Dear Friends,

It’s hard to believe that the summer months are upon us again. For some people, summer offers the opportunity to take a step back from the regular routines which keep them constantly busy and have some time away or a holiday. If you do have the opportunity to do so, I always encourage people to take the opportunity to visit a local church wherever you manage to get away if that is possible. It always offers local congregations in holiday
destinations great encouragement to have visitors. It also sometimes helps to ease the economic burdens for small and scattered congregations to have more people in the worshipping community during holiday seasons.

In the parish, many of our organisations take a well-deserved break after a busy programme running throughout the year. We do hope to run a few things which we hope will be of interest over the summer months. There will be 2 further writing workshops with local author Paul Clements as we try to capture memories from the past 50 years of our parish’s history. The first will be on Wednesday 3rd July at 2pm in the Huston Hall and the second will be on Wednesday 14th August at 2pm also in the Huston Hall. Maybe you have memories of being in a parish organisation or of the setting up of a project or some special function or event? We’d love to
capture those special memories as we think ahead to our parish’s 100th year anniversary down the tracks a little.

In the week between Ascension and Pentecost, the Diocese hosted a series of 8 events about church growth called Grow. They looked at different
topics that are very important as we consider church growth and invited a range of different speakers. These special events were recorded on YouTube and we hope to hold a series of evenings on the Tuesdays in July/August to watch their presentations and have a think about the topic. Each evening
will be no longer than one hour and 15 minutes and will be held in the Coffee Bar at 7.30pm.

The topics for our consideration will be Evangelism, Worship, Growing Healthy Christian Communities, Generosity, Prayer, outreach into the
community and ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. The evenings are open to all and we hope they will stimulate our thoughts and deepen our
faith.

Our weekly Communion Service will continue on Wednesdays at 10.30am and the weekly prayer meeting over Zoom will continue at 7pm on Thursdays. If you have never been part of this and would be interested in giving it a go, why not contact one of the clergy and they can include you in the email list which the link is sent to each week.

Another event to keep in your prayers on 4th July is the local and national elections. We recognise how important it is to have political stability in our
country and how precarious that is in an increasingly polarised world. Please pray for all the candidates as they campaign in the coming weeks
and that the policies they put forward, would work for the good of all in our community. There are huge pressures on budgets and the provision of services that are so important to those who use them. The pressure will therefore be on those elected to public office which is why we commend the
whole process to your prayers.

We hope that whether you find yourself at home or in a holiday destination, the summer months will offer you some refreshment and rest.

With very best wishes.

Jonathan Pierce (Rector)

Telephone 02890 793822