Back to church

St. Lawrence church in Appleby holds many memories for me, as that is the church where I was confirmed, married and had both our children christened.

When we moved to Canada 21 years ago, I did attempt at one stage to find an Anglican church, but gave up trying to find the equivalent to St. Lawrence’s pretty quickly.  Both the kids nor dh were interested in going to church and life was busy enough without adding something else to it.

Over the years however I have been thinking about going to church and in February of this year I took the plunge and joined the local Anglican Church.  The Vicar has a British background, although he is Canadian, so that helps.  His sermons are told in a way that you understand what he is talking about.  After singing the first hymn, he sits on the floor with the kids and reads them a book, before they go off to Sunday school; never seen that done before and overall he is a very personable and approachable Vicar.

Our Vicar though is the Vicar to three churches, two are amalgamated with one another and a third is associated with us. 

However like many church congregations, it’s an aging congregation.  The average age must be 60+, and other than Easter and Christmas, there only seem to be a couple of dozen regulars each week. Therefore, funds are in short supply, in fact very short supply.  I came up with a bright idea to put together a recipe book with recipes from the congregation as a fundraiser and a way of bringing together the three churches.

I am pleased to say we are close to sending the book to the publishers.  I have had strict deadlines all along as I knew if I didn’t I would still be on with this at Christmas.  I have made friends and enemies along the way, as I’ve come to the conclusion you can’t please everyone!!  In fact I know some people will NEVER EVER be happy!!  However the majority of the people are happy with the whole project.

There are a number of other fundraising projects in the works, some I will actively participating in, and others I’m taking a back seat too.  I have joined the ACW (Anglican Church Women) which is similar to the WI or Mother’s Union; again just attending the meetings, not actively participating at this point.

Overall though I am glad to be back in the fold again!