August this year is a time of new beginnings for St Mary’s. 

David Bennie who has been a huge influence and responsible for so much growth of our church and in the village retired at the end of July. So the baton has been passed on to a new generation. 

While praying about this, two bible passages came to mind. In July Richard Arding spoke to us about Luke 10 1-23 which opens “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him” and Acts 18 9-10 “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you.” 

I think both these speak to us at this time. We are delighted that some people have volunteered to enable us to keep Forest Church running in the same pattern as before and our plans for 2nd and 4th Sunday Services are coming together. There will be small changes as none of us can replicate David and at present no one in our church is licensed by the Bishop to conduct services in the same way. This means that we will use a printed order of service based a draft David prepared for us. Also, for the time being either Linda or Richard, as churchwardens, have to be present for every service, including Forest Church unless it is led by a visiting vicar. 

This is not something we can keep up for long, so Madeleine McClintock is arranging some training with the aim of getting limited approval from the Bishop for those who attend it to lead services. Please contact her if you are able to join us in this which will take about 4-5 days or evenings. 

We have decided that we will not hold a Pet Service on the Green this year because of this workload but we already have a volunteer visiting Vicar to run the service next year, so it will be back. 

We are delighted that Maggie and Theo were baptised in July and looking ahead we have two more baptism services and a wedding in the coming months, so our church family continues to flourish. 

 A big thank you from me, Richard, to everyone who sponsored my abseil. At the time of going to print I have raised over £2000 for the charities I was supporting with ~£1,300 for St Mary’s. 

We’d like to thank Steph, Sarah-Jane and Rachel for their hard work organising the Church Fete which raised a further £500 for St Mary’s. 

Superstars on 6th September is the next opportunity to raise funds for village charities; we’re looking for someone to take part on behalf of the church. 

We often mention the need for additional volunteers in order to keep aspects of the Church running. In particular we need more help with the opening and closing of the Church on a daily basis. Gill Bennie has details of the rotas so please contact her if you find you are able to assist with this. Without more names, it maybe that we cannot open the Church every day – we are reaching crunch time with this. 

Also we have been so fortunate to have had Nicky and Bruce Williams organising Churchyard working parties but they will be retiring from this role at the end of this year. 

 So many behind-the-scenes activities keep the Church running and we are grateful to them for the commitment they have shown for so long. 

 Any help you can offer will be so appreciated. 

 Many thanks Richard & Linda