The church held a special Sunday service to thank all those who have worked so hard in supporting the church through our vacancy; after the service we celebrated the contribution of everyone with tea and cake.
Richard, Jenny and John were caught by surprise themselves by a special presentation ... Jenny summed up their thoughts by saying "it has been a pleasure to work with all the team keeping our services, events, fundraisers and fellowship together during the interregnum." (vacancy)
During the service Richard said ...
... volunteering sits at the core of Christian life; to paraphrase John Chapter 3 “let us not love in word alone but in deed”. This is a value that is central to people of all faiths and people of no faith to live in peace and love with others and to do good for all.
Our church stands or falls through the commitment of all who give their time voluntarily.
We have been very fortunate that we have not missed a single service throughout the vacancy; let me say thank you to everyone who has continued to work so hard to keep our church community open, welcoming, vibrant and our worship as strong and diverse as it is.
We are well served with a range of worship styles including morning prayer, house groups, young people focussed activities led by Olivia and Pam, Common Worship (said & sung), BCP and Choral Evensong on a regular basis.
The PCC has been dedicated throughout and my thanks to them for their work on your behalf, they work well together, listen to each other and support the work of our church in encouraging our outreach and fundraising activities
Thank you to Jenny for all the unseen work that she does.
Thanks to our retired clergy, lay readers and visiting clergy who have led much of our worship - we were very keen that during vacancy we welcomed a range of clergy with different insights to open our eyes further.
Our head server, Nicky, remains the foundation of all our services and a steadying hand for all our clergy.
My thanks to Archdeacon Alison for her support in the background and to our hard-working, now retired Rural Dean, Jane Baxter, for all her support especially of our Saturday morning and Sunday BCP services.
Thanks to Sue and her thriving team of bellringers, John for his leadership of our music, production of all the powerpoints for our services and producing the weekly newsletter, the choir themselves, the flower arrangers, brass polishers, coffee rota team, readers, intercessors, welcomers, eucharistic assistants, Mothers’ Union, treasurer, gift aid secretary, safeguarding officer, electoral role officer, Eco team, church openers and closers, school governors, churches together reps, Fairtrade rep, visitors to care homes, worship leaders in our primary school, Hilary for all she does with the church hall which is such an important part of our relationship with the town and beyond making many people welcome ... and everyone else who works so hard but I may not have mentioned !