On Monday 16th December East Midlands Today visited All Saints to learn how repairs and refurbishments are progressing after the flood of October 2023, which came in the wake of Storm Babet. Storm Henk followed on January 2nd and the BBC requested a follow-up interview for their item marking the 12 month anniversary.Revd Jo Honour, the newly appointed priest-in-charge, and former Churchwarden Mark Irving, described the challenges facing the Parish Church Council as they work to bring the church back into full use. There is so much cleaning and restoration work that still needs to be done. The boiler was ruined by the flood and, without heating, regular winter services are being held at the Zion Methodist Church; Revd Honour expressed her gratitude to the Zion Church for their continued support and hospitality.Much was made of the beautiful church kneelers that are in every pew in All Saints. These suffered badly from water damage but have been lovingly restored by generous people who are skilled at needlecraft. To keep the kneelers safe should floods hit again, these colourful cushions are now kept high up in the back of the pews in spaces that are really intended for worshippers' hymn books and bibles. This means that they are no longer hidden beneath the pews and now provide a lovely backdrop for the worship area. To see what we mean, tune in to the news article which is likely to be aired on 2nd or 3rd Jan.The Church Hall was also a casualty in the floods and it has been a sadness to all that we cannot currently use the building for all the community events that took place there. The journalist, who both filmed and interviewed for the news item, was keen to report on the current state of the hall and our hopes to see repairs bring it back into use in 2025.Let's hope restoration moves on quickly during 2025 and that the BBC is able to do a really good news story at the start of 2026.
We hope to resume our weekly prayer meeting in the New Year. Watch this space for more information!
