Dear Fellow Members of St Bartholomew’s
Margaret and I are literally just back from our annual tour in the motor caravan, I say annual but we didn’t have one last year. On returning home I’m trying to sort through the piles of emails which generally get ignored when I’m away, so apologies if something I should have been attending to has got missed, but Gill would have had it all covered anyway. So what does a churchwarden’s in-box look like? Interregnum messages, emails about weddings, baptisms and funerals, PCC minutes, requests for this and that, fabric issues, etc. etc. Honestly, I had no idea that the Rector had so much to deal with and organise. Of course, one thing that Paul did not have to worry about was the Parish Profile, currently at version 0.4 – when it gets to version 1.0 things start to shape up.
The Parish Profile is telling a prospective applicant for our vacancy all about the church and parish and needs to be presented in a form that will encourage them to apply. It is also the document against which we will measure applicants for their suitability and “fit” with St Bartholomew’s. So my first job is to update version 0.4 with the input from the PCC and the Assistant Rural Dean that my in-box received while I was away. It’s a slow process but we need to get it right, and please talk to me if you think that something needs to be emphasised.
The Rectory has been let to an employee of the diocesan surveyor’s department and he should be moving in soon. We had some fun with the telephone as he tried to redirect 776625 for his own use but rest assured that 776625 will remain the church number, currently on divert to Gill. Please note that all requests for weddings, baptisms and funerals should be directed to Sue Fenn (admin@ducklingtonchurch.org.uk)
God bless and stay safe.
Roger
Churchwarden