Dear Fellow Members of St Bartholomew’s
We have good news and bad news, parochially speaking. First the good news – Andrea Colbrook has confirmed her appointment as rector of Ducklington-with-Hardwick and will be moving into the Rectory with her husband during June in good time for her induction service on the 4th July. Please put the date in your diary. We look forward to her arrival and I’m sure we will give our first ever lady rector a very warm welcome. Gill and I can now relax a little and put the hard work of the past few months behind us. We had seven applicants for the position, a remarkable turnaround from the last interregnum, when we had no applicants at the first time of asking, and only two when we readvertised. One possible explanation could be the increasing rarity of single benefice parishes – most churches in the Whitney Deanery are part of larger groups of churches – or is it just that Ducklington is a nice place to live and has a fairly active and self-supporting church.
Now for the bad news. It cannot have escaped anyone’s attention that there is a crisis in the energy market and costs are set to soar. We, the church, are currently paying about 13p per kilowatt hour but we are near the end of our 2 year fixed price contract. I expect this to rise to at least 25p per kWh from May. Predicting the future is difficult as 2021 was not a “normal” year, and our electricity bill of £1,240 may be rather understated due to Covid closures. I set a budget of £1,500 for this year but I suspect the real number may be closer to £3,000. That money will need to come from somewhere. Anyway, without getting too technical the message is please be very very careful with energy use within the church. The overhead heaters use a lot of power and only heat “things” not the air, but we still want the church to be warm and welcoming. It’s a dilemma!
On a sombre note, thank you all for the generous donations to the Ukrainian appeal. This week I sent DEC £589 from our bucket, and we will keep our appeal running as there seems little sign of any conclusion to the tragedy of that country.
Finally, Spring is here, and the natural (wild) portion of the graveyard should soon be bursting into life, and Fritillary Sunday is around the corner on 24th April. Please advertise this event to all your friends. It will be good to have a proper Fritillary Sunday, cream teas and all, after an absence of two years.
God bless and stay safe.
Roger
Churchwarden