Dear Friends, As I pen this letter, it is wonderful to report that on Sunday 28th April it was announced across the Benefice that Revd Diane Komorowski will be joining us this summer as our new Associate Priest. For the past three years, Diane has served as curate in Lupset and Thornes and spent a couple of months with us at the start of the year on placement. The placement was a lovely opportunity to get to know Diane and for her to experience the breadth of worship across the benefice and the enthusiasm and potential in the benefice and in each church. Diane brings a lot of experience to the post, both from her church life, daily life and also her work background. It is a very exciting next stage in the life of the benefice and during the autumn we shall be spending time together praying, discussing and planning how we develop and deepen our shared lives and witness in our respective villages.
In the meantime please remember Diane and her family as she prepares to move into the vicarage in Wrenthorpe and take up this new post. With regards oth-er moves—on Sunday 5th May at 3.30pm in Wakefield Cathedral we will welcome our new Archdeacon, Revd Canon Cat Thatcher, and in early July, Bishop Tony who has been in the diocese for well over 20 years will retire; his final service is on Satur-day 6th July at 11.00am in Wakefield Cathedral.
Turning to other news and by the time you read this our annual general meetings in each of the four churches will have been completed. For each church there is a great deal of work to be undertaken to look after the fabric of the build-ings, prepare and lead services, run church groups and social events, look after the money and pay the bills, keep up to date with all the legalities.…the list goes. We are all thankful to those who in many ways work behind the scenes to make sure we are ‘open for business’ on Sunday mornings and mid-week – thanks to everybody who offers themselves in any way to serve in our churches.
Finally, on Thursday 9th May we have Ascension Day we shall gather as a benefice for a joint service in St Anne’s, Wrenthorpe and reflect on Jesus returning to the Father after 40 days when he met with the disciples and followers in differ-ent settings. Again this year we shall be joining in the global ecumenical prayer movement (Thy Kingdom Come) that unites Christians from across the world to pray for people to come to faith. On Sunday 5th May there will be prayer booklets available for all the congregation to take home and use in their own personal prayer times from Ascensiontide until Pentecost – please make sure you pick your copy up and together let’s pray for people to come to know Jesus.
Well that’s all for now, take care and God Bless.
Rev Glenn Coggins, Vicar of the United Benefice of North Wakefield