Dear Friends,

I heard recently of a  Vicar who stood in the pulpit at the start of the sermon – he looked out

from the pulpit  over the congregation and began ”I have three sermons in front of me“ he

said, A five minute one costs £100, a  15 minute one costs £50, and a 1 hour one costs £5“.

Now we will take the offering to see which one I will preach. That morning his congregation

got a very short sermon!! I wonder if this would work at St Peter’s?

The PCC have been considering some major maintenance and repair work for our beloved

Church. First of all there is the regular cleaning of the gutters – it looks as if we have found

a company that will now undertake this work. We have had the gutters cleaned and had the

three areas of water ingress repaired – over the Wardens Pew, the coping stones to the

right above the East Window and the coping stones near to the entrance of the Meeting

Room. In the autumn, when these three areas have completely dried out, the Church will be

completely redecorated. This will possibly mean moving out of Church for a couple of weeks

because the inside of Church will be covered in scaffolding.

We have also been considering new Interior Doors for the Church – the existing ones are

warped and out of shape, but they are extremely good at letting the draughts through.

Recently we had a funeral and the Verger had to stand with his foot against the doors to

keep them closed! I’m sure the parishioners who sit at the back of Church will appreciate

new doors; especially when the Welcomers are constantly opening the doors to see if

anyone is coming up the path. (Of course they could always move closer to the front of

Church to be out of the draughts) The type of Doors the PCC are considering will contain a

lot of glass. This will enable people to see into Church as they approach the entrance... So

hopefully they will see the ”warmth“ of our welcome as well as ”feeling“ it.

The carpet in church has been down for very many years, and sadly is beginning to look well

past its sell by date. It is therefore proposed to change the carpet when the redecorating

work is done.

All of this is going to cost a great deal of money, especially in these days of cutbacks and

increased bills; however, the PCC is moving forward in faith and hope that all will do their

bit to help.

So next month I might begin my sermon by saying, ”in front of me I have three sermons –

a 5 minute one that costs……………

Every Blessing

Stephen