I hope you are all well and have had a good week.

We had our first wedding for over 18 months on Saturday. Andrew and Leah were married for the fourth time of asking. Many of you will know them as they were regular attenders before COVID. They had 3 postponements because of Covid. It was a fantastic occasion, tinged with a bit of sadness on my part as it was the last I will do here before retiring.

It was also significant as it was the first we’ve done using the new registration process. As I have explained before we no longer have to complete Marriage Registers and issue a Marriage Certificate. All that we now need to do is to complete a rather ordinary piece of paper and then send it on to the civil registrar at the Town Hall who will issue what we used to call the marriage certificate. The calling of banns remains the same. All this will take some getting used to which I am sure we will do easily and quickly.

From all of this you will gather that ‘normal’ parish life is slowly beginning to return. Sunday will see a return to baptisms. Because of COVID there is quite a backlog to deal with.

If you want another sign that ‘normality’ is beginning to return look no further to the plant stall that Ruth (Neville) and Kate (Edmonds) have set up by the Lychgate for the next few days. Ruth and Kate will be on hand on Sunday, For the rest of the week there will be an ‘honesty’’ box for your purchases. Thank you, Ruth and Kate, and the Church Fellowship, for your help and support.

Tomorrow’s service sheet is attached.

With God’s blessing,

David