|
PARISH PRIEST’S REPORT
It is with very mixed
feelings that I write this report – it will be my last.
It was at this time last year that I told you of my
intention to retire on 30th June and that is
now not far away. First let me note the changes since
last year. We have said farewell to Sue Williams as
Churchwarden and to Annette Barnsdale-Diffey, Katharine
Beaumont and Richard Robinson and welcomed Vanessa Dowse
as members of the PCC; my thanks to them all for their
respective contributions. We have also said goodbye to
Amanda Waller as wedding verger and secretary and have
welcomed Caroline Gray as secretary; again my thanks.
My thanks also go to the many who have stayed the course
and who continue to contribute so generously of their
time and talents to St Mary’s. St Mary’s continues to
host a large number of weddings largely as a result of
the two reception venues in the village. Our contact
with the community continues in the schools, now through
the hosted Post Office and The Big Question.
As far as the spiritual
life of the church is concerned I feel that we have
grown, not necessarily numerically, but I sense a
deepening of faith and commitment. In this my final
year we have embarked on Sunday mornings on studies in
the Epistles. Lent group and Bible studies are
enthusiastically attended. As I said last year, St
Mary’s could always use more help as our resources both
human and financial continue to be challenged.
It remains for Carol and
I to thank you all for your support over our time with
you – we will remember you in our prayers and we trust
that you will be as supportive of my successor as you
have been of us.
I leave with you words of
Paul writing his farewell in his first letter to the
Corinthians (16:13), “Keep alert, stand firm in your
faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be
done in love.”
Dave Stickland (269390)
|