THE vicar of St Margaret's Church, Rev John Guest preached his last sermon to the parish this morning on his last day of service to the Stanford-le-Hope community, where he has been vicar for more than 26 years.

Together with his wife Kim, the sermon came from Rev Guest's home in Kent as St Margaret's is currently closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He based his sermon around the battle of Jericho and the need and lessons to be learned from prayer.

In a message not aimed at any particular church, creed or faith, Rev Gest drew lessons from the battle and drew parallels with many of the current social ills in the world and said: "The church of Jesus has set some of the worst examples of people fighting each other and Satan rubs his hands in glee."

But he also drew the positives from the lessons of battle and the unity of 'fighting spiritually' for a common purpose.

He called on members of the congregation to support the current church leadership, explaining that it will be some time before a new Rector is appointed.

Rev Guest, who was recently honoured with the Freedom of the borough of Thurrock for his service, finished the sermon by thanking the congregation for 26 and a half years of support and singled out Kim for 40 years of personal support.

His sermon's final words to the congregation were 'Love each other'.