A wonderful celebration for 2 young people, Lily from Chevington and Harriet from Amble, who were confirmed by Bishop Helen- Ann on May 14th 2023.Wonderful to see the church full of people from both parishes and to be joined by clergy from other parishes in the Deanery.
We are delighted to have been given an anonymous donation allowing us to give a copy of Crowned King, a souvenir book to mark the Coronation of King Charles III on May 6th 2023, to every child from Reception to Year 4 in our two parish primary schools.The book includes information on the Christian significance of the Coronation and a copy of Matthew's gospel.We hope the children and families from Broomhill and Red Row schools will enjoy the book and keep it as a memento of a special day.
We held our annual meetings on Monday April 24th.Meeting of Parishioners for the election of churchwardens - only 1 nomination was received so Sheila Orgill was elected unopposed to serve for 2023.The second meeting was the Annual Parochial Church Meeting for all members of the church; this received reports on activities during 2022 and elected 3 PCC members - Anna Smith, Janet Allan and Ann Elliott to serve for 2023 - 2025. Two representatives were elected to represent St John's on Deanery Synod - Tracey Hedley and Sheila Orgill.
Last year we launched an appeal for funds to help us repair our flat roof extension and refurbish the kitchen and vestry in that extension which had been extensively damaged by rain water.Thanks to the generosity of our local community and some charitable grants, the funds were raised in the first half of 2022.Particular thanks go to Benefact Trust and Garfield Weston charities and our local Rotary group for their kind donations.In August of 2022 the flat roof was repaired and we no longer have rainwater getting into the building. After several years of water damage we will have to wait for the stonework to dry out before we can replaster the walls and consider fitting a new kitchen. Thankfully the process is going better than expected and we hope to be able to start the interior work in the next few weeks.
