Issue 33 – June 2024

As many people will know, as a Deanery we have been working for some time on a plan to re-organise the grouping of the parishes in our Deanery into a smaller number of benefices, in order to be able to reduce the number of stipendiary incumbents (from 8.5 to 7). This need to reduce the number of stipendiary clergy exists because the level of giving through Parish Share has dropped, such that we are no longer able to afford all those posts.

At the time of writing, I am very much hoping that Spring will soon arrive and we will enjoy some warm  sunshine after all the recent rain and cold. On one of the rare sunny days in March, in a fit of misguided  optimism, we sowed some vegetable seeds. Ever since, I have felt slightly guilty, thinking of them shivering in the still, cold soil as the sleet lashes down above them. I hope they survive and eventually germinate and grow.

At the time of writing, I am very much hoping that Spring will soon arrive and we will enjoy some warm  sunshine after all the recent rain and cold. On one of the rare sunny days in March, in a fit of misguided  optimism, we sowed some vegetable seeds. Ever since, I have felt slightly guilty, thinking of them shivering in the still, cold soil as the sleet lashes down above them. I hope they survive and eventually germinate and grow.