Well it has been a busy old time since I last wrote. We had another exceptional festive season with around 1500 school visitors coming into church for a variety of carol services, nativities and Christingles, as well as more occasional visitors to our regular services.

The Christmas Fair was a wonderful time of fellowship and community engagement with the added bonus of swelling the church coffers. Bearing in mind our gas bill just for December was over £700 that was much needed. The positive side of the large bill is that the boiler has indeed held on, only failing once during the most recent icy weather. The boiler is a bit like many of us, in that when it hits minus 5 degrees it just wants to hibernate!

A little while back I shared the following cartoon with you, and I’m really pleased to say we are to be blessed by our new vicar Reverend Phillippa Taylor very soon. Although for us the time scale has been one of years not months, I firmly believe God has had his hand in the process – we always have said the right person was the most important thing and worth waiting for.

I am also hopeful that the arrival of an enthusiastic new vicar will spur someone into standing as a second churchwarden at our APCM in April. Teamwork is the key to everything and it would be wonderful to have someone else alongside me. It’s a time of great excitement for Boulton St Mary’s, as we hopefully see our vision beginning to develop, so perfect to be an integral part of it all.

Perhaps come and have a chat with me about what it actually entails.

Many blessings to you all.

Paul, your friendly and helpful Churchwarden