Putnoe Heights Senior Leader’s Report
Annual Congregational Meeting - Sunday, 6th May 2007
“How time flies” is a phrase often heard and is one which certainly applies
to my four years on the Putnoe Heights Church Leadership Team; the last one
as Senior Leader.
The last twelve months have seen numerous changes.
On July 31 we gave a farewell service for Neil Bramble-Chapman. This was a
happy service where Neil told us how his work at St. John’s, Moggerhanger,
had led him to full-time ministry in a hospice environment. The service was
also attended by one of the Daleks! who threatened to exterminate the
congregation.
The service to officially welcome Joan as Minister of Putnoe Heights Church
was held on 30th August at Priory. This service also welcomed Martin
Hounsfield as the new Minister at Priory and the Circuit Superintendent.
This was a lovely service with both Bishop Christopher and Anne Brown taking
part. A truly ecumenical occasion.
Relationships within the Circuit are now very good with Charlie, Joan and
Sam preaching more often at other churches and more visiting preachers
coming to us.
Baptisms continue apace and appear to attract more and more guests who are
always assured of a very warm welcome from Church members.
Hazeldene Heights pre-school is flourishing. The children’s outdoor
playground has recently been completed and is being well used.. We have
received promises of grants towards the playground and the new meeting room,
representing about half the total cost; thus trying to achieve a balance
between good stewardship of the Pitts’ bequest and sensible use of money,
which in the case of the WREN money can only be used by people within the
landfill area.
All the work amongst young people with Storybox, Storybox Plus, Junior
Church, Young People’s Fellowship. TNT and TXT continues to grow, but like
all good things this is down to the band of dedicated teachers and helpers.
Various other Church groups continue to meet regularly and plans are afoot
to develop our work with the elderly.
During the year the 8.30am Communion Service was changed from weekly to
fortnightly at each Church, being on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday at Putnoe,
and the 2nd and 4th Sunday at St. Mark’s.
What was room 3 in the Church building is now the office for the Goldington
Family Centre, who have also taken over the running of Mothers and Toddlers.
We continue to be blessed with a good number of Organists who enhance our
Sunday morning worship with the quality of their playing.
The Church buildings continue to be well used for Church activities and for
and by the community. Once the new community room is completed, this will
give us even more flexibility.
The long running acrimony between Putnoe Scouts and the Church is now over.
After a number of meetings with the Scout Executive Committee, we are
looking forward to a future of co-operation and advancement together.
Social events at the Church are well attended and any ideas from the
congregation for
future events would be well received.
We are fortunate at Putnoe to have use of the Garden of Remembrance at St.
Mark’s and also now the Woodland Burial site at Keysoe. This helps to
strengthen the partnership’s commitment to serving the community. We have
recently agreed to pay for a lych gate at the entrance to the Garden of
Remembrance; the gate will be named after Jack and Alice Pitts, whose
generous legacy made this possible.
We are looking forward to the 50th Anniversary celebrations on June 16th and
17th. Plans for this weekend are well advanced. In anticipation of this, the
interior of the Church has recently been redecorated and redecoration will
be carried out shortly in the large hall; and the Church carpet will be
cleaned later on in May.
I would like to thank the Ministers, my fellow Leadership Team members, and
all those people responsible for organising and running Church groups; and
those who carry out tasks week in and week out that often go unnoticed.
Without these the Church would not be able to function efficiently.
On a lighter note, I will miss the drawer full of paper; the telephone
calls; the e-mails; the meetings and being stopped after Church on a Sunday
morning with questions and comments.
As I hand the baton over to Alan Cooper, I would like to wish him, Wendy
Nash his deputy, and the rest of the Leadership Team every blessing for the
forthcoming year.
In conclusion, I believe very strongly in the phrase “Unconditional love”. I
believe that this quality amongst many others is very evident in the daily
life of our Church and is shown to all its members, to newcomers and
visitors.
Alan Bayliss
May 2007
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