Dear Friends,
We promised at the start of our interregnum (the period
without a permanent vicar) that we would do our best to keep you up to date
with what is happening, so here's a summary of the latest news.
Most people are wondering when we might have a new vicar and
at Thursday's PCC we read a letter from our Archdeacon Cherry explaining progress
of the recruitment process. In short the post will be advertised during March
aiming to appoint somebody during Summer.
In the meantime we continue working hard to maintain a
vibrant Christian presence in our local area. One of the things people tell us
they like about our church is that we are welcoming of everyone, whatever race,
ability, gender or sexuality. That's why we often display the message 'Everyone
is Welcome Here' on our notice board. It's also why our church is a member of
the Inclusive Church network.
We were disappointed, to say the least, at the news that the
long awaited report to the House of Bishops on same sex marriage had
recommended that there be no change to the status quo in the Anglican Church. The reaction of members of our own
congregation was much stronger, so we resolved as a PCC to write to our General
Synod representatives and urge them to vote against accepting the report at
next week's Synod. Though not everyone finds all of the issues easy to think
about or discuss we all agreed that a better way of being accepting and loving
to all our fellow Christians is overdue and that the report falls well short of
it. You can see the letter we sent here.
As usual at the PCC meeting we reviewed our expenditure and
financial position, we have had some routine maintenance carried out recently
but are managing to keep on top of the challenges of maintaining a historic
building. We have been in touch with our diocesan stewardship officer to make
sure we keep up to date with the most effective ways of funding the work we do
at St John's. One notable and interesting point is the preference for people
under 40 to be able to give money on line, in preference to cash. Given that
the majority of adults at our Thursday service are under 40 (not counting the
wardens and music group!) we decided to investigate on-line giving methods. We
will soon have an account with BT MyDonate which is, in our view, the most cost-effective way for charities to
collect on-line donations.
We also hope that by communicating with all of our
congregations you will understand better where your money goes and also what
work we are carrying on doing. That way you can make better decisions about how
and what to donate to support the work of St John's.
To help us to do that we are establishing a communications
group to review all of the ways that you get information and to make sure that
everyone is catered for in the way we share messages.
Our young people's groups are as popular as ever with the
children and young adults that attend them. Unfortunately it is looking
increasingly unlikely that we will be able to sustain all of them unless we
have any volunteers to take over in the coming months. Please, if you are
thinking about where to give your volunteering time, consider this important
work.
Don't forget if you use the internet regularly you can keep
up to date with church events on our blog , on our Facebook page and of course there is a host of information on our website. The full minutes
of all PCC meetings are in a folder at the rear of church. In the meantime if
you have an opinion or a suggestion about church let us know, or let one of the
members of the PCC know.
With best wishes,
Brian and Eddie
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