Thank the Lord - our Churchwardens are safely in office again for another year! Elected at the Easter Vestry which precedes the Annual Church Meeting, Ruth Loveman and Winifred Mancz were confirmed in office for another term. They are the Officers of the Bishop, and are admitted to Office by the Bishop or his representative, usually the Archdeacon of Portsmouth, which this year is on Monday 12th May at Cowplain. There they will subscribe the declaration that they will faithfully and diligently perform their duties... "as are by law and custom assigned to them; they shall represent the laity and in co-operation with the incumbent; they shall use their best endeavours by example and precept to encourage the parishioners in the practice of true religion and to promote unity and peace among them. They shall also maintain order and decency in the church and churchyard, especially during the time of divine service". All this Ruth and Winifred have done and the previous churchwardens and we thank them for all their hard work.
In addition to the making of the oaths of office, at the Archdeacon's Visitation to the Havant Deanery, it is an opportunity for the Churchwardens and the Vicar to discuss with the Archdeacon, as time allows, any problems that we may have and seek his advice or for him to ask us questions following upon a detailed 'enquiry' he makes of every parish prior to this event. He represents the 'human face' of the diocese to those of us whose Christian life centres around what goes on at our own Parish Church. He also gives us a 'charge' or it might be the Chancellor of the Diocese (a solicitor appointed by the bishop), in the form of a long address which might be about taking care of the fabric of the Parish Church or some other matter with possibly some spiritual charge in addition.
Our Churchwardens deserve our support and encouragement - after all, until they were elected to this 'high office', they were both ordinary members of our church choir! They were 'raised from the ranks' so to speak, from being 'ordinary' (Ruth and Winifred ordinary - surely not?) people in our congregation as you are.
We wish them well and I personally am truly thankful that whenever we have broken windows, the heating system breaks down, we need new batteries for the radio mikes or whatever - I know who to phone!
With my blessing and prayers as always,
Your priest and friend
written by Fr Malcolm Ferrier
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