Moving On

 

It was announced on Sunday 28th February 2010, that after nearly 11 years here in Keresley, the Walkers are to move to South Warwickshire in June. At the 10:30 am service, Peter (the vicar) read out a statement, part of which is included here.

The Bishop of Coventry, Bishop Christopher rang us last October, to say that he had a group of parishes in South Warwickshire where they needed 2 people, 1.5 jobs to cover the group, and he kept thinking of us. Would we please consider them?

We told the Bishop that our children still had 1 and 2 years left at Bluecoat School and we wouldn’t consider moving them from that school. But yes, because he asked we would go and have a look.

The parishes are a new grouping comprising St. Laurence’s, Bidford on Avon together with the former “5 alive” group which itself comprises St. Matthew’s Salford Priors and 4 smaller churches: St. Andrew’s Temple Grafton, St. Giles Exhall (another Exhall not the one near Bedworth), St. Milburga’s Wixford and St. Peter’s Binton. They are all west of Stratford upon Avon and N E of Evesham.

We met with the Area Dean, we saw the Church Buildings, we explored the villages, we saw the vicarage, we read the statement the churches had prepared setting out what the group hoped for from their next clergy, we met some of the people – and above all we prayed.

There was no Damascus Road moment when it all became obviously right, but little by little things dropped into place. They were supportive of the fact that if we came we would have to spend hours commuting Joanna and Joshua to and from school. The diocese agreed reasonable improvements were needed in the vicarage in Bidford. We could see a role for us there. There are no fewer than 4 Church Schools that could draw on Ruth’s skills, as well as plenty of opportunities for me to encourage evangelism courses, guide PCC’s, preach and so forth. The group has lots of local leaders licensed to preach and take services, so the number of services doesn’t look overwhelming and so we kept on exploring the possibility of going there.

We believe that when it comes to guidance God can open new doors as well as close other doors. We kept on trying this door and we found it opening. We submitted a formal application and we were interviewed a couple of weeks ago. The panel were unanimous in asking Ruth and I to be the next ministers of the Heart of England group. We said yes.

Because the children have exams and the builders have quite a lot of work to do we will not be moving in a hurry, we hope to move at the end of June and be formally licensed in July. In the meantime, we will do all that we can to guide and prepare the Church Council here for the process that lies ahead.

So, we're sorry to be leaving you, but we do believe it is what God wants and we believe that in the long run it will be for the best, God will bring someone else here who will have different skills and lead you on the next stage of your journey – probably to places that we could not have led you.

Revds Peter & Ruth Walker

 

Church Wall Restored

On the evening of 23 March 07, a car collided with the churchyard wall, thankfully no-one was seriously hurt. However, a section of stone wall was demolished by the impact, and the 2 pillars either side of the driveway, were dislodged. These pillars and a section of damaged wall, had to be removed to make the area safe. The insurers agreed to pay for the necessary repairs, but it took over 2 years to complete the work.

On 22 June 2009, our contractor was able to put into place the new capstone specially made for the rebuilt pillar so completing the restoration project. The wall was rebuilt using the rescued stones from the old damaged wall, but the two pillars and one of the great capstones had to be cut from freshy quarried stone. The splendid result is shown in the photograph above.

New Marriage rules from 1st October 2008

In addition to the existing rights to be married at a church, there is a new law coming into force in October 2008, which allows anyone who can show a "Qualifying Connection" to be married at the church they have a connection with. This should be good news for many people who were previously unable to be married at a particular church which they feel is important to them. More details are available on this website.