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Churches
The
Seven
Little Barningham, Blickling, Edgefield, Itteringham, Oulton, Wickmere, Saxthorpe & Corpusty, Norfolk, England
Weekly updates:
Blickling 11.00am - Morning Prayer (BCP)
Edgefield 09.30am - Holy Communion (BCP)
Itteringham 6.00pm - Evening Service (BCP)
Little Barningham 08.00am - Holy Communion (BCP)
Oulton 09.30am - Morning Service (CW)
Saxthorpe 11.00am - Holy Communion (CW)
Wickmere No Service
Colin’s Comments
Over the last three months I have learned a lot about ‘peripatetic’ ministry, as I have
had no regular base, and from time to time have been working from - home, from
various vestries, people’s houses, my car and local cafes. It has been enjoyable, and
certainly has helped me to get to know the benefice. But as the quantities of paper
have mounted up around my house in ever increasing piles, some of the attractions
of my current way of working have palled, both for me and my family.
But today the builders have moved into the Rectory and in particular into the study.
They have blocked up the old doorway and made a new one which comes off the
entrance lobby. Shelves and cupboards have been removed to make way for a sink and
a toilet. Electric fittings are dangling from the ceiling in the hope of there being more
sockets available in the near future.
It is of course messy, all building work is, and it is a blessing that no one is trying
to live here at the moment or else it would be disruptive as well. But within the mess
there is point and purpose and an eventual outcome, which will certainly help me in
my work but will also, by making the working area more distinct from the living area,
make the Rectory a more attractive proposition to anyone considering coming to live
and work here in the future.
It feels to me like a bit of a parable of the Church at the moment, and by this I mean
the Church in general; I still feel far too new to make comments about the local
churches.
From the outside the Church looks messy and incomplete. It is like an aged
building undergoing extensive restoration, so extensive that some of those who look
on wonder if it will ever be fit for purpose again; but then as anyone who has recently
had builders in that is a common feeling while the work is going on. In some areas
new walls need to be put up to make the whole structure more secure, but new
entrances also need to be made so that people can come in, and new sources of
energy and enthusiasm need to be sought.
I am going to be on holiday for a couple of weeks in August and when I come
back I hope the work to the Rectory will be finished and I can begin to use it as a base.
But the point of the base is to help with the ongoing work of the Church in this
benefice; and my prayer, that the Church will become more secure, more open and
more full of life. Amen.
Colin
had no regular base, and from time to time have been working from - home, from
various vestries, people’s houses, my car and local cafes. It has been enjoyable, and
certainly has helped me to get to know the benefice. But as the quantities of paper
have mounted up around my house in ever increasing piles, some of the attractions
of my current way of working have palled, both for me and my family.
But today the builders have moved into the Rectory and in particular into the study.
They have blocked up the old doorway and made a new one which comes off the
entrance lobby. Shelves and cupboards have been removed to make way for a sink and
a toilet. Electric fittings are dangling from the ceiling in the hope of there being more
sockets available in the near future.
It is of course messy, all building work is, and it is a blessing that no one is trying
to live here at the moment or else it would be disruptive as well. But within the mess
there is point and purpose and an eventual outcome, which will certainly help me in
my work but will also, by making the working area more distinct from the living area,
make the Rectory a more attractive proposition to anyone considering coming to live
and work here in the future.
It feels to me like a bit of a parable of the Church at the moment, and by this I mean
the Church in general; I still feel far too new to make comments about the local
churches.
From the outside the Church looks messy and incomplete. It is like an aged
building undergoing extensive restoration, so extensive that some of those who look
on wonder if it will ever be fit for purpose again; but then as anyone who has recently
had builders in that is a common feeling while the work is going on. In some areas
new walls need to be put up to make the whole structure more secure, but new
entrances also need to be made so that people can come in, and new sources of
energy and enthusiasm need to be sought.
I am going to be on holiday for a couple of weeks in August and when I come
back I hope the work to the Rectory will be finished and I can begin to use it as a base.
But the point of the base is to help with the ongoing work of the Church in this
benefice; and my prayer, that the Church will become more secure, more open and
more full of life. Amen.
Colin
Rev'd Colin Reed, Deanery Priest.