Letter from the Vicarage. I do hope that the long, and recently very dreary, dark and damp weather is not getting you all down? I have recently been talking in my sermons about God’s call on each and every one of us and it struck me how much easier it is to respond to any call on our time when all is warm and bright and sunny. Yet we are called to be Christian all the time and, as I was recently reminded while on holiday and talking about my forthcoming retirement, there is no retirement age for being a Christian. God calls us all and gives us the gifts to follow his calling. Our role is to recognise that call and to follow the teachings of Jesus while encouraging all whom we meet to do the same. Following Jesus may not be easy but it is never dark and dreary as the recent weather has been. Our services begin this month with the end of the Christmas / Epiphany season on February 1st when we celebrate the Feast of Candlemas (the Presentation of Christ in the Temple) at our morning service at 9.30 am with a said Holy Communion which will hopefully be the last joint service caused by the work at St John's. It is then time to put away the cribs until next Advent. On the 8th February at 9.30am at Burton Leonard we shall have the first Children Led Family Communion Service of 2026. Lent begins with our Ash Wednesday services of Holy Communion with imposition of Ashes are at 11am at Bishop Monkton and 7pm at Burton Leonard and continues until our Easter services which are earlier this year on April 5th, which is Easter Day. There will not be a Lent Course this year as I will be preparing the Candidates for Confirmation and Communion before Confirmation, the service for which will be held on my final Sunday, 19th April, led by Bishop Anna. If all goes well with the works in Bishop Monkton then we shall have a Children Led Café Church Service at 9.30am on 22nd Feb at Bishop Monkton which will be my final Café Church here. Later that evening at 6pm there will be a joint Choral Evensong at Bishop Monkton. I’d like to give you advance warning that the Great Potato Challenge will, I hope, run again in each village this year but will once again start after Easter, which apparently is better for the type of potatoes we grow. It will again end in mid-September rather than late August. Details should follow in next month’s magazine. Please do contact me if you would like a visit or a chat or Home Communion brought to you. I am always happy to come to you or receive you here at the Vicarage. Blessings Rob
Bishop Monkton: St John the Baptist
