Vicars letter

June 2022

Click for the Vicars letter from May 2022

Today is a new day

We’re never too busy to think of others

The wedding season is in full swing once again, particularly with all the restrictions of Covid over the last couple of years having been lifted. For a similar reason, the number of baptisms and baptism enquiries we are handling is increasing. Both of these are a real joy.

Then, of course, there is the celebration weekend for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, a real historymaking occasion, with all the background work going on all over the country for street parties, picnic lunches, concerts, flower festivals, am-dram revues, church services and beacon lighting events. And just to add to the busyness, the Sunday of the Jubilee weekend is also Pentecost, when we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the early church. And just to make it even more busy in the parish, a wedding on the Saturday, too. (Someone didn’t have the Jubilee weekend on their radar when the wedding was booked a couple of years ago! Hey-ho, it will add to the fun and craziness of the extended weekend).

In Benenden we also have the busyness, the fun, and the exhaustion of the village fete in support of St George’s Church. Before that happy occasion, though, we also have the sad event of the funeral of ‘Mr Fete’, Tracy Claridge, at the end of May and the service of Thanksgiving, when we can, hopefully, celebrate a good life together. He will be missed and there are fitting tributes to Tracy elsewhere in this edition. And then, the end of the academic year is fast approaching, with all its different activities, sports days, church services, shows, discos etc, etc; all of which take a lot of effort, by many people, to make happen.

In all that busyness, we need to take a leaf out of Tracy’s book of life and remember those who are struggling at this time (more and more people are, as the economic situation gets worse); and remember those who are arriving in our country, county and villages as refugees. Let’s try and remember to be generous with all that we have been blessed with and be prepared to share out of our abundance.

That ‘generosity’ is not exclusively about money; it is about having a generous heart and a generous spirit to want to help others. That can be offering someone our time; time to talk and say “hello”. As I said last month, it might just be smiling at someone as you pass them in the village. Little things can make a big difference. (We’ve been thinking about that in collective worship at the primary school, and thinking about the parable of the mustard seed.) If we all do kind things, even if they are little, together they will make a big difference. God bless.

Revd David Commander, Rector

T: 01580 240658 E: david@dc-uk.co.uk