It is hard to believe that the ever youthful David Bennie turned 70 at the end of June. After 24 years of dedicated service to St Mary’s David has decided that the time is right to retire from his role as our Youth and Families Minister. He will be sorely missed by all at St Mary’s and by the wider village community to whom he has contributed so much. David started working for St Mary’s in 2001 and in his early years he ministered to the children up at the church as well as taking school assemblies and running various youth groups. David also became a scout leader in Leigh and ran summer camps, church group weekends away, play events on the Green and holiday craft clubs. David also agreed to serve as Deputy Chair of the Parish Council for a number of years, having been co opted onto the Council to represent the interests of the children and young people in the village. David has organised a number of Alpha Courses over the years and these led in turn to the formation of various house groups where David has led, and continues to lead, Bible study and Christian fellowship. David’s role evolved with the passage of time and he gradually became ever more involved in leading the main services at St Mary’s. For many years now David has led two family services each month offering a more informal style of worship alongside our more traditional Holy Communion services on the other Sundays. When Covid struck at the beginning of 2020 David stepped up and ran online church services on Zoom as well as online Christian craft groups for the kids. When we were able to meet outside again David started Forest Church – an informal child centred Sunday service. Forest Church initially met at the Leigh Forest school but now meets in Jessica’s Hall every other Sunday. Around 40 families now attend Forest Church with their children and enjoy a morning of Christian worship and craft. Family services and Forest Church will, of course, continue after David’s retirement, but his absence will be keenly felt. In addition to his work in the village David has also been heavily involved with a small charity called Gambian Projects Overseas. This charity supports and helps to build and maintain schools in Gambia. David was introduced to this charity by a member of the St Mary’s congregation, Christine Curwen, and David’s first ever visit to Gambia was with our current Church Warden, Linda Boyd in 2003. For the last 20 years David has taken groups of people out to Gambia to work on various projects and supply much needed resources. Many members of the Parish and congregation have accompanied David on these trips and in doing so have learned so much about the challenges faced by those delivering education in developing countries with very limited funds at their disposal. St Mary’s owe a huge debt of gratitude to David for all he has done over the last 24 years but particularly so since the Covid pandemic and Lionel’s subsequent departure in October 2022. Thank you, David, for all you have done. We wish you all the very best in your retirement.
From St Mary’s PCC As many of you know, David Bennie will be retiring at the end of July. We are so grateful for his faithful ministry and dedication, and there will be several opportunities to thank him in person: Forest Church Farewell: Sunday 6th July at 10:00am (ahead of the end of term). Final Forest Church: Sunday 20th July at 10am Last Family Service: Sunday 27th July at 9:30am. We will also be organising a retirement gift from St Mary’s. If you would like to contribute, you can do so in the following ways: By Cash Please contact Gill either in the Church Office or via email: stmaryschurchleigh@outlook.com By Bank Transfer Account Name: PCC of Leigh Sort Code: 09-01-52 Account Number: 16598702 Reference: DB.RET Via JustGiving https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/richard-nevard-david-b-retirement?utm_medium=FA&utm_source=EM
We hope many will be able to enjoy holidays in the coming weeks and so our chosen text this month is from Isaiah 42:10. “Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them.” Don’t forget wherever you are, God is there too. He will be with you to praise in the good times and satisfy our needs better than we know how to ourselves. As you possibly know, David Bennie will be retiring at the end of July. He will be sorely missed by all at St Mary’s and by the wider village community to whom he has contributed so much. On the 6th July we will be celebrating with the Forest Church Family. His final service will be on 27th July at 9.30. This will be an opportunity to celebrate David’s wonderful work as our Youth and Families Minister over the past 25 years and you are all welcome to this Family Service. After our positive meeting with Bishop Simon and his colleagues on 21st May, to discuss Youth and Family Ministry at St. Mary’s we are having discussions with those who have expressed an interest in continuing this important work for our families and young people in Leigh. As you can imagine, this is an evolving process and service patterns will be developed over time and adjusted as needed. We plan to keep both Forest Church and Family Services running on Sundays in the current pattern. However, the 8am prayer book communion will be reduced to 2nd and 4th Sundays only from now. We are all aware of the Holy Spirit guiding us on this journey of development and are excited to be part of this process. Those involved all have different skills to bring to these discussions and we remain hopeful of a bright future for our Youth Ministry in whatever form evolves. In May Geoff Dalby who served faithfully as Treasurer of St Mary’s for many years (about 20 I think) passed away. During this time he was key to several outreach and fundraising campaigns building up the reserves which we rely on to fund today’s activities. He was also an influential voice serving on the Diocesan Board of Finance.
