Looking back and forward

Christmas was a busy time so my blogging was rather sporadic and I’ve only just found time to look back and catch up. The last posting was in the run up to Christmas when we were trying to balance the risks of letting people struggle up to Church in the snow and frost with the need to hold services as normal as possible. Well we had a fantastic team of helpers who cleared a path up to Church and who manned the car park. The Christmas services went ahead (apart from the 8am one) and were very well attended. And no accidents were reported.

Did I find time for Christmas? Yes – we had all the family here and thanks to the 4x4 had some turkey to eat! I had to ferry son, daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren from Missenden – and thanks to Cia for allowing us to park their car on her drive over Christmas. The 4x4 has gone back – but as I draft this it’s snowing hard. But this time we’ll sit it out – we had a load of logs this morning and the freezer is full.

Blogging Advent was nowhere near as good as following a book – like last Christmas and Lent so I’ll have to think again for future periods like these. But for now, I’ll continue with occasional postings covering a range of things. There are lots of things going on: we’ve got some significant capital projects in the Church: repairing the clerestory windows, installation of solar panels and a heat pump, a new organ at Little Hampden. These projects need lots of fundraising activities – and we need to continue to raise money for our other activities.

A few days ago Bishop Alan blogged about the impact of the new communications technologies on life and the Church. This is a topic that interests me at many levels – how – and whether – I should use these, how to reap the benefits without wasting the time that most seem to take. Bishop Alan refers to a number of books but, interestingly, not any on-line references. So in spite of all this new technology, we still rely on books! More on this soon, too.

Meanwhile, back to the inbox – and the snow – it’s still coming down!