I don’t need to tell you what a busy month it has been in church during April, with Lent and Holy Week dominating the proceedings. On Maundy Thursday we said goodbye to Mandy Nixon in a truly uplifting service led by Jeremy Lane and I think the majority of the village were there to take part in this important ritual. She was a good friend to many with her bubbly personality and boundless energy and was always up for helping at the fete or making us all laugh in the pub. We send Dave our love and support and hope that he can take some comfort in knowing how much Mandy was loved in this community.
Our Easter Day communion service was led very thoughtfully and powerfully by Mark Thomas in a church full of sunlight and spring flowers, which after the austerity of Good Friday was such a joy to see. We hope we will see more of him in future and Keri too of course.
It will hardly be five minutes since the Easter break when the May Bank Holiday will be upon us – do any of you remember dancing round the maypole at school or am I showing may age? Like a lot of the holidays we celebrate, it’s origins are connected to the church and the turning of the religious calendar denoting a celebration of spring, rebirth and fertility. In Roman times May Day marked the start of the summer season so I am sure that we are all hoping for warm sunny days to come.
Check out the dates and times for some of the things that are happening in the church during May – the Parish Council have their AGM, the gardening club have a guest speaker and the film club gets under way too. There is the local election on the 1st May and a coffee morning on the 10th and let’s not forget our usual two services of Holy Communion and Evensong. All the dates and times are in this edition of the newsletter so I hope to see lots of you at some of these events. And to top it all off, we get another bank holiday at the end of the month!