From the July 2024 Magazine
We are now legally the churchwardens of our wonderful church. We both attended our churchwarden’s admissions citation service on Tuesday 25th June at St Peter and St Paul, Kettering led by the Venerable Alison Booker the Archdeacon of Oakham, as our church sits within the Oakham Archdeaconry. The service was attended by all the other churchwardens in our Deanery, which is the Higham Deanery.
The Higham Deanery is a collection of churches from the surrounding area such as Irthlingborough, The Addingtons, Higham, Rushden, Chelveston, Ringstead, Stanwick, all who work together to help and support not only the clergy but the communities their churches serve, a good network of people working together in faith.
Our transition period from being elected at the APCM to our legal admission has certainly been enlightening and a very steep learning curve for both of us. This ranges from arranging cover priests, ordering communion breads, washing alter cloths to make sure our church services run without falter, to unblocking drainpipes and filling up the loo roll in the toilet (next time you visit the loo in church, just ponder about the notice relating who our toilet is twinned with.) Perhaps this is an article for another day! There are too many other tasks to be listed, that needs to be a book in itself.
May and June have been particularly busy months both with services and the events calendar and we offer our sincere thanks to all those who work tirelessly to make sure everything runs smoothly.
As well as weekly services, monthly evensong and special services such as Ascension day, other events have included Christian Aid Coffee Morning (working together with the Independent Wesleyan Chapel), sponsored Bible reading, crowning of the May Queen and Afternoon Tea, Watoto Children’s choir, service of the 80th D-Day Commemoration, Pimm’s, Punch and Pop Music afternoon and the Annual Church Fete.
We also offer our sincere gratitude to the gardening team for transforming the vicarage garden, not technically our responsibility, but they are never shy in stepping in when needed. We did meet our new priest at the vicarage the other day and she was blown away by how stunning the garden looked, especially with the roses out in full bloom, a truly chocolate-box picture. We do feel blessed that we have been able to find a priest who will lead us through our next journey at St Mary’s. Our focus now is to plan for Reverend Morna Simpson’s induction on Wednesday the 4th September, never a dull moment in the life of a churchwarden.
As we hit the halfway mark through this year, with time flying by and the holiday season upon us, we are often so taken up with everyday concerns that we forget to take time to be still; to consciously be in the presence of the Lord and to be aware of the wonders of the world.
We encourage you to ‘take a moment’ whether your time is early morning, mid-day or in the evening to go and sit in the churchyard, to connect with nature in lovely surroundings, enjoy the music of the wildlife and have a sneaky moment with Our Lord.
