St. Mary’s Church PCC
A time of change...
This month sees the beginning of a Vacancy for our parish. Rev. Julie has moved to a new post in her beloved North-East. No doubt some of us feel very uncertain and apprehensive as we are used to Rev. Julie’s guiding hand in organising our Christian life. Who will take the services, choose the hymns, visit our schools, preach the sermons, visit the sick, run the PCC, write the articles and all the rest of the work that she did for us?
It is certainly a time of change for people of St. Mary’s and our sister church St. Thomas’s, but also probably for many other people, dear reader, perhaps including you, a time of change and challenge as we try to organise ourselves to keep our churches open, welcoming and working for God, and taking more responsibility at least for a while. It is even more tricky because our ancient church is undergoing dramatic changes in its building layout. Of course, you would point out that the message and love of Christ has not changed, and indeed it hasn’t, even if the building has but we don’t know what the future holds. Money and time are short. Climate change worries us, and wars, and hardship of people here and overseas. Oh, and it is the start of the summer holidays.
There is much to be gained from all this change, though. It is a time to learn to work together, to plan and look forward to the time when we shall have a new vicar with new, interesting ideas, and a local meeting place for people to use in Newchurch, when the church will have a toilet and kitchen, when we can do so much more with our church than ever before. Already we talk about having a Christmas event, coffee mornings, exhibitions, wine-tastings, a sunrise Easter service with freshly prepared bacon butties and coffee…you can add your own ideas, and if you have some, the PCC would love to hear them. Mention them to any member.
Over the last few weeks the Churchyard Gardening Group, meeting on alternate Thursdays from 4.00-6.00pm, is involving people in clearing the paths, gravestones and flower borders-and laughing far too much. There have been Vacancy meetings (a strange title but what they are called) and people are discussing the future of St. Mary’s and its partner church in all sorts of different places and groups. We shall have our services taken by different visiting ministers. The Rushbearing brought a lot of people together with our Rushbearing Queens Millie and Lilliana. An open gardens raised £300 for St. Mary’s. Pictures of the church in a most disreputable state are on Facebook showing areas which have not seen the light of day for hundreds of years. It all feels like the start of exciting times, working together for a better future and, indeed, at the time of writing a short term plan for the way forward is being devised. Do be part of it!
Happy holiday time, dear reader.