I wanted to share with you that after much prayer and consideration, I have made the decision to retire from the role of Director of Ministry at The Well in December 2025. In this letter I wanted to summarise why I felt this was the right time, and what is happening next at The Well.
Since Father God first gave me the vision for The Well in 2002, I have been blown away by His faithfulness, provision and heart for healing our guests from far and wide. I love my work and feel incredibly privileged to have led The Well’s ministry, but it has never been my intention to work forever. Over the past 16 months, I’ve felt increasingly confident that the time was coming to hand the Keys of Leadership on to new leaders who were called to the next exciting chapter of The Well’s journey.
Please watch this video to hear how God has walked with me and the Trustees through this process and why I’m so excited about how Father God has called Ian and Ruth Dowsett to be my successors at The Well.
What’s next for The Well?
You may be asking – what happens next? I will be retiring from my role as Director of Ministry on December 7th. Ian and Ruth Dowsett will then begin their roles as Co-directors of The Well on December 8th and will be reporting to the Board of Trustees. Here is a brief summary of Ian and Ruth’s recent story below. We will be sharing more about them next week.
Following 7 years as a Curate and Associate vicar, Ian was Vicar of St Paul’s, South Harrow from 2009 to 2023 with Ruth working on the senior leadership team. Together Ian and Ruth have been co-leaders of a Christian community in London called St Peter’s Bourne for the last 2 years.
Throughout these years, they have been actively involved in healing and prophetic work, with a heart for seeing others encounter the transformational love and power of God through healing prayer. They were involved with Healing on the Streets and developed the prayer ministry at St Paul’s, Harrow. At St Peter’s Bourne, Ruth has pioneered and runs a House of Prayer and Worship and is additionally involved in ministry to women in leadership, preaching and leading worship. Ian pastorally supports members of the St Peter’s Bourne community and also a large staff team at a local church.
From our first conversation in April, it was clear that Ian and Ruth share The Well’s vision entirely and will bring fresh energy, experience and ideas that will be a huge blessing to all. They want to work with our wonderful Team to build on what we have been doing, so that The Well reaches even more Guests. They will be working together in a job-share for a total of 7 days a week between them (that’s 3.5 days each), so increasing the paid ministry capacity for the next chapter.
My role with The Well after December
Though I will be retiring from my role at The Well and am looking forward to having a much clearer diary, I am still keen to be part of The Well community. For the initial months after December, I will be supporting Ian & Ruth as they transition into their new roles – building on The Well’s established prayer practices. After that I hope to be able to support from time to time where needed, such as with the delivery of Healing Prayer Training.
I’m so grateful that God has brought such an amazing couple for me to pass the baton of leadership on to and for the support of the Team and Trustees as I look to retire. We’ve felt Father God’s hand on this so clearly.
Founding and leading The Well for over two decades has been a true privilege, but it has always been God’s vision at work, not mine, so I trust Him completely with this next chapter.
With love and blessings,
Anne
Jonathan Tidd writes:
As Trustees we want to say a heartfelt ‘thank you!’ to Anne for her passionate and inspirational leadership throughout the last 23 years. Whether you have been a volunteer, supporter, or guest at The Well, we know you will have been blessed in some way by Anne’s great spiritual insight, support and wisdom.
Her obedience to God’s calling has made The Well what it is today, reaching well over 10,000 people with Father God’s love across two decades.
We are very much looking forward to Ian & Ruth Dowsett joining us at The Well as we embark on the next chapter of The Well’s journey.
How can you be part of the next chapter of The Well?
There are three ways we’d love to invite you to respond to this news:
- Please pray for Anne, for Ian and Ruth, and for our Team of volunteers and staff at The Well as we prepare for this period of transition.
- Please join us on Saturday November 15th for a special ‘Passing the Baton’ celebration where Anne will hand over the Keys of Leadership to Ian and Ruth. We’ll give thanks for God’s faithfulness over the last 23 years, for Anne’s amazing leadership and to pray into this next chapter of The Well. We will be providing more details on this event at the end of September.
- Please consider increasing your support for The Well. Next week we will be starting an appeal to raise £1,200 in additional monthly funding and £20,000 in one-off giving by November 15th to sustain our current work and expand into the next chapter of The Well’s ministry. We long to pray with more guests – including more men, young people and church leaders. As we look forward to this exciting new chapter, your gifts of time or money will make a significant impact as more people encounter Father God’s healing love. (More on this appeal next week).
We are looking forward to sharing more news on all of this over the next few weeks, but from all of us at The Well, thank you for being part of The Well’s journey so far – and for the chapters still to come.
We long to pray with more guests – including more men, young people and church leaders. As we look forward to this exciting new chapter, your gifts of time or money will make a significant impact as more people encounter Father God’s healing love.
With blessings,
Jonathan Tidd
Chair of Trustees
P.S. Click HERE to see the answers to questions you may be asking – or if you would like to ask any further questions.