St Leonard’s, Sherfield English
At St Leonard’s we have well and truly seen the New Year in,
with a Communion service led by James on New Year’s Day.
It was well attended, and no one looked too tired from
partying the night before, or at least they hid it well!
Christmas has been an absolute delight at St Leonard’s this
year. The community’s enthusiasm for all our festive events
and services has been tremendous. I think the decorating of
the church with each window depicting a carol or Christmas
song – reindeer, donkeys, bells and stars standing next to
towns and crowns, while the gentlemen rested, ably
supported the real Christmas tree with twinkly lights.
Everyone was surrounded by the story of the Nativity and
was humbled by the thought of the arrival of the Prince of
Peace.
So as we ended 2022 we also start 2023 by hoping for peace
and joy to the world. Lent gets under way in this month of
February; in March we join the Thorngate benefice by
hosting a Lent Lunch on Saturday 18th (12 noon to 2 p.m.)
We will offer several varieties of home-made soup, as a light
lunch at no fixed cost. But you are asked to donate to UNICEF
and all their projects across the world, particularly
concerning the war in Ukraine. In our small way, hopefully,
we can help many.
Julia Noble, St Leonard’s Churchwarden
News from the Church Commissioners:
Resulting from their Mission, Pastoral and Church Property
Committee meeting on 25th January, the Church
Commissioners have deferred making a decision on the
future of our parishes, “pending further information they
wanted first from the Diocese”. The next meeting of that
Committee is scheduled for 22nd March 2023.
This “Post meeting note” is now publicly available at
https://www.churchofengland.org/consultation/Thorngate
From there it is also possible to download their “Committee
paperwork”, as accumulated prior to 25th January, via
https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2023-
01/thorngate_comm_papers_www.pdf (96 pages).
While the news of this further delay will be disappointing to
us all, we can at least be reassured that the issues involved
are being thoroughly considered.
Paul Newby, Parish Newsletter Compiler