's, Tenby.
Gillian ultimately undertook teacher training at Oxford. Her `first appointment was at st. Mary's Church Day School in Islington where she first met her husband-to-be.
"In fact I was on the board making the teaching appointment. There were two candidates on the shortlist and I voted for the other one, a man whom I happened to know. Gillian frequently reminds me of that!"
After leaving Islington, John spent three years as a curate in Kinson, Bournemouth, and then in 1958 he was appointed Vicar in the sharply contrasting environment at St. John, Upper Holloway.
Seven years later his sights switched westwards again when he became Rector of Illogan in Redruth, Cornwall.
Then from 1969 to 1976 he served as Vicar of St. Phillip and St. James, Ilfracombe.
His next appointment involved him in a very onerous post as Rector and Rural Dean at Poole in Dorset where he had oversight of a number of churches.
He remained there for 11 busy years before spending his last four years before retirement as Rector of Charmouth, Dorset. He was made a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral in 1983.
After seven years of retirement in the Bournemouth area, Canon and Mrs. Potter moved to Tenby in 1998.
Now 76, Canon Potter says he loves Tenby. The pace of life appeals to him.
In his younger days he worked as part-time chaplain to London Transport and he also had valuable experience visiting Holloway Prison.
Nowadays he helps out various churches in the area.
He is an enthusiastic member of Tenby Probus Club where his fellow members include no fewer than four other clergymen, Dewi Bridges, Donald Pope, Glyn Evans and Chris Lunn.
He and Mrs. Potter have a son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Chris, both chartered physiotherapists in Worthing, and two granddaughters, Megan nine, and Bethan four.
Sadly, another son, David, died eight years ago at the age of 32.
Canon Potter, who is remarkably sprightly for his age, finds he now has more time to read and, I imagine, to reflect on a very busy and satisfying half-century of life as a clergyman.