Ministerial Meanderings

Having been in post for just over 4 months, and still not seen most of you, I thought it would be an idea to write a small passage each week to keep you abreast of any thoughts I may have.

First, I’d like to thank all of you who bothered to vote for our new People’s Warden - 41 of you pitched in for that, which was a great turn out.  The contest was very close between two highly competent ladies, Lynn Laughlin and Dorothy Cresswell.  In the end it came down to a gap of only 3 votes, with Lynn winning by a whisker, so when Dorothy tried the old crocodile tears with a wail of ‘Nobody loves me!’ - she didn’t get a huge amount of sympathy!  I would have been happy with either lady winning, so didn’t vote myself.

These last weeks have seen a number of parishioners express their intention to leave the church, which is both a surprise and sad.  I am aware that Douglas and Tania Hart are going travelling for some time, and so have relinquished their stalwart gardening duties, which my wife, Sheila, has elected to pick up.

Others have left for their own reasons, which have not been passed on to me, so it is pointless to speculate.  I pray they may return in the future, as our doors are always open.

Nevertheless, moving on, with the imminent possibility that we may finally be able to open up the church, we will need some volunteers to help clean it and the hall - a job that Doug and Tania also did out of the kindness of their hearts.

You will see a letter from the Wardens to the effect that we aim to do a trial run of opening up in early July, after the next Parish Council on 8th, but I suspect that may be in the hall for the first time, to give Graham some space to work all his magic with techy-stuff that most average humans know little about.  Once we are sure it will work, we intend going back into our special little church as quickly as we can.

You should be aware that our 125th anniversary of the church comes up on 23rd of August, however, it is still unlikely that we will be able to have a no-holds-barred, full-throated singing service until some time in September, if Dr Bonnie Henry’s predictions are on track - which they have been so far.

My plan was to have a big BBQ in the car park after a celebratory service on a Sunday, as close to the anniversary date as possible, but that means it’s likely to be in early September rather than the end of August.  Watch this space.

Finally - for this week - if you have any musical requests that you would like to have included in our zoom services, please email them to me (revpb1950@gmail.com) or leave a message on the vestry phone (604 796 3553).  I don’t promise to action them immediately, but am keen to build up a repository of requests that I can draw on.  I reserve the right to refuse them if I think they are inappropriate!

 

Hambani Khale,

Philip +