Earlier this week, I thanked one of our volunteers who helps tidy the church. I was struck by her reply; she described helping as a “pleasure and a privilege”. The work of the church relies very heavily on unpaid volunteers. This week, in addition to the volunteer cleaners at Billingsley, I have welcomed a group from “Caring for God’s Acre” who cut the church hedge in the snow, today a volunteer will have been at the church to set up heaters and switch them on before a funeral. This article appears on Facebook thanks to a volunteer. Tomorrow, I will attend a breakfast at the Down Inn, organised and run entirely by volunteers from Glazeley and Chetton. This is the main way we can reach out to members of the wider community who do not normally attend church. A volunteer will walk to the church to open it today. At Chelmarsh, today volunteers are ensuring that a funeral runs smoothly; tomorrow, a larger group will be in church all day serving soup and scones as it reaches out to the village. Volunteers at Sidbury are planning their Christmas service. Oddly enough, at Billingsley and Glazeley congregations are growing; Chelmarsh and Sidbury are at least holding their own. Service is not only a pleasure and a privilege; it is mission.
Rev David Poyner