It has been a very busy time this month with flooding problems and associated matters relating to the fabric of St. Mary's. However, this event reminds us of the continual need for repairs and maintenance of our wonderful historic Church which is so important to us. A big thank you to everyone who has given their time to help work on these. We will be saying farewell to Sheila Whitebread on 26th September. She was a long-standing parishioner in Leigh and a long-time chorister at St. Mary's. At 93 she had a long and eventful life and touched the lives of many of us. At the end of October we shall be saying farewell to our Archdeacon Sharon Copestake who is giving up this role in the Tonbridge Deanery. She has been a great help to us as Churchwardens during the period, so far, of our interregnum and will be very much missed. There will be a Choral Evensong at Penshurst Church on 20th October as a farewell to her. We sent our good wishes to Sharon and her family for the future. While the search is made for her successor Ven. Mike Lodge has been appointed interim Archdeacon of Tonbridge. On 6th October, Bishop Simon will be coming to Forest Church and I am sure he will receive a warm welcome from the families there. We hope this may be the first of other visits by the Bishop of Tonbridge to Leigh. We will encourage everyone in the church to join together and share our usual coffee and biscuits in Jessica’s Hall. Future services includes the All Souls on 3rd November and the Remembrance Service after which the village gather together at the war memorial.We offer a full array of Christmas services including the popular Christingle and Lessons and Carols. We hope to see people there.. At the PCC meeting on 10th September the PCC recognised that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find clergy available to cover all our services. Ideas considered included that on 5th Sundays we will not try to arrange a service in Leigh and instead suggest that parishioners travel to Weald for the service there and reducing the number of 8am services to possibly 2 per month. Do let members of the PCC know your views on these ideas or any other suggestions you may have. Richard Nevard and Linda Boyd
