Our Newsletter

Dear Friends

As I write this, our summer is coming to an end. Here at the Good Shepherd, during the summer, we have been adjusting to life without our vicar Joan.

We have been fortunate to have Sue Irwin and Colin Bass to take our services and we also welcomed back Nicolas Cheeseman to take one of the services in July. Both Sue and Colin are already well known to us and they are both familiar with our style of worship and have made themselves very at home with us.

Our churchwardens Eileen and Rita along with the P.C.C. and the lay-chair Jenny have been guiding us through the last few months.

On Saturday 12 September we held a Parish Vision Planning Day to discuss the way forward for our church. There were some lively and interesting discussions. We were asked to give examples of what we do well, and among one of our strengths was our team work especially in setting up our church each Sunday. We have a small but very dedicated number of people on our various rotas. We all have a part to play and if you are not already volunteering to help, perhaps you could give some thought as to what skills and talents you can offer.  

Following on from the Parish Vision Planning Day, the P.C.C. and the Parish Profile Writing Committee will be drawing up a Parish Profile – which is in essence an advertisement for our church to any prospective vicars. If you were not able to attend, do please pass on to Jenny Hopper any views that you have about our church and the choice of our next vicar.

As we move into autumn, plans are already underway for our Harvest celebrations on Sunday 4 October. In previous years the Young People’s Ministry Team has met with Joan before the school holidays to begin thinking about Harvest and in particular to choose a charity to support. In recent years we have chosen a Harvest Appeal for one of the international charities. This year our team thought that we should consider a local charity and our suggestion to the P.C.C. was that we should support “Christians Against Poverty (CAP)”. They give help to local families who are struggling financially and also support our local Foodshare.

We are hoping to have a speaker at the All-Age service in the morning and we will also have our usual monthly contributions for Foodshare.

We are planning to have a Harvest “Songs of Praise” in the evening and hope to have a speaker from “Christians Against Poverty” as well. We have not been having our usual “Sundays at Six” services recently because of the vacancies at St. Luke’s and at the Good Shepherd so this will be a great opportunity to invite our friends from both churches.

As usual, during September there will have been lists to sign up, asking for your suggestions for hymns and readings for the “Songs of Praise”, to help at the service and most importantly to provide cake.

Please continue to pray for our Churchwardens and the P.C.C. as they continue to lead us through the vacancy and to choose a new vicar.