Dear Friends We live in fast moving times. One minute I can go into church to pray, now that is impossible and I/all clergy whose houses are not physically attached to the church are banned from entering their church buildings. So we will arrange for our service tomorrow morning and on Sunday to be broadcast from the Parish Hall (as I can access without leaving the Vicarage garden). I have attached a copy of […]

Dear Friends I’m sorry to bombard you with lots of messages, Hayley and I are attempting to get as much information out to you as it becomes available. The London bishops wrote to all clergy yesterday, they began with a quote from Saint Paul’s second letter to Timothy, which I think kind of sums up our approach to this unique situation. “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but […]

Dear Friends Yesterday we received a communication from Lambeth Palace via the Bishop of London. The Archbishop has decided that for the foreseeable time the Church should offer communion in one kind only and so from today this is what St Nicholas will do. It goes without saying that we continue to be vigilant in our personal hygiene, hand washing is a vital weapon in our armoury to prevent the transmission of this virus. The […]

Dear Friends First may I take this opportunity to wish Mother Eileen a very Happy Birthday and very many more. I now many of you are concerned about the potential spread of the Corona Virus. At our PCC meeting last evening we agreed the following recommendations. Corona Virus is becoming a growing concern for a number of people with it spreading around the world. As a Church we should be looking out for […]

Dear Friends Some of you may have realised that our scripture readings at mass on Sundays have got a bit longer, this is because we have changed the source of our readings from the old 3 year lectionary designed by the Roman Catholic Church in the 1970s and which St Nicks has been using for about as long, to the Church of England’s 3 year lectionary which was introduced in the […]

Dear Friends Last week Ian and I had an amazing holiday on the North Yorkshire coast. We stayed in a cottage at Ravenscar, ‘the town that never was’. At the turn of the 19th century plans were made to turn Ravenscar village into a holiday resort to rival nearby Scarborough. Roads were laid out and sewers laid, but nobody came. You can see the plans, but now where the streets were […]

Dear Friends I expect some of you might have read an article in last Sunday’s Sunday Times with the headline ‘The grief was hard to bear – and then came the paperwork’. It was written by Rev’d Richard Coles about the recent death of his partner Rev’d David Coles.  As a priest Richard is well used to officiating at funerals and offering appropriate pastoral care, but he has found experiencing […]

Dear Friends Huge thanks to Hayley and Sagar for their magnificent efforts at raising £1,300 for our Development Fund. Such a great effort and the sponsored walk has the advantage of keeping you fit in the process. A win win situation, I think.  My thanks to all of you who have given so freely of your time and energy to help raise money for our Development Fund. Thinking of our Development […]

Dear Friends Yesterday I attended a couple of meetings about our Development Appeal and forthcoming Flower and Music Festival.. There is good news to share – 2019 was a good year for our fundraising, through the amazing efforts of our volunteers we raised just over £42,000. We hope to maintain the momentum this year and additionally begin our applications to some trusts and funding bodies for substantial sums of money. We always need more volunteers […]

Dear Friends As always 2020 looks like being a busy year for St Nicholas. There will be more concerts this year, more social activities,  the Friends of St Nicholas have announced a wide and varied programme of music and talks. Our local community continues to use the church and hall for events, bringing in much needed revenue. Once again our church seems to be of interest to film companies as […]