Warden’s blog, stardate 27/5/2020 (Day 100)

Hello to all my friends from St Peter’s and further afield.

100 not out!

The blog has been going for over 3 months now. I hope those that have read it have found it useful, interesting and a way to still feel part of the Parish Church community.

It has been a busy week again for the Revd Rachel, Curate Carol and the wardens. The church opened for private prayer last Monday and a steady trickle of folk have been coming in to pray and light a candle. This is a good start to the road back to the new normal and it is nice to see that people are using the church in this way. You will have seen perhaps, the news that places of worship are going to be allowed to open for services. It is not clear at the present time what this means. I have had an e-mail from the diocese sent to all clergy and wardens that basically said they didn’t have the guidelines from the government to help with this and to wait. The four of us did have a walk around church and a conversation about the issues, so some thoughts have been noted, but until further guidance arrives, we are not sure what can and can’t be done. In the meantime, our services of Morning and Evening Prayer continue, with thanks to those who are taking these services live on Facebook, and our Sunday service of Holy Communion, with contributions from many of our community, will continue to be accessed on both Facebook and YouTube.

The vicar and wardens, plus Stuart, our architect had a fruitful meeting with a representative of Kirklees about our re-submitted planning application, the town blueprint and issues around access, both in the short term and in the longer term. We met, socially distanced, outside the building where he was able to see more easily the issues raised. We all felt it had been useful and there was a promise from him that further dialogue would take place and that the church would be consulted about joint issues around the church and in the gardens. Revd Rachel summed it up rather well when she suggested that the council were “pushing against an open door”. We look forward with positivity to the work ahead. I have been looking at grant applications to help with the funding of items within the new build scheme and they almost all require planning permission to have been granted. We still have the faculty granted but do need the planners to grant their permission too before Alan and I can get stuck into fundraising in a big way.

To add a couple of amusing anecdotes from this week, please spare a thought for me, but four of the church community went to help with some hedge cutting at an elderly member’s house. As I was trimming the top of the hedge with my electric trimmer, I missed my footing and landed up diving head first through the hedge to end up on my bottom still clutching the trimmer and thankfully only bruising my bottom slightly and my pride. Jane’s comment was that she was disappointed she had not been able to photograph the whole thing! The next day we had a call in the early evening from our younger son to say could we go and help move his fridge, washing machine and dishwasher back into his kitchen. He’d had them moved out to fit a new floor covering but the chap doing the fitting wouldn’t put them back for fear of damaging the new floor. He couldn’t leave them outside overnight, so we had to make our excuses to Bible study to help him out. Thankfully all okay and no additional bruises to report from the job.

So, look out for further news as re-opening proceeds, but don’t expect anything until we, as a church and PCC, are entirely happy that our folk can all be kept safe and I think things will be rather different to how they were, but these are moves in the right direction. Stay safe all.

Today’s Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.