This April Hardington Vale celebrated 10 years since the amalgamating of six villages to form one united parish as Hardington Vale and now we are moving forward into the next phase. At the APCM on Monday night I reflected on why we are doing this, how we can do this and what we are currently doing about this…

Why? – Why are we here? Why do we come to church week on week?

Having just had all our Easter celebrations – fresh in our minds is the sacrifice of Jesus and His amazing love for each of us. He is our Inspiration. We are His disciples and long to see others become His disciples too

How? – How are we going to do this?

By living lives of faith. Meeting informally in small groups to grow in and deepen our faith, through reading our bibles and praying together and engaging with activities in the communities. Also by being a seen and known presence in our villages. Communities have changed hugely in the past twenty years and people are so much more geographically mobile for work, socialising and also where they worship. This has impacted the rural church and we need to understand this and work with it. We need to move with the times and be flexible and creative with our worship and where we worship.

What? – What are we going to do to implement this?

In recognition of this I am delighted with the way all the villages are embracing the new pastoral reorganisation of the parish as we move towards having two parish churches at Norton and Rode and the 4 smaller village churches becoming chapels of ease. This will give us 4 Parish Wardens working across the whole parish which I am confident will enable

• • greater team work across the whole parish
  • better use of resources
  • build Norton and Rode worshipping communities so there is more consistency of services

• help preserve the unique sacred spaces of the smaller villages for future generations

 

 Caroline

Rector

 30 April News Sheet