Letter from the St Andrews West Dereham

A monthly letter from the Reverend Judith Grundy, vicar of St Andrew's West Dereham

Dear friends,

It's incredible, but true:- In 1917 men were manning the barricades in Moscow and preparing to fire the first shots of a world revolution, whilst in the same city, church dignitaries were holding an "important" meeting for the specific purpose of deciding what colour robes should be worn at a certain ecclesiastical festival

I do hope we are not quite as out of touch with our community as that, but what would you like your village church to be doing?

Now's your chance! We all wish we could have our say. Well, please do. We want your ideas. What would make your church more relevant to you? And we'd PARTICULARLY like to hear from you if you DON'T come to church, because you'll know why. So please drop me a note through my letter-box. What do you want from your church?

What has triggered this question is that in 2009 it is the 900th anniversary of the Ely diocese, to which our parishes belong, and Bishop Anthony has asked for ideas to celebrate (not mugs and tea towels, he pleads).

thought it would be a good opportunity to get our churches and communities to come up with ideas together, perhaps even for long term projects. After all, you know best what you need. They don't have to be grandiose ideas. For example, I'd like to see the church and village having family days out, such as a ramble and picnic, with all the family able to join in, Dad Granny, toddlers and teenagers. I know Denver already has avid walkers - could we combine sometime? And what would West Dereham like to do, and Bexwell and Ryston.

On that note Bishop Anthony is coming to help us "beat the bounds" on Sunday 13th May and join us in a plopughman's lunch afterwards. "beating the bounds" is an old tradition where the village children were taken round and shown the boundaries and, some say, had their heads knocked against the boundary posts, to have their village map "knocked" into them. Come and join the fun,

Best wishes

Judith

Reverencd Judith Grundy