church letter

Dear friends,

As I write this, August is drawing to a close and, with it, my four years as your Vicar and almost 20 years of full-time ministry. By the time you read this, I shall have laid down the familiar — and sometimes bewildering — bunch of keys! I have never quite understood how one person can need so many keys, nor why the key that looks as though it ought to open something never does. I am writing before our farewell service on the last Sunday of August, so I don’t yet know what that day will bring. There may be laughter, tears, perhaps a few kind words — and, knowing some of our PCC meetings, possibly an unexpected disagreement!

But above all, I want to say thank you.

It has been a profound privilege to serve you. Parish ministry is a curious calling. A priest is invited into people’s lives at moments of great joy and deep sorrow: baptisms, weddings and funerals; hospital beds and kitchen tables; celebrations and crises. Sometimes there are profound theological conversations. Sometimes the most important ministry is simply putting the kettle on.

I have loved being your Vicar.

This is a beautiful place in which to serve God — the churches, villages, countryside, the canal and the remarkable presence of Combe Gibbet, which is perhaps a reminder that our predecessors had a rather different approach to pastoral care! But the real privilege has been the people.

Over four years I have discovered generosity, humour, courage and faithfulness. I have also discovered that Christians can hold remarkably strong theological convictions about church buildings, flower arrangements, PCC agendas — and, of course, hymns!

I have learned that introducing a new hymn can sometimes be an act of considerable pastoral courage. There are those who welcome a new hymn with enthusiasm, those who tolerate it with Christian resignation, and those who make their views known before the first verse has finished. I have occasionally wondered whether “I once was lost but now am found” might describe the congregation’s reaction to hymn number 437!

Yet our hymn-singing has been one of the joys of these years. The old hymns carry the faith of generations; newer hymns sometimes give us words for things we have not yet learned how to say. And, whether the tune is loved, tolerated or regarded with theological suspicion, singing together reminds us that worship is something we do together.

There have been disagreements and the occasional heated meeting, as well as many personalities to navigate. Yet perhaps that is precisely what the Church is: not a collection of people who agree about everything, but people whom Christ calls to belong to one another. As St Paul reminds us, “There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

The role of the parish priest has changed considerably. We can no longer imagine the Vicar as someone who does everything. Ministry is increasingly about enabling, encouraging and recognising the gifts of the whole people of God. And that is a good thing. The Church is not the Vicar. The Church belongs to Christ. I have also been especially glad to see the ministry of women bishops become such a joyful and ordinary part of the life of the Church of England. It is a reminder that the Holy Spirit continues to surprise us and that the Church is always being called to recognise where God is at work.

There is sadness in leaving. I shall miss the people, the places, the conversations and the extraordinary mixture of the sacred and the gloriously ordinary that makes parish ministry so special. But ministry is stewardship, not ownership. We are entrusted with a season and, in time, we hand it on.

After retiring at the end of August, I shall take around six months before seeking a licence as a retired priest. Thereafter I hope to continue serving across the diocese, covering holidays and interregnums. So retirement will not quite mean disappearing — simply a different pattern of ministry.

I leave you with enormous gratitude. If I have helped you, that is God’s grace. Where I have fallen short — and I certainly have — I ask your forgiveness.

Please continue to pray for one another, encourage one another, laugh with one another and, when you disagree, remember that you are disagreeing with someone for whom Christ died. That can put even the most difficult PCC agenda into perspective!
George Herbert wrote simply, “Love bade me welcome.” I have experienced something of that welcome here, and I shall carry it with me. Thank you for the privilege of being your Vicar. Thank you for the laughter, the tears, the keys, the hymns, the conversations, the challenges and the joys.

And thank you, above all, for allowing me for these four years to walk alongside you as we have sought to follow Christ. May God bless you, your churches, your families, and this beautiful corner of his creation.

With my love, prayers and deepest gratitude, Revd. Annette

PRAYERS FOR TODAY
1    Shine on us, O Son of God, with grace unfailing, granting us the gift of wisdom, the power of faith and the endurance of hope. Amen.
Ethiopian Orthodox

2    "I thank Thee, Lord, today
For Thy unfailing presence Along life's rugged way.
Guide me, O blest Redeemer,
Teach me to do Thy will,
And Thine own perfect purpose In me each day fulfill."
Avis Christiansen

3   "God grant you the light of Christmas, which is faith;
the warmth of Christmas, which is purity;
the righteousness of Christmas, which is justice;
the belief in Christmas, which is truth;
the all of Christmas, which is Christ."
Wilda English

4    The Lord’s Prayer – Gnostic Order of Christ Version:
O Giver of All Life, Who Is in Heaven and in Earth,
In Whom We Live, Move, And Have Our Being,
Holy Is Thy Name,
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done in Earth, as it Is in Heaven.
Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread, And Forgive Us Our Trespasses
As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us.
Keep Us from Temptation, Keep Us Ever Mindful of Thee.
For Thine Is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory,
Forever and Ever. Amen.

Church Contacts

Benefice Administrator: Tamara Laing, part-time at the Benefice Office Email: wbboffice@gmail.com 07359 327072.

Churchwardens:
Inkpen: Charlotte Bampfylde (tel. 669285), email: inkpenchurch@outlook.com.
Combe: Tina Fiertz (tel. 668529), Katherine Astor (katherine@kirby-house.co.uk).

If you would like to make a donation towards the running of Inkpen Church, please go to the Parish Giving Scheme on www.parishgiving.org.uk Enter Inkpen in the search box, then click on Find your Church. Click on Give Now beside Inkpen St Michael All Angels and then on Regular Giving or One-off Gift (we pay a 1.5% transaction cost for one-off gifts so Regular Giving is preferable). Your gifts are enhanced by having tax refunded through Gift Aid.

Inkpen graveyards on-line

For anyone wishing to view the details of Inkpen's graveyards, including burial details, grave stone inscriptions and the location of the graves, please click here.  Inkpen Burial, Marriage, Baptism and Birth records covering the period 1607 to 1837 can be found on the Inkpen history website, here.

NEWS FROM ST. MICHAEL'S

Welcome back to everyone after this long, hot summer holidays! In September, for one Sunday only, the 8.30 service on 13th will be Morning Prayer instead of HC-BCP.

Our HARVEST FESTIVAL Family Service is on 20th September. Please bring produce and gifts of packet or tinned food which will all be taken to the Newbury Soup Kitchen.

By the time this edition has been posted through your letter box, we will have waved farewell to Annette and Dave. Of course it is sad, as goodbyes usually are, but it is also thankful and don’t take that the wrong way! We are enormously thankful and grateful to Annette for her leadership, spiritual guidance and the incredibly hard work she has put in to reorganising and restoring the Benefice, putting it on a really sound and independent footing for the future.

Annette has emphasised the Church’s importance, not just as a place of worship, but one for the whole community and particularly families and children as well as the importance of our rural and agricultural heritage. She has been at home not just in the pulpit but also flying kites on Combe Gibbet and singing carols in the Crown & Garter.

The Walbury Beacon Benefice now offers a wonderful opportunity for a new Rector who will be supported by the Ministry Team and very efficient administration office that has been built up by Annette. We hope that someone will be recruited very soon.

Our service routine will continue. This normally consists of an evening Compline on the first Sunday, an early 8.30am spoken Holy Communion on the second Sunday and a morning Parish Communion on the third Sunday of each month which is very often a Family Service for the main Church Festivals and other celebrations.

church services FOR INKPEN, COMBE and West Woodhay

Other Services in the Benefice are on the Website which is www.walburybeaconbenefice.org.uk

INKPEN
Sunday 6th September - 6pm Compline at 6pm
Sunday 13th September – Morning Prayer (Book of Common Prayer) at 8.30am
Sunday 20th September - Harvest Festival Family Service at 9.45am

Sunday 4th October - Compline at 6pm
Sunday 11th October - Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) at 8.30am
Sunday 18th October – Holy Communion at 9.45am

COMBE
Sunday 20th September – Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) at 11.15am

WEST WOODHAY
Sunday 13th September – Harvest Festival at 11.15am

CHURCH SERVICES AT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN HUNGERFORD

Our Lady of Lourdes, Priory Road, Hungerford RG17 0AF Parish Priest - Fr Zbigniew Budyn 01635 40332
Sunday Mass - every Sunday at 9.00am
Weekday Mass - every Wednesday at 10.00am

BAPTISM ANNOUNCEMENT

OBITUARIES

A victorian view - now and then

The images of St. Michael's past and present are shown here